THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HOSEA
Most Holy Lord God,
You used the
institution of marriage as an example of the covenant union between Israel and
Yahweh, the Bride and her Divine Bridegroom. Therefore, You sent Your holy
prophet Hosea to offer the pattern of his married life to Your covenant people
as an example of the shame of their apostasy. The people had to accept that the
fruitful core of their covenant relationship with You was a twofold love "God's love
for His covenant people and their reciprocal love. Send Your Holy Spirit, Lord,
to help Your people on this side of salvation history understand that the
obligation to demonstrate that twofold love by faithful obedience to Christ's
Law of love of God and neighbor is as important in our lives as it was in Hosea's
time. Lord Jesus, please guide us in our study. We pray in the name of God the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
+ + +
Covenant love is
mutual; it distinguishes a relationship of reciprocity. On God's side lies an obligation
to fulfill the oath he swore to the Patriarchs, to grant their descendants the
promised land, and be their God. Israel, for her part, is to realize her love
in the form of observance of her master's stipulations, the mitsvot, for
they are the words of the language of love, the fit medium in which to respond
to the passionate advances of the divine suzerain. It is not a question of law
or love, but law conceived in love, love expressed in law.
Sion & Zion, Jon D. Levenson, page 76
All Biblical passages are from the New Jerusalem Bible translation. The New Jerusalem Bible uses God's holy covenant name, Yahweh, as written in the original Hebrew text. Most modern English translations substitute the Divine Name of God with the word LORD. CCC is the abbreviation for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and NABRE is the abbreviation for the New American Bible Revised Edition.
INTRODUCTION
The Book of Hosea is the first book in the collection of Old Testament books known as the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Neve'im of the Jewish Tanakh, probably because the book's setting is one of the earliest among the Twelve Minor Prophets. It also appears first in Minor Prophets in the New Jerusalem Bible, but in other translations, it comes after the Book of Amos and before the Book of Joel. Hosea is one of the most extensive narratives of the Minor Prophets and has numerous Christological references. The prophet's Hebrew name (Hose'a) may be an abbreviation of "Yahweh saves." Hosea, a native of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, dates his oracle to the 8th -century BC in Hosea 1:1.
Biblical scholars and historians give Hosea credit for introducing the marriage metaphor because his book is the earliest Biblical text in which it is expressed in a prophetic book. It will become one of the four recurring images of the Old Testament prophets (see the chart in the handout). Through the prophet Hosea, Yahweh introduced a change in how the covenant people understood their relationship to Him as the God of Israel. In the Torah (Pentateuch = first five books of Moses) and the Psalms, God was seen as the omnipotent king and Israel as His faithful vassal people. God used Hosea to present a much more personal relationship metaphor.
Previously, God was seen as an omnipotent divine king, but through Hosea, Yahweh described the human relationship with the divine as a marriage, using Hosea's difficulties with his adulterous wife as an example of what could go wrong and how it could be made right again. In this way, Yahweh helped His covenant people realize that He was a God with whom they could experience the deep bond of covenant love and trust and how their unfaithfulness resulted in the pain of betrayal resulting in divine judgment. However, God promised that the people's repentance would ultimately result in forgiveness and restoration. The prophet Ezekiel used the same imagery a century later (chapter 16).
Using his marriage as a metaphor, Hosea helped the Israelites to understand the depth of their relationship with Yahweh was like the beauty of marital love. Despite their unfaithfulness, resulting in betrayal and heartbreak, Yahweh also instructed Hosea to offer the hope that forgiveness and reconciliation were what He wanted for His people. Our modern concept of the state of marriage as a union between equals does not work for Hosea's metaphor. The book must be viewed in the context of how marriage was understood in ancient times. According to the customs of the times, the husband and wife of Hosea's metaphor are not equals. Husbands held power over their wives, who were expected to be obedient and submissive.
