Chapter 2 of Hoshea continues the great allegory of the unfaithful wife - Keneset Yisrael who strayed after her lovers. In this part of the chapter, we arrive at the pivotal point of the entire prophecy: the people of Israel attribute their good and bad fortune to the celestial constellations and astrological alignments, rather than to the Creator's providence. The Holy One, blessed be He, announces that He will deal with them in such a way that no possibility will remain for them to attribute events to the stars; rather, they will recognize that everything comes through divine providence from Him, blessed be He. And from this retribution, the prophecy unfolds toward consolation: an enticement into the wilderness, speaking to the heart, and the renewal of the ancient covenant.
"And I will take away My grain in its time" - Proof that the constellations do not determine reality
לָכֵן אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי דְגָנִי בְּעִתּוֹ וְתִירוֹשִׁי בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ וְהִצַּלְתִּי צַמְרִי וּפִשְׁתִּי לְכַסּוֹת אֶת־עֶרְוָתָהּ׃ (יא) - Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and I will rescue My wool and My flax that were to cover her nakedness. (11)
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I must act toward them in ways that will prove to them that all the bounty they enjoy does not stem from the celestial sphere, but from Me. They are convinced that good and bad fortune are determined by the planetary orbits and zodiac signs; when I withheld the heavens from giving rain, they did not see the hand of Hashem in it, but said: according to the astrological alignment, it was simply not meant to rain. Therefore, I will take actions in which divine providence will be unmistakable.
But how? After all, if You withhold rain, they will say, "That is the alignment of the stars," and if You restore the rain, they will again say, "That is the alignment." To this the Holy One, blessed be He, responds: On the contrary, I will give rain, and the land will yield its produce. For when a person goes to an astrologer, the astrologer tells him either that the stars are against him or that they are in his favor. And behold, the stars will seem entirely in their favor: rain falls, the wheat grows, everything develops beautifully and wondrously. Only at the very last moment, when the grain is fully ripe and ready, do I take it away. If the stars were against you, no rain would have fallen at all. And if they were in your favor, why was everything taken from you? The unavoidable conclusion: it is not the stars, but Me. I gave, and I took away.
This is the meaning of "I will return and take away My grain in its time" - at the very time the grain reaches maturity, a moment before harvest, blight and a mysterious pestilence strike, making it impossible to reap. Likewise, "and I will rescue My wool and My flax" - once the wool and flax are already prepared to be worn as clothing, I will snatch them from her hand. Everything was going well, and suddenly something goes awry - a clear sign of providential distress. Then she will see that even those she regarded as her lovers, the stars, the constellations, and the natural order, cannot rescue her from My hand.
"Et" and "Mo'ed" - The Malbim's Precision
The Malbim teaches us that in prophetic literature there is no mere repetition of ideas in different words, nor any doubling simply for poetic flourishing. If the text says "in its time" (be'ito) here and "in its appointed season" (bemo'ado) there, there is a distinct difference. An et is natural time: "And behold, your time was the time of love," or the natural season when a tree bears its fruit. A mo'ed is a designated, agreed-upon time: two people who schedule to meet on Thursday at four o'clock - that is a mo'ed, as it is written, "Can two walk together unless they have met by appointment?"
Accordingly, grain is always harvested when it reaches full maturity - it has a fixed time (et) determined by nature. Grapes, however, are not always harvested as soon as they finish ripening; sometimes they are left on the vine to soak up more sun, making them more suitable for specific wines and beverages, as vintners know. It turns out that with the vineyard, the owner determines the appointed time (mo'ed). Therefore: "And I will take away My grain in its time" - at the natural, fixed time, and "My new wine in its season" - at the appointed time designated by the owner.
Taking and Rescuing
The Malbim notes another fine distinction: what is the difference between "and I will take away" (velakaḥti) and "and I will rescue" (vehitzalti)? Taking applies to something that has not yet reached your hands - you come to take it, but I took it before you could. Rescuing applies to something already in your possession, and I extract it from your grasp. Thus, "I will take away My grain in its time" - before you even harvest it, I will bring a blight upon it. The wool and flax, by contrast, are already in her possession, so the text says "and I will rescue" - I will extract them from her hands. This is like "And God took away (vayatzel) the livestock of your father and gave them to me," where the livestock were already in Lavan's possession, and like "and they despoiled (vatenatzlu) Egypt," where the property was already held by the Egyptians and was wrested from their hands.
