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Epiphany Season · Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany · Year B

Hosea 2:14-20

Israel Punished and Restored

The Betrothal, Circle of Rembrandt
The Betrothal, Circle of Rembrandt, c. 1640-1650Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
A young woman in pearls stands beside an older man in a plumed hat, who takes her hand to give her a ring.I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness.Circle of RembrandtAn unnamed painter in Rembrandt’s orbit in Amsterdam, working in the master’s warm half-light and rich costume.Walker Art Gallery, LiverpoolThe Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, one of the great civic picture galleries of Victorian England.Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Overview & Insights

“And I will betroth you to me forever.” (Hosea 2:19)

Once again the disciple who arranged chapters 1–3 has included a passage that serves as a summary of much of Hosea’s preaching (2:16–14:9). All of 2:2–15 represents genuine oracles of Hosea, but it is possible that this unit as a whole has been put together from originally independent oracles, such as 2:2–4; 2:5–7a; 2:7c–10; 2:11–13; and 2:14–15. As it now stands, however, the pericope forms a rhetorical whole.

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Take it further: Hosea 2:14-20

Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Questions preachers ask

What is the promise of Hosea 2?

God will lure unfaithful Israel back into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her, betrothing her again in righteousness and steadfast love, so that she knows the Lord.

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