Hosea

Hosea was the last to prophesy to the northern nation before it fell to the Assyrians circa 722 B.C.  The book is a collection of prophetic oracles.

The genre identification and setting: “The word of YHWH that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel” (Hosea 1:1).

The effect of dating the book using the reign of kings from both kingdoms is to remind Judah that what comes for Israel is coming for them (death followed by resurrection).
Isaiah, though a vision, has the same list of kings of Judah in his introductory verse but no mention of the king of Israel.  Hosea, on the other hand, is a prophet to the northern kingdom.  Yet it is somewhat interesting that the reigns of the kings of Judah cover a much longer time period than the one king mentioned of Israel.  It has been suggested that this may be because Jeroboam II was the last significant king from the Jehu dynasty (the next and last king lasted for six months) and that the kings who set up new dynasties afterward did so on their own and not by a prophet (cf. 2 Kings 10:30 for Jehu, Hosea 8:4).

The big controversy about Hosea is whether or not Gomer was already a prostitute when they married or if she became one after they got married.  This is a debate about how to read the Hebrew words but also displays one’s preconceptions about what God might ask his prophets to do.  Would God really ask a prophet to marry a prostitute?  And was Israel already an idolatrous people when they got married to God?  Some passages of Scripture would indicate that the latter is the case.  But as for here in Hosea, we are not sure.

In any case, the experience of Hosea being married to an unfaithful woman shows us what it was like for God to be in a relationship with Israel.  Hosea is told to go take to himself a “wife of fornications/whoredom…for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking YHWH” (Hosea 1:2).  And the passage develops the idea that our covenant with God is like the marriage covenant.

The second part of the command included to have “children of fornications/whoredom.”  And so the second part of the great debate about Hosea then is whether these were her children by loose living before they got married or if these were children that she had while they were married but with other fathers.  Further complicating our interpretation is the way that the rest of the chapter reads as if the three children mentioned are all Hosea’s.

Each child follows a certain cycle: “she conceived and bore a son/daughter and YHWH said…, ‘Call his/her name…’” followed by the explanation of the name.  

Son: Jezreel, “for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel…”

Daughter: No Mercy, “for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all but I will have mercy on the house of Judah…”

Son: Not My People, “for you are not my people and I am not yours.”

Note the chiastic balancing of the sons on either side with the daughter in the middle.  But also the pattern of the daughter (1) and second son (2) where the explanation of the bad name is followed by good news – (1) mercy on the house of Judah, (2) Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, they shall be called children of the living God, children of Judah and Israel shall appoint one head.

Chapter 2:1 in the English numbering is then a statement of hope based on the latter two children’s names: “Say to your brothers (2), “You are my people,” and to your sisters (1), “You have received mercy.”  This is chiastic to those kids.

It is also worth noting that the text is conveying narrative to us.  We are reading a story, to be sure not one like Jonah, but still it is a prophetic narrative resembling parts of books like Ezekiel.

We addressed last time the relationship between Ezekiel and Hosea and how the latter is earlier and therefore somewhat more tame in its language.  Nevertheless, the first fifteen verses of chapter 2 (English numbering) are poetry followed then by prose about “in that day.”  Jeremiah also followed this pattern.

The second chapter also tells us the bad news and then the good news.  The covenant formula that had been broken (“you are not my people and I am not yours,” Hosea 1:10) will be restored “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’” (Hosea 2:23).

The poetry began, “Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts” (Hosea 2:2).

And the prose that follows the poetry begins, “And in that day, declares YHWH, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal’” (Hosea 2:16).

As Ezekiel would later say, Hosea says that she would be exposed naked as her judgment.  Hosea also says that the gifts her lovers had given to her would be destroyed.

Of course, the language of unfaithfulness in marriage is a metaphor.  But identifying what the picture stands for is more implied than stated.  One hint comes in Hosea 1:7 concerning mercy on the house of Judah: “I will save them by YHWH their God.  I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”  This gets at their making alliances with foreign nations.  Yet this does not appear to be the main issue in the book.  The second hint comes in Hosea 2:8 and 16-17 where it mentions the Baals.  This gets at their idolatry.  It is a worship problem, as Hosea 2:11 says, “And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.”  It looks like with idolatry and worship that we have hit the main theme.

Hosea as an author relies on the meaning of names and places.  We have seen this with the artificial naming of children but also even in Hosea 2:22-23 it says, “and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land.”  Jezreel means, “God will sow.”  He also uses wordplay with Ephraim and “wild donkey” in Hosea 8:9.

Hosea 3 is a very short chapter, here YHWH tells Hosea to take back his wife the adulteress.  And here we see the metaphor related explicitly to idolatry: “Even as YHWH loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins” (Hosea 3:1).  So Hosea bought her back (redemption) and told her that she must dwell as his for many days and not play the whore or belong to another man.

“For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.  Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek YHWH their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to YHWH and to His goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:4-5).

Chapter 4 then begins, “Hear the word of YHWH, O children of Israel…” pointing us back to the genre marker of Hosea 1:1 “The word of YHWH that came to Hosea…”

Hosea 4 lays out the charges.  “There is no faithfulness or loyal-love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (Hosea 4:2).  The charges are laid particularly at the priest (and also the prophet) in Israel.  The passage describes idolatry – inquiring of a piece of wood, sacrificing on mountaintops, burnt offerings on hills under oak, poplar and terebinth trees, and men use cult prostitutes.  The last charge makes the analogy especially appropriate.  The analogy of adultery is about idolatry.

Hosea 6 includes the famous lines: “For I desire loyal-love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me” (Hosea 6:6-7).  Some argue that we are not talking about Adam of Genesis 2-3 fame but a place name.  However, the stronger argument (in my opinion) is that we are talking about Adam from Genesis.  Adam, though Genesis 1-4 does not use the word covenant, nevertheless was in a covenant with God that was broken, and likewise Israel was in a covenant with God that has been broken.

Though addressed primarily to Israel (Ephraim), Hosea gives lessons that will apply to Judah.  And there are moments where it gets pointed out like Hosea 6:11 – “For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore the fortunes of my people” (“restore the fortunes” being an idiom for return from exile).

For us to be able to understand the book, we must know the former prophets.  The calf of Samaria (Hosea 8:5) is talking about the idol that was set up in the northern nation, “As in the days of Gibeah” (Hosea 9:9, cf. 10:9) refers us back to the horrific scene with the concubine in Judges.  

There is also the famous allusion to the Exodus event, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1).  As well as other references to the Torah and events in it like Jacob striving with God at Bethel (Hosea 12:3-4).

And Hosea has the famous lines that Paul will later use, “O Death, where are your plagues?  O Sheol, where is your sting?” (Hosea 13:14).  Really it is a book that is quoted much more in the New Testament than one would expect for its length.

Hosea 14, the final chapter, returns back to that hint at the beginning of the book about salvation coming from YHWH and not the foreign nations: “Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses.”  Then it turns back to the theme of idolatry.

And the last verse of the book says, “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of YHWH are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them” (Hosea 14:9).  This is a wisdom ending to the book.  Surely this verse, which stands alone at the end, is the addition of the wisdom editor of The Twelve.  The verse suggests that there are things that need much study because they are difficult to understand.  This is definitely the case – some of the most difficult passages to translate from Hebrew in Scripture are found in Hosea.