Lives of Scripture

Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, became the wife of the prophet Hosea by God's direct command, as an acted-out message to the northern kingdom of Israel: "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD" (Hosea 1:2). She bore three children whom Hosea, at God's instruction, gave names carrying prophetic weight -- Jezreel, recalling coming judgment on the house of Jehu; Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied"), signaling a season when God would withhold compassion from Israel; and Lo-ammi ("not My people"), announcing a rupture in the covenant relationship itself (1:3-9). The marriage mirrored Israel's own spiritual unfaithfulness -- chasing after other gods the way an unfaithful spouse chases other lovers. Yet the book does not end in judgment. In Hosea 3, God tells the prophet, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, ... even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel"; Hosea buys her back for silver and barley and takes her home (3:1-3) -- widely understood, though not explicitly stated in the text, to be Gomer restored after straying. Whatever pain the marriage cost Hosea personally, Scripture uses Gomer's story -- unfaithfulness met with pursuing, purchased love -- to dramatize God's own refusal to finally abandon His unfaithful people.