Hosea #66

Hosea, son of Beeri, was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BC. The opening verse places his ministry in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah and of Jeroboam II of Israel (Hosea 1:1), a period that ran from relative prosperity through political chaos until the Assyrian conquest of Samaria around 722 BC. Hosea is best known for the way his own family life was made part of his message.

Biblical Significance

God told Hosea to take a wife of unfaithfulness, and he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim (Hosea 1:2-3). Their children were given names that carried the message of the book: Jezreel, recalling the violence of Jehu’s dynasty; Lo-ruhamah, “not shown mercy”; and Lo-ammi, “not my people” (Hosea 1:3-9). Interpreters have long disagreed about how to read this marriage. Some take it as a literal event, others as a vision or allegory, and some think Gomer was already unfaithful at the time or became so later. The book itself does not settle the question, and the purpose is clear either way: the marriage embodies Israel’s unfaithfulness toward God.

In chapter 3, Hosea is told to love a woman who is loved by another and is an adulteress, and he buys her back for fifteen shekels of silver and a measure of barley, as a picture of how God loves Israel although they turn to other gods (Hosea 3:1-5). The theme develops through the book in oracles that alternate between accusation and tenderness. God brings charges against the people for lack of knowledge, injustice, and idolatry (Hosea 4), and declares that he desires steadfast love (hesed) and knowledge of God rather than sacrifice (Hosea 6:4-6). In one of the most moving passages, God speaks as a parent who taught Ephraim to walk and cannot bring himself to give him up (Hosea 11:1-9). The book ends with a call to return and a promise of healing (Hosea 14:1-7).

Legacy

Jesus twice quotes Hosea 6:6, “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,” to explain why he eats with tax collectors and sinners and why he heals on the Sabbath (Matthew 9:13; 12:7). Matthew also applies Hosea 11:1, “out of Egypt have I called my son,” to the return of Jesus from Egypt (Matthew 2:15), and Paul draws on Hosea’s language about “not my people” when discussing the inclusion of the Gentiles (Romans 9:25-26). Hosea’s marriage has become one of the central biblical images for covenant love that persists in the face of betrayal, and it is one of the reasons that marriage imagery is used throughout the Bible for God’s relationship with his people.