he was saying, then, was this: ‘Your behaviour has shattered the intimacy which we once enjoyed. We are no longer living as husband and wife together.’ Although no divorce had taken place, the relationship had failed.2 Just as Hosea’s purpose in speaking to his children like this was to see if Gomer would take more notice of them than they did of him, so God pleads with his children. Hosea desperately wanted his wife back; the Lord also longs for his people to return to him. But certain conditions