Book of Hosea

The Book of Hosea (Hebrew: ‫ ֵספֶר הֹוֵׁש ַע‬, romanized: Sēfer Hōšēaʿ) is collected as one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi’im
(“Prophets”) in the Tanakh, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. According to the traditional order of most
Hebrew Bibles, it is the first of the Twelve.

Set around the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Book of Hosea denounces the worship of gods other than Yahweh (the
God of Israel), metaphorically comparing Israel’s abandonment of Yahweh to a woman being unfaithful to her husband. According to
the book’s narrative, the relationship between Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer is comparable to the relationship between
Yahweh and his unfaithful people Israel. The eventual reconciliation of Hosea and Gomer is treated as a hopeful metaphor for the
eventual reconciliation between Yahweh and Israel.

Dated to c. 760–720 BC, it is one of the oldest books of the Tanakh, predating final recensions of the full Torah (Pentateuch).[1]
Hosea is the source of the phrase “reap the whirlwind”, which has passed into common usage in English and other languages.

Background

Hosea prophesied during a dark and melancholic era of Israel’s history, the period of the Northern Kingdom’s decline and fall in the
8th century BC. According to the book, the apostasy of the people was rampant, having turned away from God in order to serve both
the calves of Jeroboam[2] and Baal, a Canaanite god.[3]

The Book of Hosea says that, during Hosea’s lifetime, the kings of the Northern Kingdom, their aristocratic supporters, and the
priests had led the people away from the Law of God, as given in the Pentateuch. It says that they forsook the worship of God; they
worshiped other gods, especially Baal, the Canaanite storm god, and Asherah, a Canaanite fertility goddess. Other sins followed, says
the Book, including homicide, perjury, theft, and sexual sin.[4] Hosea declares that unless they repent of these sins, God will allow
their nation to be destroyed, and the people will be taken into captivity by Assyria,[5] the greatest nation of the time.

The prophecy of Hosea centers on God’s unending love towards a sinful Israel. In this text, God’s agony is expressed over His
betrayal by Israel.[6][7][8] Stephen Cook asserts that the prophetic efforts of this book can be summed up in this passage “I have
been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior”.[9] Hosea’s job
was to speak these words during a time when they had been essentially forgotten.[3

Summary

The Book of Hosea contains a number of YHWH prophecies and messages for both Judah and Northern Israel (Samaria). These are
delivered by the prophet Hosea.

General outline

A brief outline of the concepts presented in the Book of Hosea exist below:

Chapters 1–2; Account of Hosea’s marriage with Gomer biographically which is a metaphor for the relationship with YHWH and
Israel.

Chapter 3; Account of Hosea’s marriage autobiographically. This is possibly a marriage to different women

Chapters 4–14:9/14:10; Oracle judging Israel, Ephraim in particular, for not living up to the covenant.

No further breakdown of ideas is clear in 4–14:9/14:10.[10] Following this, the prophecy is made that someday this will all be
changed, that God will indeed have pity on Israel.

Chapter two describes a divorce. This divorce seems to be the end of the covenant between God and the Northern Kingdom.
However, it is probable that this was again a symbolic act, in which Hosea divorced Gomer for infidelity, and used the occasion to
preach the message of God’s rejection of the Northern Kingdom. He ends this prophecy with the declaration that God will one day
renew the covenant, and will take Israel back in love.

In Chapter three, at God’s command, Hosea seeks out Gomer once more. Either she has sold herself into slavery for debt, or she is
with a lover who demands money in order to give her up, because Hosea has to buy her back. He takes her home, but refrains from
sexual intimacy with her for many days, to symbolize the fact that Israel will be without a king for many years, but that God will take
Israel back, even at a cost to Himself.

Chapters 4–14 spell out the allegory at length. Chapters 1–3 speaks of Hosea’s family, and the issues with Gomer. Chapters 4–10
contain a series of oracles, or prophetic sermons, showing exactly why God is rejecting the Northern Kingdom (what the grounds are
for the divorce). Chapter 11 is God’s lament over the necessity of giving up the Northern Kingdom, which is a large part of the people
of Israel, whom God loves. God promises not to give them up entirely. Then, in Chapter 12, the prophet pleads for Israel’s
repentance. Chapter 13 foretells the destruction of the kingdom at the hands of Assyria, because there has been no repentance. In
Chapter 14, the prophet urges Israel to seek forgiveness, and promises its restoration, while urging the utmost fidelity to God.