The Author
As is the case in all the canonical books, the author is God but the inspired writer names himself Hosea son of Beeri. One of the twelve latter prophets, Hosea was a native of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos, Jonah, and Micah.1 His ministry began during the reign of King Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 14:23-29) and Uzziah, king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Hosea condemned the Northern Kingdom's unfaithfulness to Yahweh, her loving Spouse, writing: But like a woman betraying her lover, House of Israel, you have betrayed me, Yahweh declares (Hosea 3:20).
Date of Composition and Setting
Hosea was a citizen of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. According to Hosea, he delivered his message to Israel in the late eighth century BC, just before the apostate Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the conquering Neo-Assyrians in 722/21 BC.2 The book begins by setting the time frame: The word of Yahweh which came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel (Hosea 1:1). Missing from the list are the names of the Northern Kingdom kings who reigned between Uzziah and Hezekiah except for King Jeroboam II.
The book is set in the last period of the political strength of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th-century BC, just before its destruction by the Assyrians and the deportation of its people into Assyrian lands (2 Kng 17:1-23). While the threat from the Assyrian invasion is present in the background, the book focuses on the covenant failures of Israel, which it evaluates and condemns as one of apostasy, social disintegration, wrong leadership, failed alliances, and foremost, a period in which knowledge of and reverence for Yahweh are lacking. Hosea's oracles probably began during the last years of Jeroboam II (783-743 BC). The tribute of Menahem of Israel to the Assyrians in 738 BC and other relations with Assyria is probably referred to in Hosea 5:13; 7:11f; 8:9; 10:5f and 12:2. Biblical scholars suggest his oracles ended in 725 BC, just before the final siege of the Samaria, the Northern Kingdom's capital, since there is no reference to the final fall of Samaria to the Assyrians in 722 BC.
See the chart below for a list of the kings who ruled during Hosea's prophetic ministry. Dates may vary according to the source. The dates below are from the New Jerusalem Bible. Names in bold type are listed in Hosea 1:1.
|
Kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah during Hosea's Ministry (all kings are descendants of David) |
Kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during Hosea's Ministry |
| Uzziah son of King Amaziah, reigned 781-740 BC. | Jeroboam II son of King Joash, reigned 783-743 BC.* |
| Zechariah son of King Jeroboam II, reigned for six months in 743 BC. | |
| Shallum, son of Jabesh ruled for one month in 743 BC. | |
| Jotham son of King Uzziah, reigned 740-736 BC. | Menahem son of Gadi, reigned from 743-738 BC. |
| Ahaz son of King Jotham, reigned 736-716 BC. | Pekahiah son of king Menahem, reigned 738-737 BC. |
| Pekah son of Remaliah, reigned 737-732 BC. | |
| Hezekiah son of King Ahaz, reigned 716-687 BC. | Hoshea son of Elah, reigned 732-724 BC. |
*Jeroboam II became the king of Israel in the 15th year of Amaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 14:23). He was responsible for the religious separation from the Jerusalem Temple and the Northern Kingdom's apostasy from the Sinai Covenant.
The setting for Hosea's ministry is the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Although he writes that his ministry began under Jeroboam II and continued through the reigns of his unnamed successors, the Book of Hosea does not mention the fall of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, in 722/21 BC. It was a terrible period for the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel with the advance of the victorious armies of the Assyrians through the northern section of the kingdom (734-732 BC), internal rebellions, four kings assassinated in fifteen years, and the increasing religious apostasy and moral corruption of the people.
