Mar 29 2008
Notes on Hosea 7:3-7
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture texts are taken from the WEB Bible.
7:3 They make the King glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
7:4 They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
7:5 On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers.
7:6 For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all night. In the morning it consumes it burns as a flaming fire.
7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.
In 1:4-5 the prophet had predicted the downfall of the dynasty of Jehu and of the northern kingdom of Israel. Apparently, the former was the start of the latter. After the death of Jeroboam II, of the dynasty of Jehu, six kings would reign in Israel over a span of just twenty years. Of these, four would be assassinated; one would be removed by the king of Assyria, and the last would be taken into exile by the Assyrians when the kingdom was destroyed. Here the prophet is speaking about the political intrigue of wicked men who deal treacherously with the king in order to gain his confidence and thus more easily kill him.
Many scholars interpret the text a focusing on a specific king and his assassin. The most common candidates are Pekahiah, who was assassinated by Pekah, who then seized the throne. Some others attribute the text to Menahem’s assassination of Shallum or Hoshea’s assassination of Pekah. Clearly, there is no scarcity of candidates, and for me it seems that we should best interpret the text as a general prophecy of what was to come, rather than as referring to a specific event.
Vs 3 They make the king glad with their wickedness… A righteous king would not be gladdened by wickedness; the king’s own sins have set him up for his fall to wicked men. The same can be said of his “princes” (heirs or men of position in the kingdom’s administration).
Vs 4 They are adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring. An odd combination of metaphors. Perhaps the idea is: Just as a man burns with lust after a woman, so too, these men burn with lust for murder and the kingship. More likely, the two metaphors are to be taken as separate; adultery being a reference to feigned friendship, for an adulterer fakes fidelity to his wife while cheating on her.
The whole text of vs 4 is badly corrupted and a number of interpretations are possible-e.g., the passions of the intriguers are like an oven that burns its contents; their mood is uncertain like an oven whose fire burns down and does not bake the bread enough; like a baker who puts yeast in the dough and then banks the fire to keep the dough warm without baking it, they repress their passions until everything is ready and they can deliver the decisive blow. The extension of the oven image in vss 6-7a would seem to support this last interpretation. (Jerome Biblical Commentary 15:19)
vs 5 On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He (the king) joined his hands with mockers. “The day of our king” is most likely either a reference to the day of his enthronement, or to the celebration of its anniversary. On such a day, their is drunkenness among the princes (the king’s advisers?) who should have been watching out for the king’s interests. Instead, the king associates with irreligious men whom he thinks are friends.
Vss 6-7 See the quotation from the JBC above. Note also the phrase “all their kings have fallen;” a possible indication that the text should not be taken as referring to a specific king, as I noted above.
