Chapter 2 of Hoshea opens with an astonishing wonder. The previous chapter concluded with words of severe calamity: "Call his name Lo-Ammi" - you are not My people, I will not be yours, I will no longer have mercy on the House of Israel nor save them. Yet immediately, in the very same breath and without pause, comes a wondrous prophecy of consolation: "Yet the number of the Children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea." How is it possible for doom and consolation to follow one another in a single utterance? The commentators address this question at the opening of the chapter, and from it, the entire continuation unfolds.
וְהָיָה מִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כְּחוֹל הַיָּם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִמַּד וְלֹא יִסָּפֵר, וְהָיָה בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יֵאָמֵר לָהֶם לֹא עַמִּי אַתֶּם יֵאָמֵר לָהֶם בְּנֵי אֵל חָי. (א) - Yet the number of the Children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, "You are not My people," it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God." (1)
Our Sages sensed this difficulty and explained, as we already saw in the previous chapter, that this entire passage is a dialogue between Hoshea and the Master of the Universe. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Hoshea: "Go, divorce your wife." Hoshea replied: "Master of the Universe, how can I? For I have children from her!" The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: "Her you cannot divorce, yet you expect Me to divorce the People of Israel?" At this point, Hoshea realized his error and immediately began to plead in their defense. Right after "You are not My people" - meaning: go divorce her, the son born to you is not yours at all - Hoshea realizes his mistake and says: "Master of the Universe, I now beg for mercy on their behalf." He then began to bless them: "Yet the number of the Children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered." It turns out that this plea for mercy serves as rectification for the severe words he had spoken earlier against Israel - "Exchange them for another nation" - expressions the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not wish to hear from him, and now he rectifies his actions with this proclamation.
Rashi cites from the Sifrei on the verse, "And Israel abode in Shittim": Thus we learned: Rebbi says, there are passages that are juxtaposed to one another yet are as distant from each other as east is from west. An example of this is our passage: "For you are not My people," followed immediately by "Yet the number of the Children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea." What does one have to do with the other? They are adjacent textually, but in terms of subject matter and themes, they are as far apart as east is from west.
Rebbi answers with a parable: To a king who grew angry with his wife and sent for a scribe to come and write her a get (bill of divorce). Before the scribe arrived, the king became reconciled with his wife. In the meantime, they made peace, resolved their differences, and everything was wonderful. The king said: "Can this scribe leave here empty-handed?" The scribe had already arrived with his writing implements, organized and prepared to execute a get. Could he simply tell him to return home? He would immediately ask: "If so, why did you summon me? Why did you trouble me to come?" Rather, the king said to him: "Come and write for her that I am doubling the amount of her ketubah." That scribe was a professional writer - someone who knew how to write, for not everyone was literate, and a get certainly required knowledge of specific halachot, and the scribe was an expert writer. The king said to him: "You have arrived? Wonderful, I was waiting for you." The scribe asked: "Why did my lord the king summon me?" He replied: "I was looking for a scribe to double my wife's ketubah. I had pledged a certain sum to her in the ketubah, and I want to double it." Now the scribe is certain he was summoned for the sake of the ketubah, completely unaware that he had been called to write a bill of divorce, and only at the last moment were the plans changed.
From this, you can understand: Once the Holy One, Blessed be He, refrained from executing the decree at that time and instead showed them mercy, He said, as it were: "If so, what is the prophet doing here? Start blessing them!" The initial intention was to divorce, but once Hashem showed mercy: Did I summon the prophet in vain? Rather: not to divorce, but to bless. "I brought you here so that you would bless them." This is how the prophecy suddenly turns around for good.
