Hosea 1:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms— That is, a woman, who, before her marriage, had lived an impure life, but who afterward should retire from all bad conversation, and whose children should be legitimate, notwithstanding that, by reason of the blemish which their mother had contracted by her former life, they were called the children of whoredoms. This prostitute woman, and the children to be born of her, were a figure, and a kind of real prophecy, which described the idolatry and infidelity of Samaria and the ten tribes, formerly the Lord's spouse, but afterwards become adulterous and corrupt. God gives these children the names of Jezreel, Loruhamah, or without mercy, and Lo-ammi, or thou art no longer my people; to shew, 1. That God was going to retaliate upon the house of Jehu, king of Israel, the sins which he had committed at Jezreel, when he came to the kingdom of the ten tribes. 2. That the Lord would treat his idolatrous and sinful people without mercy; and lastly, That he would reject them, and no more look upon them as his people. Many interpreters, offended at the irregularity of Hosea's marriage with a woman of a bad life, have thought this relation to be only a parable: that the prophet called the wife whom he had taken a prostitute, with a design only of awakening the attention of the Israelites; or that all this passed only in a vision, without the prophet's coming to the execution of it. But the whole sequel of Hosea's narration sufficiently shews, that this marriage was real, though figurative as to the things which it described, and which were to be afterwards performed. This is the opinion of St. Basil, Theodoret, St. Augustin, and many good interpreters. Dr. Pococke observes, "Seeing each opinion [that for the literal interpretation, and that for the figurative] is backed by great authority, and the maintainers thereof will not yield to one another's reasons; it must be still left to the considerate reader to use his own judgment; only with this caution, that he conceive nothing unworthy of God, or unworthy his holy prophet, nor draw from the words any unfavourable and unhandsome conclusions." See Pococke on Hosea. Besides, God was able to make ample compensation to the prophet in the course of eternity for any sufferings or reproaches which he might endure in consequence of this marriage.