Many commentators and translations over the years have felt uncomfortable that God would issue an unethical command to his prophet. These readings insist that Hosea’s future wife only had inclinations toward adultery.¹ This argument usually appeals to Leviticus 21:14, where God prohibits a priest from marrying a prostitute, insisting that they marry virgins. But there is no indication that Hosea was a priest, and those requirements were not placed upon all Israelites.

The most straightforward understanding is that God did in fact command Hosea to marry a promiscuous woman, even a prostitute.^2,3 This fits well with the point this symbolic act illustrates: the land of Israel has committed great whoredom by forsaking the Lord (Hosea 1:2). This becomes clearer in Hosea 4:12 and Hosea 5:4 where the word whoredom is joined to another, referring to Israel’s spirit of whoredom.⁴

In light of this, one could argue that in the event of any marriage, Hosea would be marrying an adulterous woman, for all of God’s people were guilty (see Hosea 2:4). However, Hosea’s symbolic act coupled with his prophetic ministry finds its power in the infidelity of a specific woman, Gomer. Hosea would not have been breaking the law in marrying a woman who was both sexually and spiritually adulterous.