The Book of Hosea

J. Andrew Dearman

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780802825391
• eBook ISBN: 9781467423731
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Here J. Andrew Dearman considers the historical context of the prophetic figure of Hosea, his roots in the prophetic activity and covenant traditions of ancient Israel, and the poetic and metaphorical aspects of the prophecy. This historical and theological commentary is a welcome addition to the NICOT series.

TEXT AND COMMENTARY

I. SUPERSCRIPTION (1:1)

1The word of YHWH that came to Hosea, son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.

1 The initial verse of the book is a superscription, i.e., a heading to the work that indicates its historical setting and very likely the context for its editing. It thereby communicates several things to the reader. First, although the term “prophet” is not used to identify Hosea, he is described as the recipient of the Lord’s word, which indicates his prophetic status. The Hebrew term dābār is singular and indicates a communication; it is not, of course, a literal reference to a single word. Three other books begin exactly the same way (“the word of YHWH came to …”), namely Joel, Micah, and Zephaniah.1 Furthermore, with minor variation the phrase occurs in Ezek. 1:3, Jonah 1:1, Zech. 1:1, Hag. 1:1, and Mal. 1:1. All of these works are part of the prophetic corpus in the OT. The phrase in Hos. 1:1, therefore, marks Hosea as a prophetic book with two sources: (1) the Lord, who initiates communication with Hosea, (2) who in turn communicates with contemporaries through an edited version of his public activities and speaking.

Second, Hosea’s father’s name, Beeri, is given to identify further Hosea for readers. While this detail might have been significant for Hosea’s contemporaries, it no longer indicates much to later readers, since the father’s name is obscure.2 Four other persons in the OT, however, are named Hosea. It was the earlier name of Joshua (cf. Num. 13:8), the name of the last king of Israel (2 Kgs. 15:30), the name of a leader in postexilic Jerusalem (Neh. 10:23 [MT 24]), and the name of a prominent Ephraimite leader (1 Chr. 27:20). It is formed from the Hebrew verb yāšaʿ, which means “help” or “deliver.” The name Hosea means “he [YHWH] has saved” or something similar.

Third, the references to the kings provides the historical setting for the prophet’s words. Four rulers from Judah (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah) and one from Israel (Jeroboam, son of Joash, i.e., Jeroboam II) are named.3 Jeroboam II died ca. 750. Uzziah’s long reign overlapped with that of Jeroboam, although the length of Uzziah’s de facto reign and the year of his death are difficult to sort out.4 The Judean list of kings in v. 1, however, continues with an additional three names, even though the book’s prophecies are directed primarily to Israel. Hezekiah’s accession is a difficult problem for chronological reconstruction, but his reign continued into the 7th century on almost any reckoning. The dates of the kings in 1:1, when taken in their entirety, cover approximately a hundred years. Moreover, the emphasis on the Judean rulers sits awkwardly at the beginning of a book addressed primarily to Israel, the nation whose capital was Samaria and whose political end came at the hands of the Assyrian rulers Shalmaneser V and Sargon II.

The chronological difficulties can be mitigated on the assumptions that Hosea’s prophetic work began some time toward the end of Jeroboam’s reign, ca. 755–750, and that Hezekiah’s reign began in 728/727, if the synchronism in 2 Kgs. 18:10 is correct,5 so that Hosea’s public activity ran thirty years or so. It is not clear from the book when Hosea’s prophetic activity ceased. From the evidence in the book, one cannot discern whether Hosea actually witnessed the downfall of Samaria. Broadly speaking, therefore, the prophet’s public work appears set in a fifty-year period, from 760 to 710 B.C., with the years 750–725 being the most likely setting.

There is still the question of the emphasis on the Judean kings rather than on those in Israel, where Hosea carried out his prophetic task. The majority of modern scholars regard Hosea as a prophet of northern origin, based primarily on the addresses to Israel, Samaria, and Bethel in the book, plus a number of lexical peculiarities in the text that may reflect a northern dialect. If this is the case—that is, if Hosea himself is of northern origin and not, like Amos, someone from the south who travels north to prophesy—then the Judean emphasis of the superscription probably indicates the context in which the book was edited and preserved. This is understandable, since the fall of Samaria meant the political end of Israel. Archaeological investigation indicates that the population of Jerusalem increased markedly toward the end of the 8th century B.C.; the primary reason was probably an influx of refugees fleeing turmoil in Israel. Hosea’s words may have been preserved among various circles who survived the Assyrian onslaught, but the origins of the book we now have likely come from Yahwists who moved southward in the aftermath of Israel’s demise. Whether these preservationists and editors included disciples of Hosea or simply people who passed along a prophetic tradition they valued we cannot now determine.

