It is as he says also in Hosea: ‘Those not my people I will call “my people,” and her who was not beloved “beloved”;

Rom. 9:21-26; note also 1 Peter 2:9, 10.

GOD’S OWN MARRIAGE PROBLEM

7. Who was Hosea, and from what translation of his writings did Paul quote?

⁷ Who was that Hosea, from whose writings the apostle Paul made the above quotations? He was a prophet during the ninth and eighth centuries before our Common Era. The apostle Paul made his quotations from the Greek Septuagint Version renderings of Hosea 1:10 and Ho 2:23.

“And I will plant her for Myself in the land and love her who was not beloved; and to them who were not My people I will say, Thou art My people: and they will say, Thou the Lord art my God.”​—The Septuagint Bible by Charles Thomson.

8. By his words through Hosea, Jehovah indicated that what kind of problem existed between him and the one not beloved?

⁸ It is Jehovah God who thus speaks through the Hebrew prophet Hosea as His mouthpiece. In saying, “I will . . . love her who was not beloved,” or, “I will call . . . her who was not beloved ‘beloved,’” Jehovah indicated that some problem had existed between him and her whom he did not love for a time. According to the way that Jehovah speaks about the matter, it was a marriage problem between him and her. He likens her to a man’s wife.

9. Who is the one of whom Jehovah speaks as being married to him?

⁹ Who is this one of whom Jehovah speaks as being married to him? She is not a literal woman, an individual human female. By his own statements Jehovah shows that she is a people, the nation of Israel that descended from the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So she is a national wife, an organizational wife. Jehovah was married to the organization of the twelve tribes of Israel. Just like a purchased wife of the Middle East, the nation of the twelve tribes of Israel was married to its God, Jehovah.

10. When, where and how did this figurative marriage take place?

¹⁰ When did this marriage take place? It was in the year 1513 B.C.E., after Jehovah had purchased the twelve tribes of Israel. How? By liberating them from slavery in the land of Egypt. Then, under the visible leadership of the prophet Moses, Jehovah brought them to Mount Sinai on the Arabian Peninsula. There, through Moses as mediator between God and man, Jehovah proposed the forging of a bond of union between himself and the liberated Israelites. He proposed the making of a covenant between himself and them. This covenant was to be based upon a code of laws to which the nation of Israel would agree to be subject, just as in those days a woman was subject to the law of her husband. (Rom. 7:2) From atop Mount Sinai Jehovah said to the Israelites: “Now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Ex. 19:1-6) Being properly informed, the Israelites voluntarily entered into this covenant.

11. How was the nation of Israel to keep the marriage tie between itself and Jehovah binding?

¹¹ In this manner, out there in the wilderness of Sinai, a marriage took place between Jehovah as Heavenly Husband and the nation of Israel as his earthly organizational wife. This sacred relationship was established over the shedding of the blood of animal sacrifices. Part of this blood was sprinkled upon the book of God’s law and part upon the people of Israel. (Ex. 24:1-8; Heb. 9:19, 20) From then on, for as long as the Law covenant continued in force, the Israelites were bound to be faithful and true to Jehovah their God, just as a woman should be faithful and true to her husband. According to the Ten Commandments, they were bound to worship Jehovah as their God without the use of any images. (Ex. 20:1-6) They had to consider themselves as his “special property,” belonging to no other owner. They had to keep themselves as a nation that is holy to Jehovah, separate from the worldly nations. By this course they would keep the marriage tie binding, inviolate.​—Jer. 2:2, 3; 31:31, 32.

12. Why is it important for us to consider the ancient marriage between Jehovah and the nation of Israel and the modern counterpart thereof?

¹² Today it is not uncommon for legal marriages to break up, even though it is between two individuals, a male and a female. So, how would a marriage between Jehovah and an entire nation of millions of individuals fare? We today ought to be interested in this, since what happened to that marriage of old became prophetic of something to happen to a later marriage of that kind. What happened to Jehovah’s marriage with Israel affected just a nation. But what happens to his later marriage affects the whole religious world, yes, it affects the entire human family. This means that we of today are affected. Hence, calamity is possible for all of us in the near future. This explains why it is so important for us to consider the ancient marriage between Jehovah and Israel and its modern counterpart.