Matthew 2:13 cites Hosea’s prophecy in Hosea 11:1 that God would call His Son out of Egypt as foretelling the flight into Egypt and
return to Israel of Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus.[11]

In Luke 23:30, Jesus referenced Hosea 10:8 when he said “Then they will begin to say to the mountains ‘Cover us” and to the hills,
‘Fall on us.’ (NRSV) The quote is also echoed in Revelation 6:16.

The capital of the Northern Kingdom fell in 722 BC. All the members of the upper classes and many of the ordinary people were
taken captive and carried off to live as prisoners of war.

A summary of Hosea’s Story

First, Hosea was directed by God to marry a promiscuous woman of ill-repute, and he did so. Marriage here is symbolic of the
covenantal relationship between God and Israel. However, Israel has been unfaithful to God by following other gods and breaking
the commandments which are the terms of the covenant, hence Israel is symbolized by a harlot who violates the obligations of
marriage to her husband.

Second, Hosea and his wife, Gomer, have a son. God commands that the son be named Jezreel. This name refers to a valley in which
much blood had been shed in Israel’s history, especially by the kings of the Northern Kingdom.[12] The naming of this son was to
stand as a prophecy against the reigning house of the Northern Kingdom, that they would pay for that bloodshed. Jezreel’s name
means God Sows.

Third, the couple have a daughter. God commands that she be named Lo-ruhamah; Unloved, or, Pity or Pitied On to show Israel that,
although God will still have pity on the Southern Kingdom, God will no longer have pity on the Northern Kingdom; its destruction is
imminent. In the NIV translation, the omitting of the word “him” leads to speculation as to whether Lo-Ruhamah was the daughter
of Hosea or one of Gomer’s lovers. James Mays, however, says that the failure to mention Hosea’s paternity is “hardly an
implication” of Gomer’s adultery.

Fourth, a son is born to Gomer. It is questionable whether this child was Hosea’s, for God commands that his name be Lo-ammi,
meaning “not my people”. The child bore this name of shame to show that the Northern Kingdom would also be shamed, for its
people would no longer be known as God’s People. In other words, the Northern Kingdom had been rejected by God.

Interpretation and context

In Hosea 2, the woman in the marriage metaphor could be Hosea’s wife Gomer, or could be referring to the nation of Israel, invoking
the metaphor of Israel as God’s bride. The woman is not portrayed in a positive light. This is reflected throughout the beginning of
Hosea 2. “I will strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born”[14] “Upon her children I will have no pity, because they
are children of whoredom”.[15] “For she said, I will go after my lovers…”[16]

Biblical scholar Ehud Ben Zvi reminds readers of the socio-historical context in which Hosea was composed. In his article
Observations on the marital metaphor of YHWH and Israel in its ancient Israelite context: general considerations and particular
images in Hosea 1.2, Ben Zvi describes the role of the Gomer in the marriage metaphor as one of the “central attributes of the
ideological image of a human marriage that was shared by the male authorship and the primary and intended male readership as
building blocks for their imagining of the relationship.”[17]
Tristanne J. Connolly makes a similar observation, stating that the husband-wife motif reflects marriage as it was understood at the
time.[18] Connolly also suggests that in context the marriage metaphor was necessary in that it truly exemplified the unequal
interaction between Yahweh and the people Israel.[19] Biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan describes the importance of
understanding the covenant in relation to interpreting Hosea. According to Coogan, Hosea falls under a unique genre called
“covenant lawsuit” where God accuses Israel of breaking their previously made agreement. God’s disappointment towards Israel is
therefore expressed through the broken marriage covenant made between husband and wife.[20]

