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HOSEA
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HOSEA , the son of Beerf, the first in See also:order of the See also:minor prophets of the Old Testament. The name Hosea (urlrl, LXX. 'ilo , Vulg. Osee, and so the See also:English version in Rom. it. 25) ought rather to be written See also:Hoshea, and is identical with that See also:borne by the last See also: 1, by the reigning See also:kings of See also:Judah and Israel. He prophesied (I) in the days of See also:Uzziah, Jotham, See also:Ahaz and See also:Hezekiah, kings of Judah; (2) in the days of See also:Jeroboam the son of See also:Joash, king of Israel. The See also:dates indicated by the title, which may be regarded as editorial, are, for the four kings of the See also:southern kingdom, 789-740, 739-734, 733-721 and 720-693 B.C. respectively; and, for Jeroboam II., 782-743 (cf. Ency. Bib. See also:col. 797-798). The book itself, however, plainly belongs to the See also:period See also:prior to 734 B.C. since, in that See also:year, (a) the Syro-Ephraimitic See also:war began, to which there is here no reference, nor is See also:Assyria yet the open foe it then became; (b) See also:Gilead became Tiglaih-Pileser's (2 Kings xv. 29), whereas it is here described as still See also:part of the territory of Israel (vi. 8; xii. 11; cf. the included See also:place-names of v. 1). On the other See also:hand, the prophet connects with the See also:birth of his eldest See also:child the approaching fall of the See also:house of See also:Jehu (i. 4), thus anticipating the See also:death of Jeroboam II. in 743, and the period of anarchy which followed (2 Kings xv.). Thus the prophetic See also:work of Hosea may be dated, with See also:practical certainty, as beginning from some point previous to 743 and extending not later than 734.2 This is corroborated by the See also:general See also:character of the book. Of its two parts, i.-iii. reflects the See also:wealth and prosperity of the reign of Jeroboam II., whilst iv.-xiv. contains frequent references to the social disorder and anarchy of the subsequent years. ' Traditions about Hosea.—Beeri, the prophet's See also:father, is identified by the Rabbins with Beerah (1 Chron. v. 6), a Reubenite See also:prince carried See also:captive by Tiglath-Pileser. This view is already expressed by See also:Jerome, Quaest. in Paralip., and doubtless underlies the statement of the See also:Targum to See also:Chronicles that Beerah was a prophet. For it is a Jewish See also:maxim that when a prophet's father is named, he, too, was a prophet, and accordingly a tradition of R. See also:Simon makes Isa. viii. 19, 20 a prophecy of See also:Bari (Kimchi in loc.; See also:Leviticus See also:Rabba, See also:par. 15). According to the usual See also:Christian tradition, how-ever, Hosea was of the tribe of See also:Issachar, and from an unknown See also:town, Belemoth or Belemon (pseudo-See also:Epiphanius, pseudo-See also:Dorotheus, Ephraim Syr. ii. 234; Chron. Pasch., See also:Bonn ed., i. 276). As the tradition adds that he died there, and was buried in See also:peace, the source of the See also:story lies probably in some See also:holy place shown as his See also:grave. There are other traditions as to the See also:burial-place of Hosea. A Jewish See also:legend in the Shalshelet haqqabala (See also:Carpzov, Introd., pt. iii. ch. vii. § 3) tells that he died in captivity at See also:Babylon, and was carried to Upper See also:Galilee, and buried at nos, that is, Safed (Neubauer, Geog. du See also:Talmud, p. 227) ; and the See also:Arabs show the grave of Nebi 'Osha, See also:east of the See also:Jordan, near Es-See also:Salt (See also:Baedeker's See also:Palestine, p. 337; See also:Burckhardt's See also:Syria, p. 353). 2 The supposed reference of viii. 9-10 to the See also:tribute paid by See also:Menahem to Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings xv. 19), and dated, on the monuments, 738 B.C., depends on a corrupt See also:text: read v. to with See also:Septuagint. The first part of Hosea's prophetic work, corresponding to chs. i.-iii., See also:lay in the years of See also:external prosperity immediately preceding the See also:catastrophe of the house of Jehu in or near the year 743• The second part of the book is a See also:summary of prophetic teaching during the subsequent troublous reign of Menahem, and, perhaps, that of his successor, Pekahiah, and must have been completed before 734 B.C. Apart from the narrative in chs. i.-iii., to which we shall presently recur, the book throws little or no See also:light on the details of Hosea's life. It appears from ix. 7, 8, that his prophetic work was greatly embarrassed by opposition: " As for the prophet, a See also:fowler's snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his See also:God." The enmity which had its centre in the See also:sanctuary probably proceeded from the priests (comp. See also:Amos vii.), against whose profligacy and profanation of their See also:office our prophet frequently declaims—perhaps also from the degenerate prophetic See also:gilds which had their seats in the holy cities of the northern kingdom, and with whom Hosea's See also:elder contemporary Amos so indignantly refuses to be identified (Amos vii. 14). In ch. iv. 5 Hosea seems to comprise priests and prophets in one condemnation, thus placing himself in See also:direct antagonism to all the leaders of the religious life of his nation. He is not less antagonistic to the kings and princes of his See also:day (vii. 3-7, viii. 4, viii. so Septuagint, x. 7-15, xiii. 11)? In view of the familiarity shown with the intrigues of rulers and the doings of priests, it has been conjectured that Hosea held a prominent position, or even (by Duhm) that he was himself a See also:priest (See also:Marti, p. 2). The most interesting problem of Hosea's See also:history lies in the See also:interpretation of the story of his married life (chs. i.