According to the peshat, the plain meaning, Rashi explains the connection between the verses differently. At first, He said to them, "You are not My people, and I will not be yours" - meaning, I do not acknowledge you, as it were. Consequently, you will be exiled among the nations; there among the nations you will multiply and flourish, and there you will repent and take it to heart to return to Me. Through that exile, the verse will be fulfilled in you: "And you shall take it to heart among all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you," and then, "The Lord your God will return your captivity." Thus, the verse looks several stages ahead: first, descent into exile; then, an awakening to repentance in exile; afterward, the return to Zion - and then the verse skips straight to the end: "Yet the number of the Children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea." That is to say, when you return from exile, you will return as a renewed nation, having recognized your error, and you will then merit this immense blessing.
"And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people'" - which is what is being said to them now - "it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God'", for Hashem will return their captivity and have compassion on them. And what is meant by "children of the living God"? The Radak explains: in this present time they are called children of other gods. That is to say, they and the children they bear, as it were, do not belong to the Master of the Universe but to idol worship, since they believe in it, serve it, and look toward it with hope. A son is born to him - to whom does he go to give thanks? To the idol, to the stars and constellations. The son born to him was born "in good mazal" to idolatry. Regarding this, Scripture states: in the place where it was said to them "You are not My people", it shall be said to them "Children of the living God."
And why specifically "the living God" (El Chai)? Because idolatry is called death. The entire realm of the kelipot and impurity, the side of death (sitra demota), is called death; "Her feet go down to death" is said of Malchut descending into the realm of the kelipot. The wicked in their lifetime are called dead, for true vitality exists only through the power of Torah, and the moment there is no Torah - automatically, it is death. And understand this: to bring about death, there is no need for an active action; it is enough simply not to supply life, and naturally death ensues. For the body to live, even physically, it must constantly be supplied with fuel. Like fire: if you do not provide it with fuel, you do not need to take any action to extinguish it - it will go out on its own. The default state is extinguished, and for it to remain lit, active steps must be taken to sustain the flame. The kelipot and impurity have no connection to holiness, and therefore they are an aspect of death.
It follows: when you are connected to idolatry - "You are not My people." But when you return to being connected to the Holy One, blessed be He - you are "children of the living God"; now you are alive, whereas previously you were in a state of death. "Behold, I set before you life and good, death and evil" - evil is bound up with death, they go hand in hand. And if you ask, don't I see wicked people alive? That is an illusion, a mirage. You see him alive, but if the soul departs from him, you see that he has no connection to spirituality; long ago his soul was severed (karet) from its Supernal Source. A person who eats forbidden fat (chelev) or blood, eats chametz on Pesach, is intimate with a niddah, and the like - his soul is cut off. And even though he appears to be walking and living, a severed lizard's tail also appears alive while twitching, yet we all know it is already dead and these are merely its final spasms. This is how Chazal define a tereifah: one who kills a tereifah is exempt under human courts, because a tereifah is essentially not alive - a person who has a fatal defect that will inevitably cause death within twelve months may look alive, but is not truly alive.
And there is another reason for the title "living God": created beings live only through the Cause that sustains them, whereas He, blessed be He, is alive without any cause or reason outside Himself. Do the celestial constellations live by their own power? By whose power do you live? By the power of the Holy One, blessed be He. Neither man, nor the constellations, nor any of the forces in creation possess independent vitality. Who does? Only the "living God", the Holy One, blessed be He, Whose life exists of Himself. But all of creation, if the divine influx were withheld from them for even a single moment, would be dead. Their default state is nothingness; their default state is death.
The Malbim explains: after the Holy One, blessed be He, turned to Hoshea and told him to divorce his wife, since her children are not your children and "you are not My people," Hoshea answered Him - Master of the Universe, that is impossible! From that point, he began to advocate on their behalf, and this is what is written, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be..." He pleaded before Hashem: Master of the Universe, how can You want to cast off all of Israel? For in the future they will attain such great virtues: "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered."
This is similar to what we find regarding the Exodus from Egypt. The prosecuting angel argued: "These [the Egyptians] are idolaters and these [the Israelites] are idolaters; how are these any different from those?" And what was the defense in their favor? "These are destined to receive the Torah." We see here a profound principle: something that possesses no apparent worth in and of itself at present, but will have great significance in the future, is considered valuable already right now.
