Did Hosea have two wives?

[Crypto]

I know that the traditional view is that he had only one wife, Gomer, and that the following verse:

"Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress..." (Hosea 3:1)

is a command to go looking for his own wife, who had been unfaithful. However, how can we know for certain that the woman mentioned in this verse is Gomer and not another woman? Is there a verse that I am missing, or a law of Moses that can explain everything?

 

[St_Worm2]

.... how can we know for certain that the woman mentioned in this verse is Gomer and not another woman?

Hi Crypto, the commentary from the ESV Study Bible seems to answer your question so concisely that I will simply copy it for you here.

3:1 Though the name of this woman is not stated, she should be understood as Gomer, Hosea’s wife in chs. 1–2; otherwise, the analogy of the woman to Israel breaks down. It is Israel, the adulteress, that the Lord pursues, not another people. Hosea is to retrieve his adulterous wife so that Israel will clearly know that the Lord still loves Israel, his spiritually unfaithful wife.
​

--David

 

[Crypto]

Thank you very much, David! It makes perfect sense since that is the idea of the whole book: Gomer is Israel. Therefore, we must conclude that at the end she finally loves him. Now I see why everybody considers it a good love story too.

 

[Mark51]

It does not seem that way to me.

Gomer apparently abandoned Hosea for adulterous practices, but it is not said that the prophet divorced her even though he could have and remain scripturally clean. Evidently she was later forsaken by her lovers and fell into poverty and slavery. Hosea 3:1-3 seems to indicate that the prophet purchased her as though she were a slave and took her back as a wife. This arrangement paralleled that of Jehovah with Israel, God being willing to take back his erring people after they repented of their spiritual adultery.-Hosea 2:16, 19, 20; 3:1-5.