Hosea 2:1-3.
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Lest I strip her naked, 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.
In this chapter, we have the beginnings of the message that God told Hosea to preach to Israel. No one could have been more qualified than Hosea was, having lived as God directed, taking an unfaithful wife and loving her only to have her fling his love carelessly away.
God even speaks of the children of Israel in the positive sense: “My people, my loved ones.” He is always willing to restore, forgive, redeem His people when they are willing to return to Him.
The words God tells Hosea to speak in v. 2 seem harsh, until we remember that God had been merciful; He had offered restoration, on the condition of Israel’s obedience, but Israel had ignored His pleas, His mercy, His forgiveness.
Israel was not behaving as a wife, but as an harlot. She walked away from all that God offered, putting a lewd and adulterous expression on her face that invited the lust of ungodly men.
Her unfaithfulness was “between her breasts.” I looked at this phrase in several different commentaries and lexicons, and found nothing that expressly addressed this phrase, so I’m going to share my own thinking, which may or may not reflect what is actually meant here.
First, a woman’s breasts are a source of sexual attraction and, in this case, lust. An ungodly woman will display her breasts, attracting the wrong kind of interest.
Second, a woman’s breasts are a source of nourishment and comfort for her children. A harlot removes such comfort from her children, leaving them to satisfy her own lusts.
Third, “Between her breasts” may be a reference to the location of her heart, which is full of of adulterous thoughts and desires.
Please understand that I offer the above ideas only as possible interpretations.
God’s judgment of Israel, His warning, is dire. It is shameful to be stripped naked. It is a fearsome thing to be like a newborn baby, helpless and totally dependent on someone else. It is frightening to be like a wilderness, a desert, where there is no water, and no relief from the hot sun and the danger of desert creatures. This is the warning of what will come to Israel unless Israel repents and turns to God.
Linda's Bible Study 