| Important Dates and Events Relating to Hosea's Ministry and Prophecies |
| 930 BC ~ After King Solomon's death, his kingdom was divided into two states: the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (with Jerusalem as its capital). |
| 783 BC ~ Jeroboam II became king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. |
| 781 BC ~ Uzziah became king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. |
| 743 ~ Zechariah son of King Jeroboam II, reigned for six months before being assassinated. Shallum, son of Jabesh ruled for one month and was assassinated. Then in the same year, Menahem son of Gadi became king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. |
| 740 ~ Jotham became king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. |
| 738 ~ Pekahiah son of king Menahem became king of the Northern Kingdom. |
| 737 ~ Pekah son of Remaliah became king of the Northern Kingdom. |
| 736 ~ Ahaz became king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. |
| 732 BC ~ Hoshea son of Elah became king of the Northern Kingdom. Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser conquered and annexed the northern parts of the Southern Kingdom of Israel. |
| 727 BC ~ Shalmaneser V became king of Assyria. Hezekiah became king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. For two decades, Judah remained an ally of Assyria. |
| 722 BC ~ Shalmaneser V died while besieging Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. His successor, Sargon II, conquered, annexed the Northern Kingdom's territory, and exiled the people. Hosea's ministry ended just before these events. |
| 716 ~ Hezekiah became king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. |
| 705 BC ~ King Sargon of Assyria died, sparking hope throughout the empire that Assyrian power would diminish. His son, Sennacherib ascended the throne of Assyria. |
| 701 BC ~ King Hezekiah of the Southern Kingdom of Judah revolted against Assyrian domination, prompting Sennacherib to attack Judah. Jerusalem, Lachish, and 44 other cities were besieged, but Jerusalem was spared after King Hezekiah paid tribute to the Assyrians. |
| 701-688 BC ~ King Hezekiah built a second city wall and tunnel to better protect Jerusalem and its water supply from future Assyrian attacks. |
| 694 BC ~ King Sennacherib of Assyria completed his new palace at Nineveh, including reliefs commemorating his 701 BC siege of Lachish. |
| 690 BC ~ Tirhakah became pharaoh of Ethiopia and Egypt and an ally of King Hezekiah against the Assyrians. |
| 688 BC ~ Assyrian King Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem again. This time the city withstood his siege because God struck his army with a plague, and he withdrew back to Assyria. |
| 686 BC ~ King Hezekiah of Judah died. |
| 681 BC ~ King Sennacherib was murdered by his sons. |
Some dates may vary according to the source. Events are from the Biblical record and the Assyrian and Egyptian annals.
The Theme of the Book
Yahweh told Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer, whom he loves but is continually unfaithful to him. Despite her numerous acts of adultery, Hosea's love for his wife remains. The prophet's painful experience of love and betrayal symbolized Yahweh's relationship with His covenant people. Hosea is aware of this symbolism. He tested his wife to see if she repented her former immoral acts, and then he was ready to take her back. Israel, the bride of Yahweh, also became a faithless adulteress. Adultery was a recurring symbol of Israel's apostasy in the act of running after false gods. Israel, the unfaithful wife, aroused the wrath and jealousy of her divine husband, Yahweh, yet His love for her remained like Hosea's love for his adulterous wife. Yahweh would punish Israel for her sins, but only to bring her back to repentance and to promise to restore her to the joys of their first love.
What makes the Book of Hosea unique is the marriage symbolism and the fiery passion of that imagery. The underlying theme of Hosea's preaching was Yahweh's divine covenant love, which was misunderstood and unappreciated by the people on whom it was so wholly lavished. Hosea's relationship with Gomer is an example of what went wrong in Israel's relationship with Yahweh. In this way, the prophet intended to help his hearers realize that even though Yahweh is their God, He is also the one with whom a positive relationship of love and trust is expected. However, it could also become a relationship of pain and betrayal. Even so, forgiveness and a return to love were possible. Israel's relationship with Yahweh and the Christian's relationship with the Most Holy Trinity continues to be one based on love and fidelity. For Israel, that kind of personal relationship with a deity was unique among the people in the ancient world.
The Format of the Book
Bible scholars consider the Book of Hosea one of the most difficult Old Testament texts to interpret and translate. This is because the text includes so many rare words that are unique grammatically in their constructions and ambiguous in their poetic phrases. The book begins with an introduction that sets the time frame of Hosea's ministry in the superscription (Hosea 1:1) and a conclusion that contains the key to the book's interpretation (Hosea 14:10). The rest of the work is presented in two main sections followed by the conclusion. Our translation in the Hosea study is from the New Jerusalem Bible, which uses the same verse numbering as the verses in the Jewish Masoretic text. Other translations may use a slightly different verse numbering.