"Before the Eyes of Her Lovers" - Failure in Plain Sight of the Stars
וְעַתָּה אֲגַלֶּה אֶת־נַבְלֻתָהּ לְעֵינֵי מְאַהֲבֶיהָ וְאִישׁ לֹא־יַצִּילֶנָּה מִיָּדִי׃ (יב) - "And now I will uncover her disgrace before the eyes of her lovers, and no man will rescue her from My hand."
The Radak explains: I will reveal her ugliness and her evil deeds, which will be exposed when I hide My face from her. "Before the eyes of her lovers" - according to the Malbim, this refers to the stars and constellations, which will be powerless to assist her or save her. The Radak's father interprets that this means before the eyes of the sun, for they used to worship the sun. Rashi adds the teaching of Chazal that the merit of the Avos had ended, and therefore even that merit will not stand to save her from My hand.
The Malbim adds a precise observation: "Before the eyes of her lovers" refers back to the entire preceding statement - "I will return and take away My grain in its time, and My wine in its season, and I will remove My wool and My flax, I will uncover her disgrace" - all of these things will be done before the eyes of her lovers. In other words, the stars and constellations will not be able to prevent Me from taking away the grain and the wine. For if the celestial arrangement is on our side and its eyes are upon us for good, why does it not help? There is grain, there is wine, there is oil, there is rain, everything is blooming and flourishing - so what happened that at the very last moment it becomes impossible to harvest and impossible to obtain the wool and the flax? From this you will understand that there is no power against Hashem, and that the celestial system has no power to grant anything if the Holy One, blessed be He, does not give it.
Cessation of the Holidays - Further Proof
וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי כָּל־מְשׂוֹשָׂהּ חַגָּהּ חָדְשָׁהּ וְשַׁבַּתָּהּ וְכֹל מוֹעֲדָהּ׃ (יג) - "And I will put an end to all her joy, her festival, her New Moon, her Shabbat, and all her appointed seasons."
"Her joy" refers to the days of festivals and new months, which are times of joy and celebration. In those times, they would celebrate in honor of idolatry, believing that these were special periods during which the stars bestow good and blessing. Many names of the months are pagan names, reflecting their belief that a particular deity ruled over that month and should therefore be worshipped then. Likewise, they had 365 types of idols corresponding to the days of the solar year, an idol assigned to each day.
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will put an end to these celebrations, and these days will turn into days of distress and darkness. This is another sign that goodness and fortune are not in the hands of the celestial system, but in the hands of Hashem alone. For according to their calculations, on the festival of a given star, at the height of its power, it ought to bestow good upon you; and if precisely at that moment it fails to do so, it proves that Divine providence is at work, and that Hashem alters the times and directs the stars according to His will.
We find a similar idea regarding the Exodus from Egypt. The Egyptians worshipped the lamb (Aries), whose period of astrological dominance is the month of Nisan. During that month, they believed they drew immense power from their deity and were confident that the God of the Hebrews could not overcome them. And when is this zodiac sign at its peak strength? On the fifteenth of the month, when the moon is full. Yet specifically on the fifteenth of Nisan, at the height of Aries' dominion, Israel departed from Egypt - demonstrating the absolute nothingness of their gods and that everything unfolds under complete Divine providence. So too here: "And I will put an end to all her joy" - specifically on the holidays you celebrate for idolatry, the joy will cease, showing that time does not dictate events and the stars do not dictate events, but only His will, blessed be He.
Chag and Moed
The Malbim explains the distinction: A "chag" is a day on which people bring abundant chagigah peace-offerings (shalmei chagigah), and it is not necessarily a date fixed in advance. Therefore, Chanukah and Purim are not termed a "chag" in the language of the Torah, even if kindergarten teachers have labeled them holidays, since they are rabbinic commemorations that do not involve a chagigah sacrifice. Likewise, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not referred to in the Torah as a "chag," because no chagigah offerings are sacrificed on them - even though Tehillim metaphorically states, "at the designated time for our festive day (chagenu)," which Chazal interpret as referring to Rosh Hashanah. We also find "a chag to Hashem tomorrow," which denotes a day a person designated on his own initiative to offer sacrifices. A "moed," by contrast, is an appointed time set and fixed in advance, even if no chagigah sacrifices are offered on it. Therefore, both are mentioned: both the set mo'adim and the chagim that are not fixed in advance - all of it will cease.
