A lot of ink has been spilled by commentators in answer to this question. This is because the word Hosea uses (zenunim
) can refer to any sexual activity outside marriage. Many possibilities have been put forward: (1) Gomer was a commercial prostitute; (2) she was a Canaanite temple prostitute; (3) she was a loose, immoral woman; (4) she was a spiritually unfaithful Baal worshipper.
But we must first be aware of the inherent danger of focusing too much on the details of Gomer’s life that we forget how she is simply a sign pointing to the people of Israel. Dearman rightly warns against ignoring the prophetic function and literary properties of Hosea by trying to get behind the text and gaining a complete picture of Hosea’s personal life.1 Therefore, we should not be overly confident—whichever option we choose—since all of the possible interpretations highlight Israel’s unfaithfulness to Yahweh. Having said that, we would lean in favour of the first option. If God is using Hosea’s personal life to show Israel how they have treated him, prostitution would give the biggest shock factor and be the most public. Option 2 and 4 are the least likely and would require more evidence than we have in the text to make a convincing argument.
2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”