PROPHET IN THE DAYS OF JEROBOAM SON OF JOASH, AND OF UZZIAH TO HEZEKIAH IN JUDAH · TWO KINGDOMS

Hosea. Told to take “a wife of whoredoms”, he gave her children names that carried the LORD's word to Israel.

SCRIPTURE CALLS

Prophet

ERA

Two kingdoms 930–586 BC

IN THE DAYS OF

Jeroboam son of Joash · Uzziah · Jotham · Ahaz · Hezekiah

BOOK

Hosea

HOW THE WORD CAME

“The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea”

THE CALL

How the word first came

“THE BEGINNING OF THE WORD OF THE LORD BY HOSEA”

“Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD”

Hosea 1:2 (KJV) →

HOW THE WORD KEPT COMING

  • “The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea”. Hosea 1:1
  • His marriage and his children's names are part of the message. Hosea 1:2–9 Hosea 3:1–5
  • He speaks of the LORD's way with prophets: “I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes”. Hosea 12:10

BEFORE THE KINGS

Before five kings

KING OF ISRAEL

Jeroboam son of Joash (Jeroboam II)

KING OF JUDAH

Uzziah

KING OF JUDAH

Jotham

KING OF JUDAH

Ahaz

KING OF JUDAH

Hezekiah

THE MESSAGE

The word in its main themes

A faithless wife

“For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal”

Hosea 2:8 (KJV) →

No knowledge of God

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”

Hosea 4:6 (KJV) →

“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”

Hosea 6:6 (KJV) →

Kings and alliances

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind”

Hosea 8:7 (KJV) →

The calf of Samaria

“the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces”

Hosea 8:6 (KJV) →

The LORD's love

“How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel?”

Hosea 11:8 (KJV) →

Return

“O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity”

Hosea 14:1 (KJV) →

THE WORD TO …

To whom the word was spoken

TO ISRAEL

“Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land”

Hosea 4:1 (KJV) →

TO EPHRAIM AND JUDAH

“O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud”

Hosea 6:4 (KJV) →

TO SAMARIA

“Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off”

Hosea 8:5 (KJV) →

TO JUDAH, AS A WARNING

“Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven”

Hosea 4:15 (KJV) →

SIGNS

The word acted out

SIGN-ACT

Marriage to Gomer

SIGN-ACT

Three children, three names

SIGN-ACT

The woman bought back

WHAT CAME OF THE WORD

As Scripture reports it

THE WORD

SCRIPTURE REPORTS

THE BOOK

The book of Hosea

  • 1 Hosea's marriage and children Hosea 1:1–3:5
  • 2 The LORD's controversy with Israel Hosea 4:1–7:16
  • 3 Sowing the wind Hosea 8:1–10:15
  • 4 When Israel was a child Hosea 11:1–13:16
  • 5 O Israel, return Hosea 14:1–9

WHERE THE NEW TESTAMENT QUOTES IT · 8

Each band joins a chapter of Hosea to the New Testament books quoting it (5 books).

COMPANIONS AND OPPONENTS

Who stood with him, and against him

Beeri

His father

Gomer the daughter of Diblaim

His wife

Diblaim

Gomer's father

Jezreel

Son

Lo-ruhamah

Gomer's daughter

Lo-ammi

Gomer's son

HOW THE STORY ENDS

Scripture says, tradition says

SCRIPTURE SAYS

  • From the textScripture tells nothing of Hosea's life after the book, or of his death. Hosea 1:1

TRADITION SAYS

  • A Jewish tradition (the Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah) says Hosea died at Babylon and that his body was carried by a camel to Safed in upper Galilee and buried there. Christian traditions make him a native of Beelmoth or Belemoth of the tribe of Issachar; Jerome, of Beth-shemesh. The Jewish Encyclopedia calls “all these stories” “historically worthless”.[19] Who says so: Later Jewish and Christian traditions (the Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah; Ephraem Syrus, pseudo-Epiphanius, Jerome), as reported in the Jewish Encyclopedia, reported 1904; the encyclopedia gives no dates for the traditions

OPEN QUESTIONS

Where readers have differed

An event in Hosea's inner vision, not an outward marriage

C. F. Keil (Minor Prophets, English 1868)

Keil holds that no other course is left than to picture “Hosea's marriages as internal events, i.e., as merely carried out in that inward and spiritual intuition in which the word of God was addressed to him”; yet not as “nothing more than parables” or “poetical fictions”.[9]

