The Divine Lamp

Please Vote For This Post On Pickafig

Introduction and Outline
Note: Unless otherwise noted I will be using my own translation of Hosea. This translation should in no way be considered authoritative. It is done by me as a personal exercise. For this reason I also provide links to the RSV. Please also note that some translations of Hosea employ different chapter and verse divisions. I’ll be following the RSV numbering.

My last post on Hosea looked at 1:2-2:1 as a structural unit. Here it should be noted that there are very good reasons for not connecting 2:1 with the verses which precede it, but, rather, with those that follow. For this reason I will look again at 2:1, now in the context of 2:1-3:5. First, however, let me try to outline the passage.

2:1-2 A call to the children to plead (contend) with their mother.

• 2:3-4 Purpose of the plea.

1. So their mother can avoid punishment (vs 3)

2. So the children can avoid punishment (vs 4).

2:5 Reason for the plea being needed

2:6-23 Consequences if the plea is not heeded

• She will be blocked from pursuing the Baals (Vss 6-8)
• The blessings she thought were from the Baals will be removed (Vss 9-13)
• Ultimate consequence and purpose of the previous 2 consequences-reunion with God (Vss 14-23)

1. God will seduce her (vss 14-15)

2. She will respond and be blessed (vss 16-20)

3. God’s relation to the children will be restored (vss 21-23)

3:1-5 Explains the purpose of Hosea’s marriage and its troubles. They symbolize God’s relation with Israel

(Note: As you read through the first three chapters of Hosea, it is important to keep in mind that both the mother and the children are figures which symbolize-each in its own way-the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel; or, perhaps, the mother is meant to symbolize the priestly and political authorities, while the children symbolize the average Israelite)

NOTES ON HOSEA 2:1-3:5
2:1 To your brothers say, “Ammi,” and to your sisters say, “Ruhamah.” (note the plural “brothers/sisters”)
In chapter one we saw that 3 children were born to the prophet’s wife. One was clearly fathered by the prophet, while the other two were probably not his. Their dubious status was indicated by the names given them. The son was named Lo Ammi, meaning not my people; while the daughter was named Lo Ruhamah, meaning not pitied. These were individual children of the prophet’s wife, but they were given plural names. Here, it appears that the legitimate son is being told to reverse the names of his bastard siblings by dropping the prefix “Lo” from their names, for Ammi means, my people, and Ruhamah means pitied. The plural names of the illegitimate children, coupled with the use of the plural “brothers” and “sisters” suggest that, while the text appears to be dealing with prophets situation, it is symbolic of something else. As will become clear, the text is really about God’s relation with his wife Israel (the priestly and political authorities ?), and his children, the rank and file of the kingdom. I would suggest that perhaps we are to see the legitimate child, symbolized by Jezreel (see1:4), as a righteous Israelite, who is being told to make his bastard siblings (unrighteous Israelites) legitimate by seeking to make their mother (the powers in the kingdom) an honest woman. Thus Jezreel is told to say to his siblings:

2:2 Contend with your mother, contend-for she is not my wife, and neither am I her husband-that she may put aside the whoring that is on her face, and the adultery that is on her breasts, 2:3 or I will strip her naked, exhibiting her as on the day of her birth, and transform her into a desert, turn her into a drought-plagued land, and slay her with thirst.
2:4 To her children I will show no pity, for they are the children of harlotry.

If the unrighteous Israelites (vs 1) want to get themselves right with God they must confront the “powers that be” in mother Israel (vs 2). Jeroboam I, the first king of the breakaway northern kingdom of Israel, usurped the temple in Jerusalem by establishing temples of his own. He likewise established a priesthood not in accord with the law of Moses. No king in the entire history of the Northern Kingdom ever attempted to rectify this, and by and large the people accepted it. This became the “original sin” of Israel, and it soon led to other sins, such as the worship of Baal; something Hosea is very much concerned with.

In calling the unrighteous Israelites to contend with their mother, the prophet is calling them to repent of the false worship which they were engaging in and which had been instituted by the political and religious authorities in the kingdom. This would save both the kingdom and themselves. The verb contend (ribu) was not lightly chosen by the prophet. This masculine plural imperative is derived from the Hebrew rib; a word often used to denote a lawsuit for covenant violations. The word is used a number of times in reference to God “contending” with his people (see Is 3:13-15; Mic 7:9).

that she may put aside the whoring that is on her face, and the adultery that is on her breasts- In ancient times it was common for an engaged or married woman to show what her status was by wearing jewelry. This often consisted of a nose ring (on her face), and/or a necklace which hung around her neck and rested on her breasts. Since the husband (God) wants to maintain and strengthen the relationship, it makes no sense for him to insist that these signs be taken off, unless they have (or, at least the wife thinks they have) come from her lovers (see vs 8).

