If you merely regard the narrative, the words are simple enough, but if you look beneath the surface at the hidden meaning of it, you find a description of the small numbers of the church and of the wars the heretics wage against it. The twelve prophets, whose writings are compressed within the narrow limits of a single volume, have typical meanings far from their literal ones. Hosea speaks many times of Ephraim, of Samaria, of Joseph, of Jezreel, of a wife of whoredoms and of children of whoredoms, of an adulterous woman shut up within the chamber of her husband, sitting for a long time in the widowhood and in the garb of mourning, awaiting the time when her husband will return to her.

From these [unlikely] people God will build the church, which will be made holy through its union with the Son of God, as this woman was made holy by her union with the prophet. Paul says that the unbelieving wife is made holy by her believing husband.^[1]

We should not blame the prophet if he converted a prostitute to virtue, but we should rather praise him because he turned a bad woman into a good one. . . . Hence we understand that it was not the prophet who lost virtue by joining with a prostitute, but rather the latter gained virtue that she never had before.

By the law the prophet was allowed to take a woman into the marriage relationship, and on marrying her he probably brought her to chaste ways. In fact, while everyone could not but be surprised that a man who was very conscious of propriety should pass over women who enjoyed a good reputation and choose to take a prostitute into the marriage relationship, the novelty of the event provided the prophet with the occasion of telling them their duty. In addition [Hosea’s marriage demonstrated] the greater marvel of God’s condescending to choose such ungrateful people for special attention by the powerful example—namely, the remarkable prophet’s doing his duty by entering into association with a prostitute.

Likewise the Lord of all had bade Hosea also, therefore, marry a loose woman so as by the event to charge the people with impiety and give evidence of his characteristic longsuffering. If the God of all put up with the loose and adulterous synagogue, however, and the fount of holiness was not defiled by that loathsome and abominable thing, neither did the prophet incur any defilement from that licentious woman. Without being in thrall to lust, and instead carrying out a command from on high, he put up with that awful relationship. Now one must realize how judgment is made between good and bad by the purpose involved: on that basis marriage is distinguished from adultery, and though intercourse involves no difference, the difference emerges in the purpose and the law, and on the same basis what is lawful is distinguished from what is lawless.

Under no circumstances would any reasonable person imagine that the Lord’s feet were anointed with precious ointment by the woman^[1] for the same reason that was customary for sensual, dissolute men whose banquets were such that we loathe them. In that case the good odor^[2] is the good reputation that each one will possess by the works of good life, as long as one follows the footsteps of Christ, and as it were, anoints his feet with very precious ointment. Hence what is frequently sinful in other persons is a symbol of some sublime truth in the person of God or a prophet.

He says to Hosea the prophet, I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but as their adversary I shall oppose them. But I shall have mercy on the sons of Judah, and I shall save them by the Lord their God. The Father unmistakably gives the name of God to his Son in whom he chose us before the eternal ages. For this reason he says their God, because the unborn God is from no one, and God the Father has given us as an inheritance to his Son.

Why, then, should we hesitate to say what Scripture does not hesitate to say? Why should the truth of faith waver where the authority of Scripture has never faltered? For behold, the prophet Hosea says in the person of the Father, I will not save them by bow nor horses, but I will save them by the Lord their God. If God says that he will save them by God and if God does not save except by Christ, then why should people hesitate to call Christ God when they realize that the Father declares, through the Scriptures, that he is God? In fact, if God the Father cannot save except by God, no one can be saved by God the Father, unless one has acknowledged that Christ is God, in whom and through whom the Father promises to grant salvation.^[1]

For he proclaims peace to his people, and to his faithful ones, and to those who turn to him from their hearts.^[1] I note here a threefold classification: his people, his loyal servants, and those who come back to him in hope. He proclaims peace to his people, not to the Jews of whom in Hosea he says, You are not my people.

For this reason, our God spoke elsewhere about the Hebrew people to the prophet, saying, Call his name Not Beloved, and again to the Jews, You are not my people, and I am not your God. But he himself showed clearly elsewhere why he said this about them, for he said, They have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters,^[1] and again, For they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.^[2]

Because Hosea is such a profound prophet, it is no easy matter to get at his meaning. Still, I must keep my promise and quote something from him at this point. He says, And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’; it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ The apostles themselves understood this text as a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, who were previously not God’s people.^[1] And because the Gentiles are spiritually sons of Abraham and correctly therefore alluded to as Israel, Hosea goes on to say, And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the earth. Now to add one word of explanation to this text would be to lose the savor of Hosea’s prophetic style.

They come up out of the land, namely, they will live the life of the saints as well, for great is the day of Jezreel. Indeed, great is the day of Christ, when he will raise to life all the dead. In fact, he will descend from heaven and sit on his glorious throne. And he will give everyone according to his works.^[1] Therefore if one wishes to understand by day the time of the visitation—when the remission of sins is given by Christ to the Greeks, the Judaeans and those who have sinned against him—this will not deviate from the true words. For David too indicated the time of the coming of our Savior by saying, This is the day that the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.^[2]