Context: Hosea was the first of the twelve minor prophets and prophesied to the northern kingdom (Israel) in the 8th century BC, contemporary with Amos, Isaiah, and Micah. His unique characteristic is that his personal life — the marriage to Gomer, an unfaithful woman — becomes a living, visceral metaphor of God's relationship with Israel.

The marital metaphor: God commands Hosea to marry a woman who will repeatedly betray him, so that the prophet experiences in his own flesh what God feels when Israel prostitutes itself with the Canaanite gods of Baal. Hosea's persistent, redemptive love for Gomer — he buys her back after she has been sold (ch. 3) — illustrates the hesed of God: unshakeable covenant love for a people who do not deserve it.

Theology: Chapter 11 is one of the most emotionally powerful texts in the OT: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son... but they did not know that I healed them." The tension between deserved judgment and love that does not abandon is the heart of the book — and of biblical theology. Matthew 2:15 quotes Hosea 11:1 as fulfilled in Jesus' family's return from Egypt.