Hosea’s initial sign act remains a minefield of interpretive debate, with most studies and commentaries focusing on the meaning of YHWH’s commission to “take a wife of whoredom.” However, scholars have largely neglected the second part of the commission to “[take] children of whoredom.” Given the three children born in Hos 1, as well as assumptions about the nature of Gomer’s supposed pre-marital chastity, most scholars assume the sign act involves the call to marry and only subsequently “have children with her” (NIV, ESV, CSB). But just as the language to “take” a wife is standard terminology for legal marriage (Gen 24:3–4; 25:1; Jer 29:6), scholars do not often consider that “take…children” can similarly signal legal adoption (cf. Esth 2:7). Even where interpreters, both early (Jerome) and modern (Thomas McComiskey, Mayer Gruber), acknowledge the adoption language in the verse, the theological significance of adoption in the sign act remains unexplored. In light of this lacuna, this paper demonstrates that YHWH’s initial commission to Hosea entails not only marrying a woman with a public reputation for sexual immorality but also adopting children already born to her. This paper first examines the adoption language of the commission in Hos 1:2 in its ANE/OT context. Next, the paper challenges objections that the zeugmatic construction rules out adoption (i.e., Walter Kaiser). Finally, the paper demonstrates the significance of adoption at the outset of the household metaphor for Hosea’s theological message of the inclusion of outsiders into the family of God.