A real marriage to a woman already unchaste

Augustine, Ambrose, Theodoret and others, and E. B. Pusey (1860), as G. A. Smith reports (1896)

G. A. Smith reports that “a large number of other interpreters have taken the story throughout as the literal account of actual facts”, naming several Church Fathers and Pusey.[6]

A real marriage; Gomer fell later, and Hosea saw God's purpose afterwards

W. Robertson Smith (1882); G. A. Smith (1896)

G. A. Smith: “She was, therefore, no dream, this woman, but flesh and blood”. Hosea's wife was pure when he married her, and he later read back God's purpose to the day of the betrothal, because the marriage was “the beginning of the word of the LORD”. He credits the view to Robertson Smith. Hosea 1:2 [6]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 16

Hosea 1 Hosea 2 Hosea 3 Hosea 4 Hosea 5 Hosea 6 Hosea 7 Hosea 8 Hosea 9 Hosea 10 Hosea 11 Hosea 12 Hosea 13 Hosea 14 Matthew 2 Romans 9

PASSAGES · 3

Hosea 1:1–14:9 Matthew 2:15 Romans 9:25–26

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not say where Hosea lived or worked, or how he died.
  • Hosea 3 does not name the woman Hosea buys back; whether she is Gomer is not stated.
  • The “king Jareb” of Hosea 5:13 and 10:6 is not otherwise identified in Scripture.

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (1891), pp. 203, 214–215 (Isaiah 36–39), 219–223 (Isaiah 40–66), 219 and 229 note 4 (the Servant), 282–283 (Hosea's heading), 287–292 (Joel).
  • J. A. Alexander, The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah (1846), p. 23 (Isaiah 2:2–4 and Micah 4:1–3); pp. 114, 116, 121 (Isaiah 7:14); pp. 161, 166 (Isaiah 9:6); pp. 588–589 (Isaiah 36–39).
  • J. A. Alexander, The Later Prophecies of Isaiah (1847), Introduction, p. xix.
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of Isaiah, vol. I (The Expositor's Bible) (1888), pp. 115–117, 133–135, 140–141 (Immanuel and the Prince of the Four Names).
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of Isaiah, vol. II (The Expositor's Bible) (1890), ch. I, “The Date of Isaiah xl.–lxvi.”, pp. 3–13.
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. I (The Expositor's Bible) (1896), pp. 236–239 (Hosea's marriage); pp. 365–366 (Micah 4:1–5).
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. II (The Expositor's Bible) (1898), Preface; pp. 375–377, 439–440 (the date of Joel).
  • E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets, with a Commentary (1860), Introduction to the Prophet Joel.
  • C. F. Keil, tr. J. Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Minor Prophets, vol. I (1868), introduction, and on Hosea 1:2–3 (read on Bible Hub).
  • B. Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, 2nd edition (first edition 1892) (1902), Einleitung (Tritojesaia, chapters 56–66).
  • G. L. Robinson, “Isaiah”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. III (1915), §5, p. 1496 (his martyrdom); §9, pp. 1504–1508 (the critical problem; Ecclesiasticus and “the Holy One of Israel”).
  • R. H. Charles (tr.), The Ascension of Isaiah (1900), Introduction pp. xi–xii, xliv–xlvi; text 5:1–14, p. 40.
  • Justin Martyr, tr. M. Dods and G. Reith, Dialogue with Trypho (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1) (1885), chs. 43, 67, 77, 84, 120.
  • Tertullian, tr. S. Thelwall, Scorpiace (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3) (1885), ch. 8.
  • Origen, tr. F. Crombie, Letter to Africanus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4) (1885), §9.
  • Origen, tr. F. Crombie, Against Celsus, book 1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4) (1885), 1.55.
  • E. G. Hirsch, T. K. Cheyne, I. Singer and I. Broydé, “Isaiah”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 6 (1904), pp. 635–636.
  • K. Budde, K. Kohler and L. Ginzberg, “Amos”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (1901), pp. 530–533.
  • E. G. Hirsch and V. Ryssel, “Hosea, the Prophet”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 6 (1904), p. 473.
  • I. Singer, M. Seligsohn, S. Schechter and E. G. Hirsch, “Micah”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8 (1904), pp. 533–534.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (Oriental Institute Publications 2) (1924), pp. 32–34 (Oriental Institute Prism, col. III).

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