We see this in our own daily lives as well. There are people who live this way constantly, and therefore their home and yard look like a large junkyard: they cannot bear to throw out a single screw, lest they need it in the future. But setting aside extremes and speaking of a sensible person: when someone holds an item he anticipates using, especially when that use is certain, he preserves it. For example, when you finish using the sechach after Sukkot, you air it out, perhaps spray it, roll it up, and store it away in the attic. For an entire year you do not use it and it takes up space, yet you keep it nonetheless - because a year from now Sukkot will return, and then I will use it. Thus we see that we ascribe value to things that in the present are merely an encumbrance and take up space, because in light of the future they are worth preserving.
This is also how the Holy One, blessed be He, acts toward us: even if right now on our own merits we are unworthy, in light of the future - they are destined to receive the Torah, so it is worthwhile to preserve them. Though presently they lack virtue, their future holds goodness. And this was Hoshea's plea of merit. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: How can you tell Me to cast off the Congregation of Israel, when you yourself cannot bear to divorce your wife? Divorce her first; she causes trouble - take another, there is no absolute necessity specifically for the people of Israel. Hoshea answered: Master of the Universe, Heaven forbid! How could such a thought arise to cast off the Jewish people? A magnificent future is hidden away for them. Their number is destined to be like the sand that cannot be measured nor numbered, and in the place where it is said to them, "You are not My people" - which is the reality today - there they shall be called "children of the living God." How could one discard now something that in the future will flourish and prosper so greatly?
The Malbim explains the depth of this parable. Seemingly, sand does have a number, for a physical entity cannot exist in creation without a finite count. Does anyone really think the grains of sand in the world have no number? Of course they do. Only of spiritual matters can one speak of endlessness and infinity; but regarding a physical object, while it might take a hundred years or a million years to count it, one cannot say it is inherently uncountable. As long as there is a finite number, however vast, it is fundamentally countable. Rather, although sand has a count, no human being can count it and reach the end of its measure.
Furthermore, there are things that can be measured even if they cannot be counted item by item - one takes a tape measure, stretches it from end to end, and states the length. But sand cannot even be measured, because much of it is hidden from us: there is sand in the depths of the sea - go down there to measure it; there is sand deep within the earth - go down there to measure it. We cannot even obtain a general measurement of cubic meters, because it is concealed. Therefore it says "cannot be measured nor numbered" - it is impossible to count it as individual items, and it cannot be measured as a whole because so much of it is hidden.
And so is the parable regarding Israel: the people of Israel will be impossible to count, both because of their immense multitude and because they are scattered and hidden in the far ends of the earth, to the point that many of the lost tribes are like sand buried in the depths of the sea - for who knows how many they are, where they are, or who they are? And then, in that very place where Hashem now commands to call them "Lo-Ammi" (Not My People), that is, in those lands into which He cast them and scattered them in exile, there it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God." Everyone will see that the Holy One, Blessed be He, as the Living God, watches over them with wondrous Divine providence, and through this "their seed shall be known among the nations" - everyone will recognize that they are the seed that Hashem has blessed, and that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is bound to His people Israel.
וְנִקְבְּצוּ בְּנֵי יְהוּדָה וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יַחְדָּו וְשָׂמוּ לָהֶם רֹאשׁ אֶחָד וְעָלוּ מִן הָאָרֶץ, כִּי גָדוֹל יוֹם יִזְרְעֶאל. (ב) - And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. (2)
Before the explanation, let us note an important point. Because it is difficult to understand how the prophecy suddenly flips from calamity to blessing, and later we see it flips back to calamity - for in verse 4 the words of rebuke return: "Contend with your mother, contend, for she is not My wife and I am not her husband... lest I strip her naked" - there are commentators who struggle with this double reversal, and therefore explain that there was no turnaround here at all, and everything is a prophecy of doom. This is the interpretation of Ibn Ezra, and Radak mentions this explanation in the name of commentators but does not accept it. According to that approach, even "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land" is a prophecy of misfortune. We will not follow this line, but rather the path of most commentators, that there was indeed a reversal to the good here, followed later by a reversal back to calamity, which will be explained in its proper place.