Part One: Hosea's Failed Marriage (Hosea 1:1-3:5)
Part Two: The Sins and Punishment of Israel (Hosea 4:1-14:9)
The first three chapters are devoted to the problematic relationship between Hosea and his unfaithful wife, offering an analogy between Yahweh and the rebellious covenant people of Israel. The first chapter is written as a third-person biographical account. God commands Hosea to marry a woman who does not comply with the covenant's standards of sexual purity. It is a standard that is unique to the members of the Sinai Covenant and not found in any other expression of religion in antiquity. According to the text, the prophet obediently complies and marries a sexually active woman named Gomer. Gomer is a central character in the first three chapters, which is the only time her name is mentioned in the entire book.
Chapter 2 is presented in a poetic discourse by Yahweh. He speaks metaphorically as a husband addressing first his children about their unfaithful mother and then other people about his wife and their children. The entire discourse is about God describing his relationship with Israel. He tells His children that He will deal harshly with their mother if her "whoring" does not stop, and their relationship with her will be over. He also asks His children to plead with their mother to change her ways before He must punish her (Hosea 2:2-3).
In chapter 3, Hosea provides his first-person account of the story. Like the poem in chapter 2, he also uses Gomer's adultery as a metaphor for idolatry. Hosea reports Yahweh's instructions to him to "love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes," the sacrificial offering to a pagan god (Hosea 3:1). The rest of the book (chapters 4-14) is a collection of oracles that focus on Israel's apostasy, Yahweh's patience, and His promises of future restoration.
Summary Outline of the Book of the Prophet Hosea
| Biblical Period | #7 THE DIVIDED KINGDOMS | ||||
| Covenant | The Sinai Covenant & the Davidic Covenant | ||||
| Focus | Hosea is a faithful husband to an adulterous/unfaithful wife | Yahweh is faithful to an adulterous/unfaithful people | |||
| Scripture | 1:1-----------------2:1---------------------4:1-------------------6:4-----------11:1---------14:9 | ||||
| Division | Hosea is commanded to marry a harlot | Israel's coming punishment and promised restoration | Covenant lawsuit: the crimes of Israel and her leaders | Refusal to repent and judgment | The promise of future restoration |
| Topic | The prophet's marriage and its symbolic lesson | Israel's guilt, punishment, and promise of future restoration | |||
| Hosea's personal history | Israel's national history | ||||
| Location | Northern Kingdom of Israel | ||||
| Time | 750-722 BC | ||||
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Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2022 |
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Questions for reflection or group discussion:
Question 1: What differences do you notice in the list
of the kings of Israel and Judah between 781 and 687 BC? What does this suggest?
See the handout comparing the kings of Judah and Israel.
Question 2: Kings Saul, David, and Solomon ruled a united monarchy of Israel. What happened to cause the United Kingdom to split into two rival kingdoms after Solomon's death? See 1 Kings 11:43-12:33.
Question: What warning did God's prophet give Jeroboam I of the Northern Kingdom concerning his false shrine at Bethel? What kind of worship was established in the Northern Kingdom? See 1 Kings 13:1-10.
Question: What promises did God make concerning His covenant with David? 2 Samuel 7:11b-16; 23:5; 2 Chronicles 13:5; Sirach 45:25; 47:11/13
Endnotes:
1. Hosea's ministry was during the reigns of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah. Amos's ministry was during the time
of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II of Israel. Micah's ministry was
during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah and the parallel
reigns of the kings of the Northern Kingdom. Jonah's mission was slightly earlier
during the reign of King Joash of Judah and continued during the reign of King Jeroboam
II of the Northern Kingdom of Israel when Hosea was active. See the chart of
the kings of Judah and Israel in the lesson for the handout.
2. The Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the old Assyrian Empire. The original Assyrian Empire established one of the first great empires of the ancient world, but after a period of decline, it reached its zenith as the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the days of the Divided Monarchy of Israel and Judah. It began with the accession of King Adad-nirari II in 911 BC and grew to dominate the ancient Near East throughout much of the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Assyria became the largest empire in history up to that point.
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.