-iii.). We read in these chapters that God's See also:revelation to Hosea began when in accordance with a divine command he married a profligate wife, See also:Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Three See also:children were See also:born in this See also:marriage and received symbolical names, illustrative of the divine purpose towards Israel, which are expounded in ch. i. In ch. ii. the faithlessness of Israel to See also:Jehovah (Yahweh), the See also:long-suffering of God, the moral discipline of sorrow and tribulation by which He will yet bring back His erring See also:people and betroth it to Himself for ever in righteousness, love and truth, are depicted under the figure of the relation of a See also:husband to an erring See also:spouse. The See also:suggestion of this See also:allegory lies in the prophet's marriage with Gomer, but the details are worked out quite independently, and under a See also:rich multiplicity of figures derived from other See also:sources. In the third See also:chapter we return to the See also:personal experience of the prophet. His faithless wife had at length See also:left him and fallen, under circumstances which are not detailed, into a See also:state of misery, from which Hosea, still following her with See also:tender See also:affection, and encouraged by a divine command, brought her back and restored her to his house, where he kept her in seclusion, and patiently watched over her for many days, yet not readmitting her to the privileges of a wife. In these experiences the prophet again recognizes a parallel to Yahweh's long-suffering love to Israel, and the discipline by which the people shall be brought back to God through a period in which all their See also:political and religious institutions are overthrown. Throughout these chapters personal narrative and prophetic allegory are interwoven with a rapidity of transition very puzzling to the See also:modern reader; but an unbiassed exegesis can hardly fail to acknowledge that chs. i. and iii. narrate an actual passage in the prophet's life. The names of the three children are symbolical, but See also:Isaiah in like manner gave symbolical names to his sons, embodying prominent points Some scholars hold that his attack is directed against the very principle of See also:monarchy (Nowack, p. 8; Smend, p. 2o9: " Hosea rejects the kingship in itself "; See also:Wellhausen, p. 125: " The making of kings in Israel is for him, together with the See also:heathen cultus, the fundamental evil "). This view depends on a disputed interpretation of the reference to Gibeah (x. 9; cf. ix. 9); and on the words: " I give thee kings in mine anger, and I take them away in my wrath " (xiii. iI), which may refer to the rise and fall of contemporary kings (cf. Marti, ad loc.). In any See also:case, as Wellhausen himself says (p. 132) : "He does not start from a dogmatic theory, but simply from See also:historical experience." in his prophetic teaching (Shear-jashub, Isa. vii. 3, comp. X. 21; Maher-shalal-hash-baz, viii. 3). And the name of Gomer See also:bath Diblaim is certainly that of an actual See also:person, upon which all the allegorists, from the Targum, Jerome and Ephraem Syrus downwards, have spent their arts in vain, whereas.the true symbolical names in the book are perfectly easy of interpretation.' That the See also:ancient interpreters take the whole narrative as a See also:mere See also:parable is no more than an application of their See also:standing See also:rule that everything in the Biblical history is allegorical which in its literal sense appears offensive to propriety (comp. Jerome's proem to the book). But the supposed offence to propriety seems to See also:rest on mistaken exegesis and too narrow a conception of the way in which the Divine word was communicated to the prophets.' There is no See also:reason to suppose that Hosea knowingly married a woman of profligate character. The point of the allegory in i. 2 is plainly infidelity after marriage as a parallel to Israel's departure from the See also:covenant God, and a profligate wife (o'nn n 't ) is not the same thing with an open prostitute (ma). The marriage was marred by Gomer's infidelity; and the struggle of Hosea's affection for his wife with this See also:great unhappiness—a struggle inconceivable unless his first love had been pure and full of See also:trust in the purity of its See also:object—furnished him with a new insight into Yahweh's dealings with Israel. Then he recognized that the great calamity of his life was God's own See also:ordinance and appointed means to communicate to him a deep prophetic See also:lesson. The recognition of a divine command after the fact has its parallel, as Wellhausen observes, in Jer. xxxii. 8. It was in the experiences of his married life, and in the spiritual lessons opened to him through these, that Hosea first heard the revealing See also:voice of Yahweh (i. 2).3 Like Amos (Amos iii. 8), he was called to speak for God by an inward constraining voice,
' See also:Theodorus Mops. remarks very justly, Kai'rO OVoµa KaL TdV 7rarEpa Mau, LJ4 so) trX 4oµa 1,1/LAOV TL SOKOLt] Td XEyO{LEVOV, LOTOpLa Si lanais TWV frpaypaTWV.