The Malbim explains that this verse continues the prophet's defense. Hoshea is saying to the Holy One, Blessed be He: You must have mercy on them, for they are destined to be like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured or counted; they have a glorious future - and therefore You must have compassion on them. And in the End of Days, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together": "the children of Judah" - those exiled during the destruction of the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, not all of whom returned in the days of Ezra; "the children of Israel" - the Ten Tribes exiled by the king of Assyria. All of them will assemble from the places where they are dispersed, "together" - and become one united nation.
"And they shall appoint for themselves one head" - this refers to Mashiach ben Yosef, who will initially be their leader; he is the monarch who will bring about the political redemption, as is known, while Mashiach ben David will bring about the spiritual redemption. "And they shall go up from the land" - from all the lands in which they are scattered, they will ascend and gather in the Land of Israel.
"For great shall be the day of Jezreel" - the name of the first son, Jezreel (Yizre'el), came, as we saw, to signify the judgment Hashem would execute upon them, related to scattering (zeriyah). But now the concept of Jezreel will be fulfilled in an entirely different manner: Jezreel will be transformed into good. Instead of scattering them among the nations, it will become "And I will sow her unto Me in the land," in the sense of sowing seeds (zeri'ah). And the exile, says the Malbim, is comparable to someone who sows grains of wheat deep in the soil: at first the seeds rot and it seems that all is lost, but then suddenly you see a vast, flourishing field, and it turns out that from a small amount of grain a tremendous bounty grew and multiplied manifold. So too, from the exiles will sprout, flourish, and emerge a great nation like the sand of the sea that cannot be counted, in addition to the converts who will join them. And "the day of Jezreel" is the day when this sowing will be revealed, when it becomes clear that all the scattering was intended to germinate a vast multitude. And as it is written, the Holy One, Blessed be He, scattered us among the nations so that we might gather the sparks dispersed among the nations and the converts scattered among them. And this day will be an immense and monumental day, in terms of the miracles and greatness that Hashem will perform for the people of Israel among the nations.
The Radak explains "for great shall be the day of Jezreel" differently: the day of Jezreel characterizes that dark day we saw earlier, when Hashem commanded to name the first child Jezreel because "I broke the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." "Great is the day of Jezreel" - this day has already been drawn out; for long years they have remained in that day when their bow was broken, that day when they were exiled, and this harsh and terrible reality has accompanied them for so long. Therefore, this time has already extended beyond measure, and the time has arrived to redeem them. Or, as the Radak explains in the name of his father: the duration in which they were sown among the nations - "great is the day," the time has already grown long, and thus the hour of their redemption has arrived.
אִמְרוּ לַאֲחֵיכֶם עַמִּי, וְלַאֲחוֹתֵיכֶם רֻחָמָה. (ג) - Say to your brothers, "Ammi" (My People), and to your sisters, "Ruhamah" (She Who Has Obtained Mercy). (3)
The Targum explains: "Say to your brothers, 'My people' - return to My Torah," and "to your sisters, 'Ruhamah'" - upon your assembly, upon the Congregation of Israel, I will have mercy. The Radak cites in the name of Rav Saadia Gaon that here the prophet addresses the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, saying to them: your brothers, who are the Ten Tribes, were called "Lo-Ammi" because they did evil in the eyes of Hashem. Now, when they return, you, Judah and Benjamin, say to them "Ammi" - previously they were "Lo-Ammi" and were scattered, and now they return to being My people. And since the parable was framed with a son and a daughter, "Lo-Ammi" and "Lo-Ruhamah," it therefore mentions both the son and the daughter here.
