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TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Hosea 1

Before you read Hosea: who, when, why

BOOK 28 OF 66 · OLD TESTAMENT · MINOR PROPHETS

The Prophet Who Married a Prostitute

AUTHOR
Hosea son of Beeri, a prophet in Israel, the northern kingdom. His name means salvation. It was Joshua's name before Moses changed it, Numbers 13:16.
EVENTS TOOK PLACE
About 755 to 715 BC, from the last years of Jeroboam II of Israel into the reign of Hezekiah of Judah.
DATE WRITTEN
About 750 to 715 BC. His words were likely gathered in Judah after Samaria fell in 722 BC.
WRITTEN TO
Israel, which Hosea often calls Ephraim after its leading tribe, with warnings for Judah too.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS
Hosea is in three Qumran copies of the Twelve Prophets and two Qumran commentaries on Hosea, all copied before or about the time of Jesus.
KEY VERSE
Hosea 3:1. Love her as Yahweh loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods.
THE OLDEST COPIES OF HOSEA

The Oldest Copies of Hosea

A piece of 4QXII d, a scroll of the Twelve Prophets from Qumran Cave 4, copied about a hundred years before Jesus. It holds part of Hosea 1:6 to 2:3, the names of Hosea's children. Hosea is in two more Qumran copies of the Twelve, and two Qumran commentaries explain it line by line. See The Hosea Scrolls. Photo Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

The Setting

When Hosea starts preaching, King Jeroboam II has made Israel rich and strong. Then it all falls apart. After Jeroboam dies, six kings rule in about thirty years, and four of them are murdered. Israel pays Assyria, then begs Egypt, and in 722 BC Assyria destroys Samaria and carries the people away. Through it all the people worship Baal next to Yahweh and bow to the golden calves. Hosea's own broken marriage becomes God's picture of Israel.

What Went Wrong

  • Baal And Yahweh Together. They thanked Baal for the grain, wine and oil God gave, 2:8, and even called Yahweh my Baal, 2:16.
  • The Calves. They kissed calf idols made by craftsmen, 8:5 to 6 and 13:2.
  • Kings Without God. They set up kings God did not choose, 8:4, and one king after another fell, 7:7.
  • No Knowledge of God. Lying, murder, stealing and adultery everywhere, 4:1 to 2, and priests who fed on the people's sin, 4:8.
  • Human Sacrifice. 13:2 can be read they offer human sacrifice, the very thing God hated, 2 Kings 17:17. The Hebrew can also mean those who sacrifice.

Where to Find Jesus

  • Hosea 11:1. Out of Egypt I called My son. Matthew 2:15 sees Jesus, God's Son, coming out of Egypt and reliving Israel's story.
  • Hosea 6:6. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus quoted it twice, Matthew 9:13 and 12:7.
  • Hosea 1:10 and 2:23. Not My People will be called My people. Paul and Peter see Jews and Gentiles brought to God through Jesus, Romans 9:25 to 26 and 1 Peter 2:10.
  • Hosea 6:2. On the third day He will raise us up. Many see a picture of Jesus rising on the third day, 1 Corinthians 15:4.
  • Hosea 13:14. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Paul shouts it over death itself, because Jesus rose, 1 Corinthians 15:54 to 57.
  • Hosea 3:1 to 2. A husband buys back his unfaithful bride. Christians see the price Jesus paid for His people, 1 Peter 1:18 to 19.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

  • Names That Preach. Hosea's children were named Jezreel, God Sows; Lo ruhamah, No Compassion; and Lo ammi, Not My People. In 2:22 to 23 God turns every name around.
  • First of the Twelve. Hosea comes first in the Book of the Twelve, the twelve shorter prophets that were copied together on one scroll.
  • Sow the Wind. The saying sow the wind, reap the whirlwind comes from Hosea 8:7.
  • God Does the Talking. God speaks most of the book in His own voice, so most of Hosea prints in red.

How Does It End?

Israel did not listen, and Assyria took Samaria in 722 BC, just as Hosea warned, 13:16. But the book ends with God's promise to heal His people and love them freely, 14:4, and a word for every reader: whoever is wise, let him understand these things, 14:9.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

God tells Hosea to marry a woman who will cheat on him. He marries Gomer, and they have three children with names that sound like bad news: God Sows, No Compassion and Not My People. Then God promises to undo every name.

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In this chapterThe Big Question · Christians disagreeDid God Really Tell Hosea to Marry a Prostitute? · after verse 11

Hosea’s Wife and Children

1This is the word of Yahweh that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

  • HOS 1:1[NOTE]FOUR KINGS OF JUDAH, ONE OF ISRAEL. Hosea preached in Israel, the northern kingdom, but dates his book by Judah's kings too. Jeroboam II died about 753 BC; Hezekiah began to reign about 715 BC.

2When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from Yahweh.”

  • HOS 1:2[NOTE]A PROSTITUTE? The Hebrew says a woman of whoredoms. See Did God Really Tell Hosea to Marry a Prostitute?

3So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4Then Yahweh said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel, for soon I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

  • HOS 1:4[PROPHECY]I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu; I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel → 2KI 15:8-12
  • HOS 1:4[NOTE]JEZREEL. The name means God sows. Jezreel was where Jehu wiped out Ahab's family, 2 Kings 9 to 10. Jehu's line ended when Zechariah was murdered, 2 Kings 15:10 to 12. See Jehu on the Black Obelisk, 2 Kings.

6Gomer again conceived and gave birth to a daughter, and Yahweh said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them. 7Yet I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will save them—not by bow or sword or war, not by horses and cavalry, but by Yahweh their God.”

  • HOS 1:6[PROPHECY]I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will have mercy on the house of Judah → 2KI 17:6; 2KI 19:35
  • HOS 1:6[NOTE]LO RUHAMAH. No Compassion. In 2:23 God says, I will have compassion on No Compassion.

8After she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, Gomer conceived and gave birth to a son. 9And Yahweh said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.

  • HOS 1:9[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → 1PE 2:10
  • HOS 1:9[NOTE]LO AMMI. Not My People, the reverse of God's promise, I will be your God, and you will be My people, Leviticus 26:12.

10Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ 11Then the people of Judah and of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and will go up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.

  • HOS 1:10[PROPHECY]Those called Not My People would be called sons of the living God → ROM 9:26; 1PE 2:10
  • HOS 1:10[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → ROM 9:25-26
  • HOS 1:10[TEXT]VERSE NUMBERS. In Hebrew Bibles 1:10 to 11 is 2:1 to 2, so every verse in chapter 2 is two numbers higher there. In the same way 11:12 is 12:1 and 13:16 is 14:1, so chapters 12 and 14 are one number higher. The words are the same.

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