Bible Strands
Hosea 1:2
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD initiates the first recorded message through the prophet Hosea, commanding him directly. This occurs at the start of Hosea’s prophetic ministry during the reigns of four Judahite kings and Jeroboam II of Israel.
The words — תְּחִלַּ֥ת (te.chi.Lat) denotes the initial phase of the prophetic word, while דִּבֶּר־ (di.ber-) marks the moment Yahweh first spoke. Together they frame the command as the foundational act of Hosea’s calling.
The thread — The motif of national prostitution as covenant unfaithfulness extends to Hosea 2:4 and Hosea 3:1. Deuteronomy 31:16 similarly warns that the people will prostitute themselves by turning from God.
Why it lands — The text commands Hosea to embody Israel’s spiritual state through marriage and childbirth, making covenant betrayal visible. A reader must confront how physical actions serve as direct indicators of corporate religious failure.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
Cross-references
- Hosea 2:4 I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.
- Hosea 3:1 Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”
- Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
- Psalms 106:39 They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
- Exodus 34:15 Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
- Jeremiah 3:9 Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
- Ezekiel 6:9 Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
- Ezekiel 23:1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- 2 Peter 2:14 Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
- Revelation 17:1 Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.