The commentators point out that ostensibly the verse should have said ve-la-achayoteichem Ruchamah ("and to your sisters, Ruchamah"). For it does not say "say to your brother" in the singular, but "to your brothers" (le-acheichem) in the plural; if so, it would have been appropriate to speak of sisters in the plural as well. Indeed, the word ve-achotkhem has only a single plural suffix, whereas it properly ought to have had a double plural form, like et achai ve-et achiyotai ("my brothers and my sisters"). However, the Malbim explains: Do not wonder at this, for we find similar verses where Scripture contents itself with a single plural form, such as "and your sister, Sodom, and her daughters" (va-achotekh Sedom u-benoteha), as well as ve-chamishitav ("and its fifths"), and other places where we find such phrasing, so there is no reason to be puzzled by it.
The Malbim explains the meaning of the verse: Once the number of the Children of Israel becomes like the sand of the sea, I command the sons and the daughter to say to your brothers - those whom I had intended to call by the name Lo-Ammi ("Not My people") are indeed My people; and those whom I had intended to call Lo-Ruchamah ("Unpitied") are Ruchamah, and I will have mercy on them in the future. Hoshea thereby argues before Hashem: Master of the Universe, You wish to send away Your wife, Keneset Yisrael, and divorce her, and have them called Lo-Ruchamah and Lo-Ammi? But in the end, will it not be said to them, "You are My people," and to your sister, "Ruchamah" - if so, why divorce them? This is Hoshea's defense of the people, and it is precisely what Hashem wanted to hear from him: Advocate for them, provide a justification for why they should not be cast away - yet instead, you told Me to divorce them? Now Hoshea comes to his senses and speaks what Hashem truly wants to hear: words of defense on behalf of the Jewish people.
רִיבוּ בְאִמְּכֶם רִיבוּ, כִּי הִיא לֹא אִשְׁתִּי וְאָנֹכִי לֹא אִישָׁהּ, וְתָסֵר זְנוּנֶיהָ מִפָּנֶיהָ וְנַאֲפוּפֶיהָ מִבֵּין שָׁדֶיהָ. (ד) - "Contend with your mother, contend! For she is not My wife, and I am not her husband; and let her remove her harlotry from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts." (4)
Following Hoshea's defense, Hashem now speaks. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: If so, after all that you told Me - that a radiant future is in store for the Jewish people and they are therefore deserving of mercy - you, the children, "Contend with your mother, contend!" Rebuke the mother for her infidelity. For as long as she strays from Me after others, "she is not My wife, and I am not her husband," I am not her husband; and if I am not her husband, doubt is cast upon the children, lest Heaven forbid they be children of harlotry. If so, it is incumbent upon you, the children, to contend with your mother so that she mends her ways.
This is Hashem's answer to Hoshea: You plead for mercy on Keneset Yisrael in view of the future - if so, it is your duty to bring Keneset Yisrael back in teshuvah. "Contend with your mother, contend" - go and bring them to repentance. And over what? "And let her remove her harlotry from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts" - there were two categories of sin: the sin of idolatry (avodah zarah) and the sin of forbidden sexual relations (arayot). Concerning both, the Holy One, blessed be He, instructs the prophets to rebuke the mother, Keneset Yisrael.
"And let her remove her harlotry from her face" - this refers to idolatry that was practiced out in the open. When a person has a blemish in a concealed place, no one sees it; one might have a hidden birthmark that is entirely inconspicuous. But if it is on one's face, it shouts, it is unmistakable. As we have already explained, the matter of idolatry is defined as harlotry, for Keneset Yisrael and the Holy One, blessed be He, are joined as in marriage; when Keneset Yisrael strays after her paramours - meaning idolatry, the stars and constellations, as we will see further on - she is, as it were, straying from Hashem and going to seek lovers. And "her adulteries from between her breasts" - this refers to the lust of adultery, and "from between her breasts" alludes to the fact that her heart is drawn after it. These correspond to the two evil inclinations: the yetzer hara for idolatry and the yetzer hara for forbidden relations.