Brad E. Kelle has referred to ‘many scholars’ finding references to cultic sexual practices in the worship of Baal, in Hosea 2, to be
evidence of an historical situation in which Israelites were either giving up Yahweh worship for Baal, or blending the two. Hosea’s
references to sexual acts being metaphors for Israelite ‘apostasy’.[21]

Hosea 13:1–3 describes how the Israelites are abandoning Yahweh for the worship of Baal, and accuses them of making or using
molten images for ‘idol’ worship. Chief among these was the image of the bull at the northern shrine of Bethel, which by the time of
Hosea was being worshipped as an image of Baal.[22]

Contribution

Hosea is a prophet whom God uses to portray a message of repentance to God’s people. Through Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, God,
also known as Yahweh, shows his great love for his people, comparing himself to a husband whose wife has committed adultery. It a
metaphor of the covenant between God and Israel, and he influenced latter prophets such as Jeremiah. He is among the first writing
prophets, and the last chapter of Hosea has a format similar to wisdom literature.

Like Amos, Hosea elevated the religion of Israel to the altitude of ethical monotheism, being the first to emphasize the moral side of
God’s nature. Israel’s faithlessness, which resisted all warnings, compelled Him to punish the people because of His own holiness.
Hosea considers infidelity as the chief sin, of which Israel, the adulterous wife, has been guilty against her loving husband, God.
Against this he sets the unquenchable love of God, who, in spite of this infidelity, does not cast Israel away forever, but will take His
people unto Himself again after the judgment.

Are you a Gomer? The story of Hosea and Gomer has to be one of the greatest pictures of God’s love and faithfulness found
throughout the Bible. Hosea was an Old Testament prophet that God used in a very unique way. Not only did Hosea speak the words
of God, but God turned his very life and marriage into a living parable for the people of God to see and witness.

The Lord had Hosea marry a prostitute named Gomer. He took her as his wife, but Gomer kept wandering into the arms of other
lovers. She was unfaithful. And yet the Lord told Hosea to keep going after her again and again, and bring her back home.

Hosea was a picture of God, and Gomer represented God’s people. God’s people were called to live in a covenant relationship with
the Lord. He was their God and they were to have no other gods in their life. They consistently rebelled against God though and
chased after other idols. Their history was full of unfaithfulness.

Instead of just telling Israel how sinful they were and how determined God was to love them anyway, God had Hosea and Gomer
serve as a dramatic illustration. So Gomer kept cheating on Hosea. She left him with the kids and went out into the arms of other
lovers — turning her back on him, spurning him, and committing adultery again and again.
You would think love would have its limits. I do not think anyone would have looked down on Hosea for bailing out on his marriage.
The Lord had Hosea stay in that marriage though. He wouldn’t let him go. Why? Hosea was to be a picture of God’s amazing love and
faithfulness to a group of people who often did not return God’s faithfulness.

Even when God’s people turn their backs on Him and run to the world to indulge their pleasure, God’s love doesn’t quit. He doesn’t
give up. He doesn’t look for an out. He still pursues us. How can we even begin to describe a love that is so deep that it would pursue
and illicit fornicator and adultery. And yet this is what God told Hosea to do:

“The Lord said to (Hosea), ‘Go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as
the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.’ So I bought her for fifteen shekels of
silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, ‘You are to live with me many days, you must not be a prostitute or
be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.’” (Hosea 3:1-3)

Do you see what Hosea did to gain his wife back? He had to go and purchase her back. He had to pay what was called a redemption
price to bring his own wayward wife home. Gomer, playing the part of unfaithful Israel was redeemed by the relentless love of her
husband.

You should never forget that this is a picture of the love of God for you. You are a Gomer. I am a Gomer! God paid the most precious
and costly price to redeem you from a life of sin and idolatry. We wander from God, and yet He has come to buy us back. The worst
mistake we could ever make is to deny the love of God. Our hearts should not remain hard like a stone when we hear the story of
God’s love. We should hear of a God who loves and pursues like this, and our hearts should be moved to love Him back.

The truth is that we are a bunch of Gomers who chase the world. And yet our God has a love greater than that of Hosea who will
woo and pursue to bring us back to Himself. And that’s the Word.