"They Are My Pay" - The Vine and the Fig Tree
וַהֲשִׁמֹּתִי גַּפְנָהּ וּתְאֵנָתָהּ אֲשֶׁר אָמְרָה אֶתְנָה הֵמָּה לִי אֲשֶׁר נָתְנוּ־לִי מְאַהֲבָי וְשַׂמְתִּים לְיַעַר וַאֲכָלָתַם חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה׃ (יד) - "And I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree, of which she said: 'They are my pay that my lovers have given me'; and I will make them into a forest, and the beasts of the field will devour them."
This is the third thing, the Malbim explains: not only will Hashem withhold the produce of the land, but He will also turn the land into a desolation, and even the choicest fruit-bearing trees - the vine and the fig tree - He will lay waste. And why? "Which she said: They are my hire [etnah]." "Etnah" is like etnan, the fee a lover gives a harlot as her payment. She attributes the vine and the fig tree to the Ba'alim, to idolatry, to the stars and constellations - like an insolent woman who brazenly looks at the dowry her husband bought her and says: This diamond ring I received from my lovers. I gave you the vine and the fig tree, and you give the credit to the stars?
Therefore, "and I will make them into a forest" - a forest is a place where beasts of the field gather, and fine fruits do not grow there because the beasts consume them. The Nimshal [the underlying meaning], the Malbim explains, refers to the savage nations: that He would bring Sancheriv to settle here, and they would consume the vine and the fig tree. For after she said, "I will go and return to my first husband," a spark of teshuvah was already awakened - this was the era of Hoshea ben Elah, who abolished the guard posts, the border patrols set up by Yeravam ben Nevat to prevent people from ascending to Yerushalayim, as we learned in Sefer Melachim. Yet the Holy One, Blessed be He, saw that this was not a complete teshuvah: their hearts were still tied to idolatry, and they were convinced that when something went wrong, their luck was against them, failing to understand that the hand of Hashem was at work here. Therefore, He brought the king of Assyria upon them to destroy the land, which is the meaning of "and I will make them into a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them."
Why Specifically When the Guard Posts Were Abolished?
Here one must ask: Hoshea ben Elah performed a good deed by abolishing the guard posts, so why did the calamity come specifically then? Chazal explain: As long as the guard posts were in place, when Israel were asked why they did not make the pilgrimage, they had an answer - Yeravam had stationed guards, and anyone who went up would be shot or stoned, so it was impossible; do you expect me to commit suicide? Hoshea ben Elah came and abolished the guard posts, and there was no longer an excuse. Thus, the good he did turned against them, creating a severe heavenly accusation: look, there are no guard posts, and they still do not make the pilgrimage! And why did they not go up? Because they had become deeply rooted in sin, and had completely forgotten the concept of ascending for the festivals, having worshiped idols for generations and hundreds of years. Hence, even the teshuvah that was awakened within them was not sincere, but merely because they saw that their "luck" was supposedly against them, and having no other choice, they turned to Hashem.
"And Forgot Me" - The Last Nose Ring
וּפָקַדְתִּי עָלֶיהָ אֶת־יְמֵי הַבְּעָלִים אֲשֶׁר תַּקְטִיר לָהֶם וַתַּעַד נִזְמָהּ וְחֶלְיָתָהּ וַתֵּלֶךְ אַחֲרֵי מְאַהֲבֶיהָ וְאֹתִי שָׁכְחָה נְאֻם־יְהֹוָה׃ (טו) - "And I will visit upon her the days of the Ba'alim, when she burned incense to them, and she adorned herself with her nose ring and her jewelry, and went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says Hashem."
The Malbim explains: In the end, Hashem sees that all the measures designed to bring them back to the recognition that everything is by divine providence are of no avail. For the rule is: whoever wishes to err, let him come and err. As discussed at length in the discourses on Parashat Bereishit, error is not accidental; a person desires to err, and whoever wishes to err will find many justifications for doing so. And since they did not want to understand, everything the Holy One, Blessed be He, did to reprove them fell on deaf ears.
"And I will visit upon her the days of the Ba'alim" - I will visit punishment upon her corresponding to the days she burned incense to the Ba'alim. Even with all this, they do not repent and do not mend their ways, but rather "she adorned herself with her nose ring and her jewelry" - putting on her jewelry and perfumes, and going after her lovers. She is likened, the Malbim explains, to an unfaithful wife whose husband stripped away all her clothes and took all her jewelry so she would not go chasing after other men, leaving her with nothing but a single nose ring and one ornament - and even that she puts on to run after her lovers.
