The promiscuous wife of a prophet of Israel and the mother of mankind walk into a Bible lesson…. The joke is on us if we don’t catch why the Hoshea (Hosea) was told to marry a harlot and connect her predicament of being discovered to the test given to Chavah (Eve) at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad (Genesis 3–4).

Here’s a hint: “Nakedness” is an important symbol of a spiritual condition used in teachings in the Hebrew and Apostolic scriptures.

How can God tell a righteous prophet to marry a prostitute when the Torah commands that people who were found guilty of prostitution were supposed to be executed for it? When we play the harlot, God shows His immense mercy in that, although He has to expose our sin for our own sakes, He doesn’t kill us. 

Hosea is one of the two least liked prophets in rabbinic Judaism (Ezekiel is the other). The Sages have certain rules on how a prophet conducts themselves in office and Hosea breaks those rules. 

The major issue Rabbinic Judaism has with Hosea’s story is that God commands Hosea, who is supposed to be a righteous man, to marry a prostitute. This instruction by God to Hosea to them is absurd on its face. 

Three children are born to Gomer while she is married to Hosea: Jezreel, Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah. Only Jezreel is referred to being born specifically from Hosea. 

Why did God say He would no longer have mercy or pity on Israel? 

Based on what we read in Hosea 4, Gomer wasn’t a mere harlot. She was most likely a temple prostitute. Men would feign to worship their false gods by having sexual relations with her. The Northern Tribes of Israel at this time was steeped in the worship of Canaanite gods that they mixed with the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob purposefully and methodically to confuse the people so they would not leave Israel to worship the true God properly in Jerusalem. 

 

Historical Context:In Israel, they built them two golden calves, appropriated God’s holy name on them. They also gave their god many wives who had many sons and daughters who were worshipped as well. They also shifted the timing of the holy days so they would never coincide with the holy days at the Temple in Jerusalem, which effectively severed most, if not all the ties, between Judah and Israel, even though they were the same family, same ethnic tribe. The kings of Israel did not want their people to possibly go back to Jerusalem and go back to Judah and to the true God. 

The priesthood in the north also went to the highest bidder, it was not a hereditary process. By Hosea’s time, this split has been in effect for several centuries/generations. 

“Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. “But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen.”” (Hosea 1:6–7 NASB)

Gomer represents the Northern Tribes of Israel prophetically. It is governed by priests and aristocratic leaders, all of whom are men. God will not show Israel’s leaders any mercy. God knows the leaders of Israel will never repent honestly of their grievous sin against God. They will make a political show of it, but never really change and follow through. 

There is a small sliver of hope in this prophesy. Hosea changes his tone, when he speaks about the distant future. 

“Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” It will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God.”

And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, And they will appoint for themselves one leader,