and transform her into a desert, turn her into a drought-plagued land, and slay her with thirst- Moses had told the Chosen People as the stood on the plains of Moab about to enter the promised land, that if they obeyed the Lord and kept his covenant, he would bless them. Among the blessings we read: “The Lord will be abundant to you in goodness, in the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of the ground which the Lord swore to the fathers he would give to you. The Lord will open for you his rich treasures, the heavens, to put rain upon your land in its season, to bless the work of your hands” (Dt 28:11-12). But he also told them that if they did not obey the covenant, then blessings would turn to curses: The Lord will strike thee with consumption, fever, and inflammation; and with the scorching heat of drought, withering and mildew. These shall chase after you until you perish. The heavens above you shall become like brass, and the earth under your feet as iron. The Lord will put upon your land a rain of fine dust, only dust shall come upon you until you are destroyed (Dt 28:22-24). In the OT drought becomes one of the great signs of God’s displeasure with his people. Elijah was empowered to shut up the heavens so no rain fell on the Northern Kingdom of Israel (see 1 Kings 17:1-6). The prophet Amos, who also ministered to the Northern Kingdom, made it clear that drought was a sign of God’s anger: “The Lord roars from Zion, gives out his voice from Jerusalem: the pastures of the shepherds mourn, the top of Carmel withers (Am 1:2; see also Amos 4:6-10; and see my post on Amos 1:2)

2:4 To her children I will show no pity, for they are the children of harlotry.- Ample reason for the children to seek the reconciliation of their mother.

2:5 Reason for the plea being needed:

For your mother has gone a-whoring, the one who conceived you has acted shamefully. For she said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”

The goods the mother lists here are being attributed to her “lovers”, the Baals. Baal was a fertility and rain god who was thought to give the land its produce. The land was conceived of as his wife whom he impregnated by sending rain. Worship of Baal included sexual fertility rites, which apparently the prophets wife engaged in. But as noted, this is really about Israel. Notice that all the goods listed were basic necessities of life at this time. Notice too that all are the products of a fruitful land.

2:6-23 Consequences of the plea not being heeded

2:6-8 She will be blocked from pursuing her lovers, the Baals.

2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and surround her with a wall, so she cannot find her way. 2:7 Thus she shall go after her lovers, but not catch them; though she seeks them out, she will not find them. Then she will say, “I will go and turn back to my first husband, for I was better off then than now. 2:8 She did not know that I am the one who gave her.

In the Song of Songs the perspective bride is described in this fashion by her future groom: “A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.” (Sng 4:12 WEB Bible). This implies her fidelity. Later in the poem, her brothers say this concerning her: “We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build on her a turret of silver, if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar” (Sng 8:8-9). If she has walled herself in (i.e. been chaste) they will adorn her. But if she has been unchaste (an open door) they will curb her freedom, protecting her for the day of marriage. The girl goes on in verse 10 to say “I am a wall.”

The same could not be said by Israel in Hosea’s day, therefore God will hedge her way with thorns, and surround her with a wall. She will go after and seek out her lovers but will not find them. The list of goods that Israel thinks it is getting from her lovers (vs 5) were examples of covenant blessings, and she has just been threatened with covenant curses (vs 3). S.R. Driver, in his A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON DEUTERONOMY notes that when God promises the covenant blessings in Deut 28:2, the words have the sense that he will pursue his faithful people with these gifts, so desirous is he to give them. In contrast, Israel is here being portrayed as pursuing other gods (lovers) for these gifts. A nice rhetorical touch. The point of the Lord’s actions here are that she might turn back to her first husband. It is towards this end that the Lord will take away the gifts he has given her (vs 9).

2:9-13 The blessings she thought were from the Baals will be removed

2:9 Therefore do I turn back, and take away my grain in its season, along with the wine in its season; and I will take back my wool and my flax, which she used to cover her nakedness. 2:10 And now I will uncover her shame before the eyes of all her lovers, and no one shall deliver her out of my hand. 2:11 I will bring and end to all her joy, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, all her festival seasons. 2:12 I will make desolate her vines and her fig trees; the very things of which she said, “These are my hire, given me by my lovers.” I will turn them into a forest, and they will be consumed by the wild beasts. 2:13 I will chastise her for the feast days of the Baals, on which she offered incense to them, decking herself out with with rings and jewels to go after her lovers, and forgetting me, says the Lord.

Because Israel thinks that she has her gifts and blessings from the Baals (vs 8), God will turn back his desire to give them to her, so that she may turn back to him (vs 7). Her shame will be revealed when the gifts are taken away and it is realized that they did not come from her lovers. She will no longer find joy in the feast days and worship of the Baals. Notice the reference to rings and jewels in vs 13 (recall the note on vs 2).

take away my grain in its season, along with the wine in its season- The phrase “in its season” has a technical sense in the OT. It refers to the time of the harvest. When the grain and grapes were harvested, and the new wine made, the first fruits of these were to be sacrificed to the Lord as an recognition that they had come from him as a blessing. Apparently, since they were attributed to the blessings of Baal, they were being used to worship him. Also, an abundance of grain and wine were part of the blessings for covenant fidelity. The wife Israel is portrayed as thinking them part of her hire for her service to the Baals.

