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Book 28 of 39 · Minor Prophets

Hosea

The Complete Story13:05

Overview

Hosea is the first of the Twelve Minor Prophets and the only one of the writing prophets who came from the northern kingdom of Israel. He prophesied "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" (1:1), roughly 755–715 BC. He began under Jeroboam II, when Israel was wealthy and its worship had decayed. He kept preaching through the collapse that followed, when six kings ruled in about twenty-five years, four of them assassinated, and Assyria pressed closer until Samaria fell in 722 BC.

The book's central image is a marriage. Hosea's love for his unfaithful wife Gomer pictures the LORD's love for an Israel that keeps running after Baal and seeking safety in foreign alliances. The book has two parts. Chapters 1–3 tell the story of the marriage and what it means. Chapters 4–14 are collected oracles that move back and forth between accusation, judgement and deeply tender promises of restoration. Its Hebrew is famously compressed and difficult, and some details are debated. Interpreters also disagree about whether Gomer was already unfaithful when Hosea married her.

Part 1 — Hosea's Marriage (chapters 1–3)

The command and the children (1). God tells Hosea, "Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms… for the land hath committed great whoredom." Hosea marries Gomer daughter of Diblaim. Their first son is named Jezreel, because God will punish the dynasty of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel (see 2 Kings 9–10). A daughter is named Lo-ruhamah, "not pitied", and another son Lo-ammi, "not my people". Then the chapter reverses suddenly. Israel will be as countless as the sand of the sea, and "ye are the sons of the living God" (1:10).

The unfaithful wife (2). Israel is pictured as a wife chasing lovers, the Baals, and thanking them for her bread, wool, flax and wine. "She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil" (2:8). God will strip away her harvests and festivals. Then the tone turns: "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." The Valley of Achor ("trouble", recalling Joshua 7) will become "a door of hope". She will call God "Ishi" (my husband) and no longer "Baali". God promises, "I will betroth thee unto me for ever… in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies… in faithfulness" (2:19–20). The children's names are reversed: "I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people."

Love redeemed (3). Hosea is told to love again a woman who has committed adultery, "according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel". He buys her back for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley, and she is to wait many days. In the same way Israel will live "many days without a king… and without an ephod", and afterwards "return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king".

Part 2 — The Lord's Case Against Israel (chapters 4–7)

The charge (4). "The LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God." Swearing, lying, killing, stealing and adultery spread, and the land mourns. The priests are especially to blame: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… like people, like priest." People consult wooden idols and sacrifice under oaks and poplars, and "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone."

Sickness and false cures (5). Priests, people and king are all caught in the judgement. When Ephraim sees its sickness it runs to Assyria, but the great king "could not heal you". God will be "as a lion unto Ephraim" and will withdraw "till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face".

Shallow repentance (6). The people sing, "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us… after two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up." God answers that their goodness is "as a morning cloud, and as the early dew". Then comes the key verse: "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (6:6). Jesus quotes it in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7.

Palace intrigue (7). The court is "as an oven", heated by conspiracies, and "all their kings are fallen". Ephraim is "a cake not turned" and "a silly dove without heart", turning to Egypt and then to Assyria and never to God.

Part 3 — Reaping the Whirlwind (chapters 8–10)

Kings and calves (8). "They have set up kings, but not by me." The calf of Samaria is the work of a craftsman and "shall be broken in pieces". "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (8:7). Israel hires lovers among the nations and multiplies altars for sinning.

Exile foretold (9). Harvest festivals will bring no joy. "Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria." The people dismiss the prophet: "the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad." God remembers that he once found Israel "like grapes in the wilderness", but they gave themselves to Baal-peor.

The luxuriant vine (10). The more fruit Israel bore, the more altars it built. Its king will be cut off "as the foam upon the water", and its people will say to the mountains, "Cover us." The call still stands: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD" (10:12).

Part 4 — Love That Will Not Let Go (chapters 11–14)

The father's heart (11). "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (11:1, applied to Jesus in Matthew 2:15). God taught Ephraim to walk and drew them "with cords of a man, with bands of love". Judgement is deserved, yet God cries out: "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?… mine heart is turned within me… for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee" (11:8–9).

Jacob's example (12). Ephraim feeds on wind and keeps "the balances of deceit". Hosea recalls Jacob, who grasped his brother's heel, wrestled with the angel, "wept, and made supplication", and met God at Bethel. "Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually."

Death and the grave (13). Ephraim was once exalted but now makes silver idols and says, "Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." They will vanish like morning cloud, dew, chaff and smoke. God, who knew them in the wilderness, will meet them like a lion, a leopard and a bear robbed of her cubs. Yet he also says: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave… O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction" (13:14, echoed in 1 Corinthians 15:55). The chapter ends with Samaria's fall, which history records in 722 BC.

The final call (14). "O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God… Take with you words." The people are given a prayer of repentance: Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses, "neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." God answers: "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely… I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon."

Key themes, and the bridge to Joel

  • Covenant as marriage. Idolatry is adultery, and God is the wronged husband who still pursues his wife and buys her back.
  • Knowing God. The Hebrew da'at Elohim, "knowledge of God", means faithful relationship, not information. Its absence is Israel's root sin.
  • Hesed. Steadfast covenant love is what God gives and what he asks for: "mercy, and not sacrifice".
  • False security. Kings, calves, Egypt and Assyria cannot save. Trusting them is sowing the wind.
  • Judgement and hope together. The children's names are reversed, Achor becomes a door of hope, and even death is defied.

The book ends with a word to the wise reader: "the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein" (14:9). Israel's exile is coming, but the call to return is left open. Joel comes next. It is a short, undated book whose locust plague and "day of the LORD" carry the same summons, "rend your heart, and not your garments", together with the promise of God's Spirit poured out on all people.