Other 8th-century prophets have similar lists in their superscriptions. Isaiah 1:1 lists the same four Judean kings as Hos. 1:1, but with no reference to a northern ruler. Micah 1:1 lacks the reference to Uzziah, but includes the other three. Micah, apparently a Judean, is credited with “seeing” (ḥāzâ) YHWH’s word concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Amos, a contemporary of Hosea’s in Israel, also “saw” the words he communicated in the time of Uzziah and Jeroboam II. The similarities of the superscriptions of these four books suggest a common editorial effort in Judah to preserve their contents as witnesses to YHWH’s (recent) past revelation of his word.

II. HOSEA’S FAMILY (1:2–3:5)

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION

When read together, chs. 1–3 have a basic theme: God’s judgment in the historical process will come against a faithless Israel, sometime after which God will initiate a period of restoration. Hosea’s marriage and children are rendered through literary devices to illustrate the theme, and the texts are thoroughly shaped with that goal in mind.6 Indeed, each chapter—at least in English versification—gives a rendering of the same basic theme, moving from judgment to restoration.

Within the three chapters, readers encounter different literary forms in support of this basic theme. Hosea 1:2–9 is a succinct account, written in third-person prose, that describes Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, a woman of harlotry, who subsequently bears three children with symbolic names. Both mother and children symbolize Israel in flagrant rebellion against the Lord. Hosea 2:2–13 (MT 4–15) covers the same theme in the form of a charge of faithlessness (adultery, harlotry) against the mother. Her actions disqualify her as a wife. As her promiscuity is described, it becomes clear that she symbolizes Israel. Hosea 3:1–5 is a first-person prose account, in which the prophet is commanded to acquire and love an unnamed adulteress. In her adultery she too symbolizes Israel. A time of disciplinary penance is described for her in her guise as Israel (and Judah).

Several decades ago H. H. Rowley wrote a masterful survey of scholarly opinions entitled “The Marriage of Hosea.”7 With his usual encyclopedic style, he surveyed the gamut of opinions on the subject of Hos. 1–3 and offered his own assessment. Rowley’s essay is still a profitable read, since the options he then surveyed and evaluated remain relevant. Indeed, my own conclusions essentially follow his. In the intervening years, new directions in interpretation have come primarily in two categories: feminist concerns, and various forms of literary analysis such as deconstruction, canonical criticism, and intertextuality.8 These categories influence, and at times even supersede, those approaches Rowley noted.

One cannot stress too strongly that the interpreter must begin and end with the text of Hos. 1–3. This seems trite to express, but insistence on this principle should keep interpreters focused on the fact that the only source of information available on the topic (Hosea’s marriage and family) comes in ancient literary form. Those who are interested in such matters as Hosea’s feelings about his wife9 or the nature of her infidelity pursue legitimate questions, but we must keep in mind that the literary composition we know as Hos. 1–3 may not adequately answer them. Readers must first attend to the literary properties of Hos. 1–3 before seeking what is “behind the text.”

A reading of Hos. 1–3 raises a number of questions for interpretation that can be grouped essentially in three categories.10

1. The Promiscuously Adulterous Female. Is the Gomer of ch. 1 the mother of ch. 2 and also the unnamed adulteress of ch. 3? Put slightly differently, how many women are depicted in chs. 1–3?

2. Narrative Sequence. Do chs. 1–3 provide a basic sequence of events (marriage, marriage breakdown, reconciliation), or is the first-person account of ch. 3 the earliest presentation of the marriage, with ch. 1 a later, originally parallel, rendering? Regarding sequence, is the command to marry a “woman of harlotry” presented retrospectively (i.e., Hosea married normally, his wife’s promiscuity developed subsequently), or did the command come initially to him as his sense of prophetic call, so that the woman he chose had already been involved in some form of sexual misconduct?11

3. Symbol and Reality. Should these chapters be read only as a symbolic rendering of Israel’s history (allegory, parable, vision, dream account), or in their symbolic import do they also reflect actual events in the life of Hosea, son of Beeri, and his family?

To begin with category 3, symbol and reality, is to begin properly with literary questions. What kind of literature makes up Hos. 1–3? As noted above, these chapters comprise more than one literary type, but the best parallels to the commands in 1:2 and 3:1 are with accounts of symbolic acts12 performed by prophets, not with dream reports (e.g., Gen. 40:1–41:36), parables (e.g., Judg. 9:7–21), or vision reports (e.g., Jer. 4:23–28; Zech. 1:7–6:15). Not only do these commands give structure to the reading of Hos. 1–3 as a unit, but they have particularly close parallels with narratives about the prophet Isaiah and symbolic acts undertaken by him ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• General Editor’s Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Text and Commentary
• Appendices
• Notes
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Authors
• Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Texts
• Index of Foreign Words