2:14-23 Ultimate consequence and purpose of the previous 2 consequences-reunion with God

2:14-15 God will seduce her

2:14 Therefore, behold, I will seduce her, and lead her back into the wilderness, speaking tenderly to her heart. 2:15 From that place her vineyards will be given to her, and I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And she will respond there as in the days of her youth, like the time she came up out of the land of Egypt.

If it is a lover Israel wants, it is a lover Israel will get! While most modern translations speak of God “alluring” her into the wilderness, the word used does have connotations of seduction (see Ex 22:15). God will out-seduce his wife seducers to win her back. The Exodus firmly established God’s relations with his people, therefore it is fitting that he lead her back into the wilderness to rekindle the romance. ‘Thus says Yahweh, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown” (Jer 2:2 WEB Bible). Vineyards will be offered as a sort of dowry.

I will make the valley of Achor a door of hope- This valley was the place where Achan as put to death for violating the ban in Joshua 7. When the Israelites conquered Jericho by the hand of the Lord they were supposed to put everything captured into the treasury of the Lord (Josh 6:18-19), but Achan held some things back, and as a result, he was put to death. The place became known as the valley (or plain) of Achor, which means “trouble” (Josh 7:16-26). Most scholars identify this valley as the modern day El Buqeath Valley in the Northern Judean wilderness. It lies between Hyrcania and Qumran on the Northeastern side of the Dead Sea, and it extends south to the Kidron Valley which runs along the base of the Mount of Olives, thus defining the eastern side of Jerusalem. In his book THE TWELVE PROPHETS Marvin Sweeney suggests that Hosea is hinting that God is here suggesting a reunion between the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, whose political and religious center was Jerusalem. Like Achan, the Northern Kingdom is robbing God of what rightfully belongs to him. This Valley of Achor (trouble) they find themselves in can lead to the Door of Hope, reunion with the more politically and religiously stable south.

2:16-20 She will respond and be blessed

2:16 It will come to pass on that day, says the Lord, you will call me “my husband,” and no longer will you call me “my Baal”. 2:17 And I will cause to turn aside the name of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be brought to mind no more. 2:18 For them I will make a covenant on that day with the wild beasts, the birds in the heavens, and the crawling things on the ground; I will remove the bow and the sword and the ones who do battle from the land; I will make you lie down in security. 2:19 And I will betroth you to myself for the ages; I will betroth you to myself in righteousness, and in justice, in love and in mercy. 2:20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.

The act of love on the part of God narrated in vss 14-15 will, it is hoped cause a reversal in Israel’s attitude towards the Lord.

you will call me “my husband,” and no longer will you call me “my Baal”- Their confusion about where their blessings and gifts come from will be ended. By attributing the gifts to the Baals who do not exist, they were in effect treating God as a Baal rather than a husband. The names and memories of the Baals will be brought to an end when God when God renews the covenant with them (vss 17-18). The land will not be given over to scavenging beasts, one of the covenant curses (vs 18). Warfare, one of the covenant curses, will also be abolished, thus the people will lie down in security (vs 18). They will come to know God as the source of their blessings (vs 20).

2:21-23 God’s relation with the children will be restored.

2:21 It will come to pass on that day that I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and the heavens shall answer the earth; 2:22 and the earth shall answer the grain the wine and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; 2:23 I will sow him for myself in the land, and I will pity Lo Ruhamah, and to Lo Ammi I will say, “my people you are,” and he shall answer “my God you are.”

I will answer- is a phrase often found in legal contexts denoting testimony. The heavens and the earth had been called upon by Moses several times in Deuteronomy as a witness to what will happen if Israel was unfaithful. God is testifying to the fact that he is willing to accept the illegitimate children of Israel (made such by the nations harlotries) as his own. Towards this end he answers (testifies) to the heavens he had shut up as part of the covenant curses (see 2:5). In response to this testimony the heavens will answer to the earth (by giving rain); which will in turn answer to the produce of the land: the grain, the wine and the oil, which will be an answer to Jezreel, who had called upon his illegitimate siblings to plead with there mother to end her unfaithfulness (vs 2). God’s love and Israel’s repentance has thus set in motion a renewal of the covenant blessings. Jezreeel (meaning “God sows” or “God plants”) will be sown (planted) in the land, apparently signifying the end of the threat of exile from the land, the culmination of the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28. The reason for the Illegitimate children’s pleading in thus being portrayed as successful.

3:1-5 The purpose of Hosea’s marital troubles. They symbolize God’s relation with Israel

3:1 Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”(3,2);

3:2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley. (3,3); 3:3 I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”(3,4);

3:4 For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols. (3,5); 3:5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days (WEB Bible)

Though they love other gods whom they worship with raisin cakes (see Jer 7:18), God is willing to take them back. Hosea’s call to take back his wife is a sign of this. That she shall not play the harlot remind us of 2:6. Ironically verses 4-5 , this seem to suggest that the actions of God told of in the previous chapter will be unsuccessful. For the people will be without a priesthood or king (3:4) for a time. Only after this will they seek out Yahweh and the Davidic king in the messianic age.