And so it was: after Hashem punished them in the days of Hoshea ben Elah, and the king of Assyria took everything they had, they did not return to Hashem. Instead, they sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, asking him to come to their aid, and they continued serving idols, saying: "Since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven... we have seen only calamity." Thus, all the blows and all the garments He stripped from her did not prevent her from going out with the meager remnants she had left to greet her lovers. "And forgot Me" - she does not return to the One who strikes her, but seeks help from foreign nations and salvation from alien gods. Therefore, there is no choice but to bring upon her the decree and the tribulation.
"Behold, I Will Allure Her" - Into the Wilderness
לָכֵן הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי מְפַתֶּיהָ וְהֹלַכְתִּיהָ הַמִּדְבָּר וְדִבַּרְתִּי עַל־לִבָּהּ׃ (טז) - "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and lead her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her heart."
The Malbim continues with the parable: The husband sees that all his strategies to separate her from her lovers have not succeeded, so he entices her to leave settled society, since it is in civilization that her paramours are found. He leads her out into the wilderness, where she will find no one to stray with, and she will be alone with her husband. And there - "and speak tenderly to her heart" - I will speak to her heart to restore her to My love.
In this, he corresponds to what is stated in Yechezkel: "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face." Now there, it speaks of the exiles among the nations, so why is it called a wilderness? The Malbim explains: Because there they are akin to a desolate wilderness. Our presence among the nations is no reason for them to draw us close; on the contrary, the nations alienate them, and they are hungry and thirsty and surrounded by serpents and scorpions - the nations being like serpents and scorpions that torment them. Thus, dwelling among the nations is even worse than the wilderness, for we are persecuted among them very harshly. And it is said there, "And I will bring you into the bond of the covenant" - into that ancient covenant through which I brought you out of Egypt, where they were under His divine providence, and there, as it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, will renew that very covenant with us.
"And I will give her her vineyards from there" - Abundance in a Place Void of Abundance
וְנָתַתִּי לָהּ אֶת־כְּרָמֶיהָ מִשָּׁם וְאֶת־עֵמֶק עָכוֹר לְפֶתַח תִּקְוָה וְעָנְתָה שָּׁמָּה כִּימֵי נְעוּרֶיהָ וּכְיוֹם עֲלוֹתָהּ מֵאֶרֶץ־מִצְרָיִם׃ (יז) - "And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor for an opening of hope; and she shall respond there as in the days of her youth, and as on the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." (17)
"And I will give her her vineyards" - those vineyards that I took from her, as it was said, "And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees," I will give her from there, from the wilderness itself. Here the prophet describes the future state in which the Holy One, blessed be He, will renew our days as of old, and Israel will return to the closeness to God that they once enjoyed, and she will return to her first husband. The analogy points to the days of their departure from Egypt, which was the time of marriage, when we experienced great closeness to God; and afterwards, the people of Israel corrupted their ways like an unfaithful wife and turned after other gods. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will return them to the place of the chuppah and kiddushin, to the level of those days when they were in the wilderness, received the Torah, acquired faith, and witnessed the providence of Hashem.
And there the lovers are not with her - meaning the forces of astrology and the celestial order and their influences are not present there. For in the desolate, howling wasteland, there is no bread, no water, no vine, and no fig tree. And if a vine and a fig tree nevertheless flourish for her there, this must inevitably lead her to the conclusion that everything is through divine providence. I alone will give her her vineyards, her sustenance, and her needs.
And so it is in exile: naturally and according to the celestial order, Israel should have been destitute and lacking all good things. For what is exile? It is when the influences of the stars and the celestial order are against you, there is no abundance, and you are persecuted. Naturally, there should have been neither abundance, nor vine, nor fig tree there. Yet despite this, the Holy One, blessed be He, had mercy on us even there, as it is said, "And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly." And this is truly an immense wonder to anyone who contemplates Jewish history: how the Jewish people survived all the exiles and remained a nation. For by natural means, any nation exiled among another nation assimilated into it and was lost forever. Yet we are among the nations, outside our land, and in a situation that according to the natural order should have been dire - and ultimately, not only did we survive, but there were places where we prospered, and Jews served as ministers and dignitaries in governing institutions, such as the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, and European Jewry before the afflictions and catastrophes of the terrible Holocaust. Divine providence alone granted them abundance, even though by nature they should not have been in such a favorable state. And this is "And I will give her her vineyards from there" - precisely there, in the place of exile, she will see that abundance comes through divine providence.
