Hosea: love for an unfaithful people
Hosea is the story of a prophet told to love an unfaithful wife, a living picture of Israel running after idols and of God, who will not let his people go. It is the first of the twelve Minor Prophets.
About the book
The twelve books from Hosea to Malachi are called the Minor Prophets: minor for their length, not their worth. Augustine, the North African church leader, explained that they are called minor because their writings are brief beside those of the major prophets, who left longer books Augustine, City of God 18.29. The Hebrew Bible writes the twelve on one scroll and counts them as one book, the Book of the Twelve. The Babylonian Talmud says that Hosea was written together with the others because so small a book, kept on its own, might be lost Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b.
Hosea's name means ‘salvation’. The son of Beeri, he received the word of the LORD "in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel" (Hosea 1:1). He prophesied in the northern kingdom from late in the reign of Jeroboam II, about 750 BC, until around its fall to Assyria in 722. The map under the Jesus tab places the book in the divided monarchy (930–586 BC). Israel was prosperous but served Baal, and after Jeroboam died king after king was murdered: "They set up kings, but not by Me" (Hosea 8:4).
Jews and Christians have received the book as the word that came to Hosea: it opens under his name, and chapter 3 is told in his own voice. Most scholars too hold that most of it comes from him, though some think that a few words about Judah and the closing verse (14:9) were added in Judah, by those who kept and read his words after the north had fallen.
How it unfolds
Hosea has two parts: the prophet's household (1–3), and the LORD's charge against Israel with his call to return (4–14).
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hosea marries Gomer; three children named as signs: Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, Lo-ammi |
| 2–3 | The husband seeks his unfaithful wife; Hosea buys Gomer back |
| 4–10 | The charge: no knowledge of God, idols and kings, judgement coming |
| 11–14 | Love that will not let go; the call to return and the promise of healing |
The LORD told Hosea, "Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery" (Hosea 1:2). He married Gomer, and his children's names became the message. Lo-ruhamah means ‘no compassion’, and with Lo-ammi came the word, "you are not My people, and I am not your God" (Hosea 1:9). Yet when Gomer had gone after another, the LORD said, "Go show love to your wife again" (Hosea 3:1), as he loved Israel. Most interpreters today take this as a real marriage; some, like John Wesley, the eighteenth-century leader of the Methodist revival, thought it "was, probably, done in vision" Wesley. Either way the meaning is the same: God is like a husband who goes on loving a faithless wife.
Key passages
Hosea's charge, again and again, is that Israel does not know God: "There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!" (Hosea 4:1). The people thanked Baal for grain and rain, and kept up their sacrifices while their hearts were far away. So the LORD says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). The word for mercy, , is the steadfast love and loyalty of a covenant. Israel's loyalty was "like the early dew that vanishes" (Hosea 6:4); God's is not.
How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? … My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!
Hosea 11:8
Ephraim, the largest tribe of the north, stands for the whole northern kingdom. The reason for such love lies in God himself: "For I am God and not man — the Holy One among you" (Hosea 11:9). Judgement did come. But the last chapter calls, "Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God" (Hosea 14:1), and promises:
I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.
Hosea 14:4
The English pastor Matthew Henry comments, "Whom God loves, he loves freely; not because they deserve it, but of his own good pleasure" Matthew Henry.
The book and Christ
The risen Jesus explained what Moses and all the Prophets had written about himself (Luke 24:27), and the New Testament often quotes Hosea.
Matthew says that the child Jesus' return from Egypt fulfilled the words "Out of Egypt I called My Son" (Matthew 2:15). Hosea 11:1 looks back to the exodus; Matthew reads the story of Israel, God's son, as lived again and brought to its goal in Jesus, the true Son. Wesley puts it this way: "Israel, the first adopted son was a type of Christ" Wesley.
When he was criticised for eating with sinners, Jesus sent his critics back to Hosea 6:6: "go and learn what this means" (Matthew 9:13). Paul finds in Hosea's promise to those who were not God's people the church God has called "not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles" (Romans 9:24), and Peter tells believers, "Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God" (1 Peter 2:10). Paul likens a husband's love to the way "Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25). The church has seen in Hosea buying back his wife an early glimpse of that love.
Reading it
Two or three chapters a day takes about six days; begin with Hosea 1. From chapter 4 the book is a run of short oracles: note in each what grieves the LORD and what he promises. The last years of the northern kingdom are told in 2 Kings 15–17. Then go on to Joel.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
Why are the books from Hosea to Malachi called the Minor Prophets?
- Practice 2 of 6
When and where did Hosea prophesy?
- Practice 3 of 6
What did the LORD say with the name of Hosea's third child, Lo-ammi?
- Practice 4 of 6
In Hosea 6:6, what does the LORD desire rather than sacrifice?
- Practice 5 of 6
How does Matthew read "Out of Egypt I called My Son" from Hosea 11:1?
- Practice 6 of 6
Paul and Peter say that Hosea's promise, that those who were not God's people would become his people, has come true. In whom?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Source
- Augustine, The City of God 18.28–30 — 413–426. Hosea and Amos (18.28), and Micah, Jonah and Joel (18.30), read as foretelling Christ; the twelve called minor because their writings are short (18.29).
- The Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a — Completed c. 6th century. The Jewish tradition of who wrote (or compiled) each book of the Hebrew Bible: Moses his own book, the portion of Balaam and Job; Joshua his and the Torah's last eight verses (his death recorded by Eleazar and Phinehas); Samuel his, Judges and Ruth (finished by Gad and Nathan); David the Psalms with the elders; Jeremiah his, Kings and Lamentations; Hezekiah and his company Isaiah, Proverbs, the Song and Ecclesiastes; the Men of the Great Assembly Ezekiel, the Twelve, Daniel and Esther; Ezra his and the genealogies of Chronicles.
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.