Related to the action of again betrothing Israel (Hosea 2:19–20), just as Hosea will again
love his adulterous wife (Hosea 3:1–2), God promises to show mercy toward his people. God reiterates his gracious intentions stated in Hosea 1:10 – 2:1, where there is a redemptive reversal of each of Hosea’s three children’s names. Those names that were associated with judgment, now further clarified through the case God brought against Israel (Hosea 2:2–13), are not final. God declares that he will show mercy, refusing to abandon his people in exile. Judgment is coming. However, the final word is grace. There is a promise of restoration and transformation.
Remarkably, as Dearman1 notes, None of this is predicated initially on Israel coming to its collective sense, but on God’s resolve to overcome their failures and to transform them.
Though judgment is not avoided, God’s purpose throughout is to bring his people back to himself, so that they will love and obey him (Hosea 2:20). He will allure
his people (Hosea 2:14). He will renew his covenant (Hosea 2:18), renewing his marriage despite Israel’s adultery (Hosea 2:19–20). God will show mercy even though they deserve judgment, graciously restoring them as his people (Hosea 2:23). Then they will say, You are my God.
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”