689-611 B.C.

Hosea 2)

1 Say you to your brethren, Ammi (= My People); and to your children, Ruhamah (= Pitied One. You are that offspring.).
2 Plead with your mother (Gomer [1:3]. The 10 Tribes personified by their royal capital), plead: for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband (cp. Jer. 31:32. God is divorced of Israel. See v.6): let her therefore put away her idolatries out of her sight, and her idolatries from her embraces; (See Rev. 18:12,16)
3 Lest (v.3 refers to Israel's earliest history) I strip her naked (i.e. her land, as shown by the words following. Cp. Exek. 16:23-43), and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. (A fame. See Amos 8.p. Rev. 19:7,8.)
4 And I will not have mercy upon her sons (i.e. the individual members of the nation collectively); for they be the sons of idolatry. (Spiritually. Atheist don't know Him either.)

2:5-23. REASONS.
B  d  5. Her False Benefactors.
    e  6,7-. Her Punishments.
     f  -7. Her Return.
   d  8. Her True Benefactor.
    e  9-13. Punishments.
     f  14-23. Her Reception.

5 For their mother has played the harlot (i.e. practiced idolatries. The silence as to details here is eloquent): she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, 'I will go after my lovers (= my Baals, or lords. Cp. Jer. 44:17,18), that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.' (Note the 3 pairs = 6 [Satan's number], including food, clothing, and luxuries. All are claimed as hers. Doing it for the money.)

6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and rear up a stone wall (cp. Job 3:23; 19:8. Lam. 3:7,9), that she shall not find her paths. (Blind her to the truth)
7 And she shall eagerly follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them:

then shall she say, 'I will go and return (cp. 5:15. Luke 15:18) to my first husband (cp. Ezek. 16:8); for then was it better with me than [it is] now.' (Looks forward to the time when Antichrist will have deceived the "scattered ones". They will have thought he was Christ. They had false teachers.)

8 For she did not know (cp. Isa. 1:3) that [it was] I Who gave her corn, and new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold (cp. Ezek. 16:17-19), which they made offerings to Baal. (He is not to happy about this. How would you like to be a husband that worked real hard, and then find out that in the day time your wife had taken up a second job as a prostitute? Only she had a big problem, she had to pay them instead of them paying her. This is why she is stripped naked spiritually [see next verse].)

9 Therefore will I return (in judgment), and take back My corn in the time thereof, and My new wine in the season thereof, and will rescue My wool and My flax (They were all His, and from Him) given to cover her nakedness. (See Amos 8:5)
10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers (cp. Ezek. 16:37; 23:29), and none shall deliver her out of My hand. (1st day of the Millennium. You cant buy friend.)
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast, her new moon, and her sabbath, and all her every appointed season. (They are not God's. This is what traditions of men will do. They slip in unawares if your not careful. A whole new thought will slip in, foreign to the Word of God. Anything that you put above teaching God's word, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, whereby it is God that speaks rather than man,it becomes an idol. Easter, a heathenistic practice moved into the church, is just one example.)
12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees (cp. Ps. 105.33), whereof she has said, 'These are my hire (or fee) that my lovers have given me:' and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13 And I will visit upon her (see Ex. 32:34) the days (i.e. the feast days) of Baalim (including Baal-gad, Baal-Hermon, Baal-zephon, Baal-berith, &c), wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels (cp. Ezek. 23:40,42), and she went after her lovers (this is how a whore dresses up to do business), and forgot me, says the LORD.

14 Nevertheless (notice that the whole of this dispensation comes between vv.13 and 14), behold, I Myself will allure (speak peacefully) her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to the heart to her. (Cp. Ezek. 20:35. He will woo His wife back to Him.)
15 And I will give her her vineyards from there (i.e. when she comes from there), and the valley of Achor (= trouble) for a entrance of expectation (no longer of trouble. Ref. to Josh. 7:26. The events must have been written down at the time and preserved. They were escaping bondage): and she shall sing there (cp. Ex. 15:1. Where Yehovah allures, and brings, and speaks), as in the days of her youth (cp. Jer. 2:2. Ezek. 16:822,60), and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. (See Ex. 1:10; 12:38; 13:18,&.; and when Yahaveh said "My son" [Ex. 4:22].)
16 And it shall be at that day, says the LORD, that you shall call me Ishi (= My husband, i.e. understand your relation); and shall call me no more Baali (= My lord, or master.).
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth (see Ex. 23:13. Cp. Josh. 23:7. Ps. 16:4. Isa. 2:18. Ezek. 6:6; 36:25,25; 37:23. Zech. 13:2), and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 And in that day (that yet future day of Israel's restoration) will I make a covenant (a treaty) for them with the beasts of the field (cp. Job 5:23. Isa. 11:6-9. Ezek. 34:25) and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth (cp. Ps. 46:9. Isa.2:4. Ezek. 39:9,10. Zech. 9:10), and will make them to lie down safely. (see Lev. 25:18,19; 26:5,6. Deut. 12:10; 33:12,28. This has not happened yet.)
19 And I will betroth you to Me for ever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. (See Ex. 22:16. Deut. 20:7; 22:23,25,27,28; 28:30. He loves His People. He doesn't want to zap somebody.)
20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness: and you shall know the LORD Himself. (Know Him from the fake. See Ex. 6:7,&c. This is the sign of Israel's blessing [Isa. 11:9; 54:13. Jer. 31:33,34. John 6:45]. Their evils came from not knowing [Isa. 1:3. Luke 19:42,44].)
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will answer (or respond to [Zech. 8:12]. The restoration comes from, and begins with, Yahaveh. He reclaims the 10 Northern tribes known as Israel), says the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; (See nature of God.)
22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow (i.e. the new Israel) her to me in the earth; and I will have pity upon her (i.e. will call her Ruhamah) that had not obtained mercy (= Lo-Ruhamah [Not pitied]); and I will say to them which were not My People (= Lo-ammi), You are My People (= Ammi are you); and they (i.e. the whole nation) shall say, 'You are my God.' " (Cp. 1:11. Zech. 13:9. Rom. 9:26. 1 Pet. 2:10. See Isa. 40.)

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