What does the abrupt shift from Hosea 1:2–9 (focused on judgment) to Hosea 1:10–2:1 (focused on provision and the promise of hope), indicate?
This shift indicates a new and brief section. In it each of the names of the children and their associated judgments are reversed, being made into promises of restoration and mercy.1 This change introduces a pattern throughout Hosea.2 This pattern highlights God’s inevitable judgment against Israel for breaking the covenant, which is ultimately trumped by his grace and mercy toward his people. This grace is grounded in God’s covenant commitment to his people, as Hosea 1:10 makes clear. Because of their infidelity toward God and their constant disobedience, they will suffer the punishments and curses that God outlined in the covenant. Foremost among those is losing the land God gave them and going into exile. But Israel’s story will not end there. God will be faithful to the covenant he made, to bring his people into the land, where they will rest secure and dwell with him. Though Israel’s history had an immediate direction (destruction and exile), their ultimate direction was deliverance and restoration—salvation.3
1 Cependant le nombre des enfants d'Israël sera comme le sable de la mer, qui ne peut ni se mesurer ni se compter; et au lieu de leur dire: Vous n'êtes pas mon peuple! on leur dira: Fils du Dieu vivant!