2 This explanation of the narrative, which is essentially See also:Ewald's, is now generally accepted. It has the great See also:advantage of supplying a psychological See also: The See also:combination of these two notions gives at once the conception of the See also:national deity as husband of the land. On the other hand, the designation of Yahweh as See also:Baal, which, in accordance with the See also:antique view of marriage, means husband as well as See also:lord and owner, was current among the Israelites in early times, perhaps, indeed, down to Hosea's See also:age (ii. 16). Now it is highly probable that among the idolatrous Israelites the See also:idea of a marriage between the deity and individual worshippers was actually current and connected with the immorality which Hosea often condemns in the See also:worship of the See also:local Baalim whom the ignorant people identified with Yahweh. For we have a Punic woman's name, Sv nrsre, " the betrothed of Baal " (Euting, Punische Steine, pp. 9, 15), and a similar conception existed among the Babylonians (See also:Herod. i. 181, 182). But Hosea takes the idea of Yahweh as husband, and gives it an altogether different turn, filling it with a new and profound meaning, based on the psychical experiences of a deep human affection in contest with outraged See also:honour and the wilful self-degradation of a spouse. It can hardly be supposed that all that lies in these chapters is an abstract study in the See also:psychology of the emotions. It is actual human experience that gives Hosea the key to divine truth. 3 See also:Davidson (D.B. ii. 422) remarks that " it was not his misfortunes that gave Hosea his prophetic word. Israel's See also:apostasy was See also:plain to him, and he foreshadowed her See also:doom in See also:Jezreel, the name of his first child, before any misfortunes overtook him. At most, his misfortunes may at a later See also:time have given a complexion to his prophetic thoughts." Wellhausen (p. 108) See also:objects to the emergence of the See also:call from the experience, on the ground that the name given to the first child gives no indication that Hosea had yet reached his specific See also:message, the infidelity of, his wife and of Israel, though it shows him already as a prophet. Marti (p. 15) agrees with Davidson in making the order (a) call, (b) marriage and birth of three children, (c) comprehension of the significance of the marriage for himself and for Israel. The statement made above must be interpreted of Hosea's specific message from Yahweh, as recorded in his book.and there is no reason to think that he had any connexion with the recognized prophetic See also:societies, or ever received such outward See also:adoption to office as was given to See also:Elisha. His position in Israel was one of tragic See also:isolation. Amos, when he had discharged his See also:mission at See also:Bethel, could return to his See also:home and to his See also:friends; Hosea was a stranger among his own people, and his home was full of sorrow and shame. Isaiah in the gloomiest days of Judah's declensions had faithful disciples about him, and knew that there was a believing remnant in the land. Hosea knows no such remnant, and there is not a See also:line in his prophecy from which we can conclude that his words ever found an obedient See also:ear. As already stated, this prophecy falls into two clearly distinguished sections,' the former (i.-iii.), already dealt with, accounting for the general standpoint of the latter (iv.-xiv.). It is not possible to make any convincing subdivisions of this latter See also:section (cf. G. A. See also: And the political state of the realm was in Hosea's eyes not more hopeful. The See also:dynasty of Jehu, still great and powerful when the prophet's labours began, is itself an See also:incorporation of national See also:sin. Founded on the bloodshed of Jezreel, it must fall by God's vengeance, and the state shall fall with it (i. 4, iii. 4). This See also:sentence stands at the See also:head of Hosea's predictions, and throughout the book the See also:civil constitution of Ephraim is represented as equally lawless and godless with the corrupt religious See also:establishment. The anarchy that followed on the See also:murder of Zachariah appears to the prophet as the natural decadence of a realm not founded on divine ordinance. The nation had rejected Yahweh, the only helper. And now the avenging Assyrian6 is at hand. Samaria's king shall pass away as foam on the See also:water. Fortress and See also:city shall fall before the ruthless invader, who spares neither age nor See also:sex, and thistles shall See also:cover the desolate altars of Ephraim. In our present book of Hosea, this condemnatory judgment on contemporary Israel culminates in a chapter of See also:appeal for penitence, with promise of divine forgiveness. The question of the authenticity of this and of other " restoration" passages' forms the See also:chief problem ' Marti disregards this generally accepted See also:division, arguing that (a) i.