The Vineyard of the Soul
On a deeper level, the Malbim explains, the vineyards symbolize the vineyards of the soul: Torah and faith. For in Shir HaShirim, all matters concerning the vineyard - "Shlomo had a vineyard," "my own vineyard I have not kept" - speak of the service of Hashem and spiritual dimensions. Torah is compared to wine, and therefore the vineyard is the place where Torah grows; likewise, the "Vineyard in Yavneh" was the place where the Sages sat. Thus, the vineyard represents the place where wisdom and spiritual, soulful acquisitions are attained (as elaborated upon in the lessons on Shir HaShirim, regarding the concept of the vineyard and what "my own vineyard I have not kept" symbolizes).
According to this, the Jewish people should have lost their faith in exile long ago, yet we see that precisely there they gave their lives for Kiddush Hashem - thousands during the massacres of Tach and Tat (1648-1649), and thousands and millions during the Spanish Inquisition and beyond. Tremendous self-sacrifice. It turns out that not only did they have a physical vineyard in exile contrary to nature, but also a spiritual vineyard: positive spiritual influences that ensured they did not lose their spirituality, and in this too they had divine assistance while in exile.
The Valley of Achor as an Opening of Hope
"And the Valley of Achor for an opening of hope" - in the end, at the close of exile, the harshness of subjugation will be removed in the end of days, and what was in the category of the Valley of Achor will become an opening of hope. And what is the Valley of Achor? It is the place of Achan, to whom it was said, "Why have you troubled us? Hashem shall trouble you this day," and they called the place the Valley of Achor - that same place where judgment was executed upon him and they stoned him for violating the ban. And Chazal expounded: "This day" - on this day you are troubled, but you are not troubled in the World to Come, for Achan has a share in the World to Come. For thus Yehoshua told him: give confession to Hashem - confess that you took from the banned property, and you will have a share in the World to Come; and he confessed. It turns out that the very place that was a Valley of Achor (valley of trouble) for Achan became for him an opening of hope, granting him hope for eternal life and a portion in the World to Come. And this is how the prophet perceives exile: it is indeed a Valley of Achor, yet in the end it will become an opening of hope for the future; they will find favor and grace in all their places of exile and begin to anticipate the Redemption.
"And She Shall Respond There as in the Days of Her Youth"
What is the meaning of "and she shall respond there as in the days of her youth"? The Malbim explains: These are the miracles performed for them in ancient times. "The days of her youth" is like "I remember for you the devotion of your youth, your following after Me in the wilderness" - and they will have miracles just as there were during the conquest of the Land and at the time of the building of the Beit HaMikdash in the days of Shlomo. "And as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt" - these are the miracles performed for them in Egypt and at the Yam Suf, as it is said, "As in the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders."
Furthermore, "ve'anta" is an expression of song, as in "And Miriam answered them," and this is how Chazal expounded it. That is, they will sing and give thanks to Hashem as in the days of her youth - just as at the Exodus from Egypt they sang a song, "Then Moshe and the Children of Israel sang," so too we are destined to sing when the Valley of Achor turns into an entrance of hope, when the Holy One, blessed be He, returns and redeems us.
In summary:
In this part of the chapter, the prophet reveals to us the ultimate purpose of all the afflictions: to shatter the illusion that good and bad depend on the celestial constellations. The Holy One, blessed be He, gives rain and produce, yet specifically at the very last moment takes back the grain in its time and the new wine in its season, and rescues the wool and the linen - so that no possibility remains to attribute it to the constellations. He puts an end to the celebrations specifically at the perceived peak of the mazalot's power, and desolates the grapevine and the fig tree, which she attributed as payment from her lovers, until He brings upon them the beast of the field - Sancheriv. And when all these strategies did not avail, because whoever wishes to err will err, comes the great enticement: leading her into the wilderness and speaking to her heart, renewing the ancient covenant. And there, specifically in the place of desolation and exile, Hashem will give her her vineyards - material bounty and spiritual bounty of Torah and emunah - until the Valley of Achor is transformed into an entrance of hope, and Israel will respond in song as in the days of her youth, and as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt.