THE BOOK OF HOSEA

HOSEA

The prophet also worked during the eighth century in Israel, the northern kingdom, just like Amos. Jeroboam II was king there. In Judah, his prophetic work covers four kings, namely Uzziah or Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This means Hosea was still alive when the northern kingdom was taken into Assyrian exile from 722-21 BC.

His prophecies can be divided into three parts. Chapters 1-3 contain the marriage symbolism, or marriage parable.

Next comes prophetic utterances concerning both Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom, covering various issues and from different episodes in his ministry, in no particular order. They are contained in chapters 4-13. Here the northern kingdom is frequently referred to as Ephraim. Judah also receives criticism just like Israel, with the exception of, for example, Hosea 11:12, where Judah is specifically cited as ruling with God and is faithful with the saints. In the same verse, Ephraim surrounds the Lord with lies and is deceitful.

God picked up Israel as wild grapes in the wilderness and saw their fathers as the first ripe product of a fig-tree bringing forth fruit for the first time. Yet they abandoned YHWH and joined themselves unto Baal-peor (Hosea 9:10; Numbers 25). They were emancipated from Egypt yet still proceeded to leave their God who taught them how to walk, so they could worship Baal and other graven images (Hosea 11:1-3).

The last chapter, 14, is the song of Redemption.

The Marriage Parable

Hosea's marriage to Gomer, a woman of harlotry, is meant to signify the relationship of YHWH and his people, Israel. Their harlotry consists in readoption of the worship of other gods which are not YHWH. They adulterate the worship of their God with religious practices borrowed from their neighbours like the Canaanite fertility cults centred on the Canaanite god Baal. Israel is as unfaithful to her God as a wife would be unfaithful to her husband. She believes there is something of substance in the Canaanite fertility rites. Yet in reality, there is nothing. YHWH can just cut off everything which is thought to emanate from the benevolence of Baal: the corn, the wine, the oil, the silver, and the gold (Hosea 2:1-13).

Gomer bears three children to whom Hosea gives symbolic names, on the instruction of God. The first, a son, is Jezreel, a reminder of the place where Jehu, the founder of the current ruling dynasty in the north killed Jehoram, son and successor of King Ahab, and ended the reign of the house of Omri. In no time, God will avenge Himself of the bloody events leading to the takeover of power by Jehu. The blood has been shed in vain because Jehu and his descendants, rulers in Israel, had failed to correct the religious wrongs set in motion by the first Jeroboam at the inception of the northern kingdom, following the break with Judah. They were no better than those they replaced on the throne. Now God would bring to an end the existence of the northern kingdom altogether.

Lo-ruhamah, or not pitied, is the second child, a daughter. YHWH will not have mercy upon Israel anymore. Israel will be taken away. Lo-ammi, not my people, a son, is the third child. YHWH rejects the kingdom of Israel. They are not His people, and He will not be their God.

Gomer may be the woman whose freedom Hosea purchases for her in chapter 3. She is asked not to be unfaithful. It symbolizes hope. For although Israel shall go for a long period without king, prince or religious observances, the time will arrive when they will turn to seek their god, and their king, David. The fear of the Lord God will return to them. In Hosea 1:11, there shall come a time when the children of both Judah and Israel would reunite and appoint one political head to be their ruler.

Miscellaneous Oracles

Chapters 4-13 contain prophetic utterances which touch upon a number of things

Ethical Conduct

In several instances, Israel is criticized for failing to adhere to the dictates of the social and ethical requirements of Moses' Ten Commandments. In Hosea 4:2, there is lying. killing, stealing, and adultery in the land, directly breaching the prohibition of some of the commandments of Moses' Decalogue. Israel is a deceitful merchant (Hosea 12:7; Amos 8:5- 6; Deuteronomy 25:13-15). Israel has planted wickedness and reaped iniquity. They have eaten the fruit of lies. They love flagons of wine (Hosea 3:2). Adultery, wine, and new wine take away the heart (Hosea 4:11).

Idolatry

YHWH has a controversy with the people of the land because there is no truth, no mercy, and no knowledge of the Lord in the land (Hosea 4: Their embrace of Baal worship spells death. They even kiss and sacrifice to objects, such as calves, made by human craftsmen (Hosea 13:1-2). Thus they find it sensible to pay homage to a creation of the created; that is, to worship a secondary creature instead of worshipping the creator.

Israel seeks advice from inanimate objects (Hosea 4:11). They offer sacrifices on top of mountains. They burn incense on hilltops and under oak, poplar, and elm trees. They enjoy the cool shade of those trees and think God is doing the same.

Israel is defiled (Hosea 5:3). Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity, and Judah shall fall with them (Hosea 5:5). In Hosea 5:10, God will pour our his wrath, like water, upon Judah. In transgressing the covenant, they have behaved treacherously (Hosea 6:7).

Remedy

The solution is for the children of Israel to seek after their God. They should uphold the principles set in their covenant with Him. They should sow righteousness and reap mercy (Hosea 10:12). God desires mercy, not sacrifice, and values the knowledge of God more than the empty superficiality of burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).

Alliances with Foreign Powers

Entering into friendship pacts with foreign powers is condemned (Hosea 5:13 and 7:11). They make fruitless appeals to Assyria and Egypt. It will nor be helpful. God will set a net, and snare them on their way to soliciting for the alliances. They will fall to the ground like birds falling down from the sky.

Divine Judgment

For all their misdeeds, God is going to take action. Israel will be punished. They have sown the wind. They shall reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). They shall return to Egypt, and be nothing more than a worthless vessel among the gentiles (Hosea 8:8–14). They will be wanderers among the nations (Hosea 9:17).

The time of reckoning is come. "Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will burn them” (Hosea 9:6). For their wickedness, and because their rulers are rebellious, God will pull them out of the land (9:15). God will drive them into exile in Assyria (Hosea 10:6).

The Song of Redemption

The song begins by urging Israel to seek a pardon from and reconciliation with their God. They must confess the futility of their own endeavours, including idolatry and the seeking of pacts with foreigners. They acknowledge that YHWH is their God, and the God that administers justice even unto the orphaned (Hosea 14:1-3). God will forgive their backsliding and bless them immensely.

Why Did God Command Hosea to Marry a Prostitute? (Hosea 1 & 3)What is God teaching us about his faithfulness in the story of Hosea and Gomer?

An Unfaithful Wife

Yahweh commands Hosea to marry a “wife of whoredom [zenunim]” (1:2). This Hebrew term indicates illicit sexual behavior. Moses uses the word in Genesis 38:24 to refer to Tamar’s posing as a shrine prostitute in order to entice Judah. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, bears this label, not necessarily because she is a prostitute but because she is (or will become) a woman characterized by sexual infidelity.

The ESV translates the last phrase of Hosea 1:2, “for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” The Hebrew idiom woodenly reads, “for the land commits great whoredom from after the Lord.” This is the first of a series of expressions in Hosea where God puts himself in the place of a forsaken human lover (cf. comment on 2:2–5 [esp. v. 5]). Hosea does as Yahweh instructed and marries Gomer, who then bears him a son (1:3).

In the autobiographical sketch of 3:1–5, the prophet tells his story, as once more he is called to image Yahweh. But is the woman he now pursues his wife, Gomer? The text does not explicitly identify her. She is an adulteress, and “another man” loves her (v. 1). But it would hardly make sense if this woman were not Gomer. The whole point seems to be that her estranged husband sought her out, did what was needed to redeem her from her lover, and brought her back into his house, at great cost to himself (silver and foodstuffs; v. 2). This extraordinary expression of love reflects how God has loved Israel. She, too, is faithless, and betrays her husband (the Lord) through her worship of other gods. Raisin cakes (v. 1)—which are mentioned along with “other gods”—were apparently an element of pagan religion, and their mention here underscores Israel’s faithlessness. She loves her promiscuity.

Hosea lays down the law to Gomer: she is to be celibate for a season. Her nymphomaniacal addiction must be cured through abstinence “for many days” (v. 3). Of course, he promises to abstain as well (“so will I also be to you”). This is a picture of the nation, which for “many days” would be bereft of idolatrous kings (v. 4). At the very least, this means that Israel would no longer be a sovereign nation. It may also be that her political leadership is mentioned in particular because it was the engine of false religion and is thus specifically targeted in order for false religion to stop as well. In either case, the destruction they will experience will be sufficiently thorough to wipe out political structures and worship practices (“without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods”; v. 4).

Promise of Faithfulness

Soon after Hosea prophesied, Israel was ravaged, destroyed, and carried off to Assyria (2 Kings 18:9–12). But this was not to be the end for God’s people in the land, as a return is promised (Hos. 3:5), which was fulfilled when exiled Judah returned from Babylonian captivity to “seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and . . . come in fear to the Lord.” This word for “fear” usually implies dread or terror: Israel will have learned that the Lord truly does deal with sin harshly. Of course, this prophecy does not refer to the literal king David; instead, it looks to the hope for an anointed king sitting rightfully on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Those estranged both from Yahweh and from his established king will seek them out and find well-being in a renewed relationship with their God.

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