-iii. was not written earlier than iv.-xiv., (b) iii. is not Hoseanic, (c) ii. is much more akin to iv.-xiv. than to (See also:Comm. p. 1; cf. Enc. Bib. 2123 n.3). He holds that another wife, not Gomer, is intended in iii., which is an allegory referring to Israel, as Gomer referred to Judah. His arguments are not convincing. ° So, practically, Davidson, D.B. ii. p. 423 seq., where the detailed references will be found. ° This is too definite for the data; cf. Davidson, l.c. " Hosea has no clear idea of the See also:instrument or means of Israel's destruction. It is ' the See also:sword ' (vii. 16, xi. 6), the ' enemy ' (viii. 3, V. 8-9) or it is natural, internal decay (vii. 8-9, ix. 16), the See also:moth and rottenness (v. 12)." ' e.g. i. to-ii. 1, ii. 14 f., iii. 5, v. 15-vi. 3, xi. 10-I1. for See also:literary See also:criticism presented by the book.' Amongstthe more See also:recent commentators, Davidson, G. A. Smith and Nowack regard Hosea xiv. as written by the prophet, though the second admits its See also:chronological misplacement and the third its later expansion. On the other hand, it is altogether rejected by See also:Cheyne, Wellhausen, Marti and Harper. These claim that the passage reflects the later standpoint of completed punishment, and is therefore inconsistent in the prophet who anticipates that punishment. But the case is different from that of the See also:epilogue to Amos, since Hosea's personal experience covers forgiveness as well as discipline (Marti consistently, though without ground, rejects this experience also). There seems, therefore, to be no sufficient See also:evidence for denying thoughts of restoration to Hosea, whilst it is highly probable that such passages would be amplified in a later age. Indeed, the importance of these passages for the interpretation of Hosea is See also:apt to be overrated, for, as one of those rejecting them remarks, though Hosea " promised nothing,'' yet he " contributed a conception of Yahweh which made such a future not only possible but even probable " (Harper, p. cliii.). We may therefore read the closing chapter as, at least, the explicit statement of a See also:hope implicit in Hosea's teaching. Hosea could discern no faithful remnant in Ephraim, yet Ephraim in all his corruption is the son of Yahweh, a child nurtured with tender love, a chosen people, whose past history declares in every See also:episode the watchful and patient affection of his father. And that father is God and not See also:man, the Holy One who will not and cannot See also:sacrifice His love even to the justest indignation (See also:chap. xi.). To the prophet who knows this love of Yahweh, who has learned to understand it in the like experience of his own life, the very ruin of the state of Israel is a step in the loving guidance which makes the valley of trouble a See also:door of hope (ii. 15), and the See also:wilderness of tribulation as full of promise as the See also:desert road from Egypt to See also:Canaan was to Israel of old. Of the manner of Israel's repentance and See also:conversion Hosea presents no clear See also:image—See also:nay, it is plain that on this point he had nothing to tell. The certainty that the people will at length return and seek Yahweh their God rests, not on any germ of better things in Israel, but on the invincible supremacy of Yahweh's love. And so the two sides of his prophetic See also:declaration, the passionate denunciation of Israel's sin and folly, and the not less passionate tenderness with which he describes the final victory of divine love, are See also:united by no logical See also:bond. The unity is one of feeling only, and the sob of anguish in which many of his appeals to a heedless people seem to end turns once and again with sudden revulsion into the clear accents of evangelical promise, which in the closing chapter swell forth in pure and strong See also:cadence out of a See also:heart that has found its rest with God from all the troubles of a stormy life. The strongly emotional temperament of Hosea suggests comparison with that of See also:Jeremiah, who like himself is the prophet of the decline and fall of a kingdom. The subsequent See also:influence of Hosea on the literature of the Old and New Testaments is very marked. Not only is it seen in the conception of the relation between God and His people as a marriage, which he makes current See also:coin (cf. Marti, p. 15), but still more in the fact that his conception of the divine character becomes the See also:inspiration of the book of See also:Deuteronomy and so of the whole See also:canon of Scripture. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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