The Malbim notes: Pay close attention to the phrasing "Contend with your mother" (rivu ve-immekhem). This is an unusual construction, for typically the root riv ("contend" or "quarrel") is followed by the preposition im ("with"), by et ("with"), or by the letter lamed ("for") - to contend et someone, im someone, or le- someone. When it takes a lamed, it means contending on behalf of someone else: "Will you contend for the Baal (ha-atem terivun la-Baal)?" - on his behalf, do you wish to quarrel in his stead? Similarly, "let Baal contend for himself (ha-Baal yariv lo)" - he will defend his own honor; and likewise, "if he is a god, let him contend for himself (yariv lo)." When it is joined with the word el ("to" or "against"), it signifies presenting claims against someone, as in "they shall come to contend against us (yavo'u lariv eleinu)," "why will you contend against Me (lamah tarivu elai)," and "Righteous are You, Hashem, when I contend against You (ki ariv eilekha)" - meaning, I set forth arguments and present counter-proofs.
However, when riv is joined with the letter bet, explains the Malbim, it means contending with someone over harm that has come to you from them, over the damage that they are causing you. As in, "And he contended with Lavan (va-yarev be-Lavan)... What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?" - he quarreled with him over the injury Lavan was inflicting upon him. So too here: "Contend with your mother (rivu ve-immekhem)" - you, the children, suffer direct injury as a result of your mother's straying. Your mother's persistent infidelity causes a bad name to be cast upon you, making it appear that you are indeed children of harlotry. And who is the one that must contend here? You, the children, whose reputation is being tainted. Therefore: contend with your mother over the harm caused to you because of her.
And what is the difference between "her harlotries" (zenuneha) and "her adulteries" (na'apufeha)? The Malbim explains: harlotry describes leaving the husband's authority into total wantonness, abandoning herself to others - zenunim represents public licentiousness. Adultery, by contrast, denotes the physical lust itself. And here, as we have explained, harlotry is an allegory for the evil inclination of avodah zarah (idolatry), while adultery represents the evil inclination of arayot (forbidden relations).
There is also an additional grammatical nuance: it does not say ni'ufeha, but rather na'apufeha, with a doubling of the letter peh. As we have explained several times, in Lashon HaKodesh, when a letter is doubled, it indicates an intensification and repetition of the action. "Vayarotz et rosho" means he cracked his skull; "vayrotzetz" implies breaking repeatedly. "Patz" means broke, whereas "potzetz" means shattered into small pieces, breaking again and again. Similarly, "leforer" means crumbling bit by bit. Any expression that appears in a doubled form indicates the strength and repetition of the action. Therefore, ni'uf refers to the act of adultery itself, whereas na'apufim indicates the intensification and persistence of the act.
The opening of the chapter teaches us the secret of the reversal: immediately after "You are not My people" comes the prophecy of "like the sand of the sea", because Hoshea realized his mistake and began to advocate in their defense, and because the Holy One, Blessed is He - like the parable of the king and the scribe - was reconciled with His wife and turned the bill of divorce into a doubling of the ketubah. This defense is built upon the value of the future: just as our ancestors in Egypt were redeemed in the merit of the fact that they were destined to receive the Torah, so too, Israel are worthy of mercy by virtue of their glorious future - a multitude beyond measure and number, the gathering of Yehudah and Yisrael under one leader, and the ascent from the land on the day of Yizre'el, which will be transformed from a day of scattering (zeriyah) into a day of blessed planting (zeri'ah). And in response comes Hashem's reply: if you advocate for them based on the future, take responsibility for the present - "Contend with your mother, contend!" Rebuke them and bring them back in teshuvah, so that she removes the harlotries of avodah zarah from her face and the adulteries of arayot from between her breasts. Between these two poles, between strict justice and mercy, the entire chapter moves - and within it lies the message that there is no true life except in connection to the "Living God" (El Chai), Who alone is living of His own essence, and we are His children.