Dictionary
Holman Bible Dictionary -
Hosea
(hoh ssee' uh) Personal name meaning, “salvation.” Title of the first book in the section of the Hebrew Bible called the Book of the Twelve, named after its prophetic hero. The small prophetic books that make up this section frequently are designated Minor Prophets. This title is not an assessment of worth, but a description of size as compared to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. In Hebrew the name is the same as that of Joshua's original name (
Numbers 13:16 ;
Deuteronomy 32:44 ) and of the last king of Israel (
2 Kings 17:1 ), who lived at the same time as the prophet. One of David's officers bore the name (
1 Chronicles 27:20 ) as did a clan chief in the time of Nehemiah (
Nehemiah 10:23 ). English translators have often chosen to spell the prophet's name Hosea to distinguish him from the others, whose names they spell, Hoshea.
The prophet's name “Hosea” appears in the Bible only at
Hosea 1:1-2 ;
Romans 9:25 . Assyria's rise to power posed a constant threat to Israel's national existence. Hosea's name symbolized the pressing need for national deliverance. His message pointed the nation to the deliverer (
Hosea 13:4 ).
The Book The two broad divisions of the Book of Hosea are: (1) Hosea's Marriage, Hosea 1-3 ; and (2) Hosea's Messages, Hosea 4-14 . A pattern of judgment followed by hope recurs in each of the first three chapters. A similar pattern is discernible in the oracles of Hosea (Hosea 4-14 ), though the pattern is not balanced as neatly nor revealed as clearly. Certainly the book ends on a hopeful note (
Hosea 11:12-1200 ), but most of the oracles in Hosea 4-13 are judgmental in nature. The dominant theme of the book is love (covenant fidelity), God's unrelenting love for His wayward people and Israel's unreliable love for God.
The Prophet Hosea is identified in the title verse (
Hosea 1:1 ) as a genuine prophet to whom “the word of the Lord” came. That phrase designates the source of his authority and describes his credentials. Not only are Hosea's oracles (Hosea 4-14 ) the word of the Lord to Israel, but so also are the materials dealing with his domestic problems (Hosea 1-3 ). Based on information gleaned from his book, Hosea was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His familiarity with place names, religious practices, and political conditions in Israel suggests that he was a native. In contrast, Amos, who ministered as a prophet in Israel shortly before Hosea's ministry there, was from Tekoa in Judah. Both prophets preached judgment, Amos with a lion's roar and Hosea with a broken heart.
Placement of Hosea's ministry in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah indicates that he was a contemporary of Isaiah. The title verse of Isaiah contains the same list of Judean kings. Jeroboam II is the only Israelite king named in the title to Hosea's book, in spite of the fact that internal evidence suggests that Hosea's ministry continued from the last days of Jeroboam II to near the end of the Northern Kingdom (approximately 750-725 B.C.).
Hosea's prophetic ministry included the period of Near Eastern history when Assyria emerged as a new world empire under the capable leadership of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 B.C.). Hosea rebuked efforts at alliance with Assyria and Egypt as the means to national security. He witnessed the political chaos in Israel following the death of Jeroboam II. Four of the last six kings to sit on Israel's throne were assassinated. Hosea had the unenviable task of presiding over the death of his beloved nation, but he held out hope of national revival based on radical repentance (
Hosea 14:1 ).
The Marriage Hosea's marriage and family life dominate Hosea 1-3 and surface from time to time in the remainder of the book. References to Hosea's family serve as prophetic symbolism of God and His family Israel. God ordered Hosea to take a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry “for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord” (
Hosea 1:2 ). Primary interest is not in Hosea and his family, but in God and His family. How to interpret the prophet's marriage is not a settled issue. A few take the marriage to be an allegory. Some accept it as a literal marriage to a woman who became promiscuous after marriage. Most handle it as an actual marriage to a cult prostitute. Every interpreter must keep in mind the obvious intent of the material to serve as prophetic symbolism of God's relationship to Israel.
The Theology At the heart of Hosea's theology was the relationship between God and Israel. Yahweh alone was Israel's God. Israel was Yahweh's elect people. Hosea presented Yahweh as a faithful husband and Israel as an unfaithful wife. Hosea's stress is not upon righteousness and justice, as was the case with Amos, but the knowledge of God and loyal love. God's love for Israel would not permit Him to give up on them in spite of their lack of knowledge and infidelity. Hope for Israel's future lay in their repentance and God's forgiveness and love that made Him willing to restore their relationship.
Outline
I. God Loves His Unfaithful People (
Hosea 1:1-3:5 ).
A. God's forgiveness has its limits (
Hosea 1:1-9 ).
B. God promises a future reversal of His judgment upon His people (
Hosea 1:10-2:1 ).
1. The promise is based on God's earlier word to Abraham (
Hosea 1:10 ).
2. The promise will result in a united people (
Hosea 2:1 ).
3. The promise is a prediction of restored relationships (
Hosea 8:4-657 ).
C. God works with His people to bring about reconciliation (
Hosea 2:2-15 ).
1. God's legal actions call for His people's reform (
Hosea 2:2-5 ).
2. God places obstacles in the path of His people to turn them back to God (
Hosea 2:6-8 ).
3. God removes the bounty of His people to remind them that God is the Giver (
Hosea 2:9-13 ).
4. God lures His people into the wilderness to open a door of hope (
Hosea 2:14-15 ).
D. God initiates a new covenant with His people (
Hosea 2:16-23 ).
1. God will remove the pagan elements of their worship (
Hosea 2:16-17 ).
2. God will restore His people to a right relationship with the animal kingdom (
Hosea 2:18 ).
3. God will abolish war and grant peace and security to His people (
Hosea 2:18 ).
4. God will establish a new and permanent relationship with His people based on His character (
Hosea 2:19-20 ).
5. God will bless His restored covenant people (
Hosea 2:21-23 ).
E. God's love is the basis of future hope for His people (
Hosea 3:1-5 ).
1. God's love is strong enough to overcome the unfaithfulness of His people (
Hosea 3:1 ).
2. God's love is deep enough to redeem His people (
Hosea 3:2 ).
3. God's love is courageous enough to discipline His people (
Hosea 3:3-4 ).
4. God's love will ultimately win the return of His people (
Hosea 3:5 ).
II. Unfaithfulness Is the Basis of God's Controversy with His People (
Hosea 4:1-9:9 ).
A. Unfaithful people break covenant commitments (
Hosea 4:1-3 ).
B. Unfaithful ministers bring judgment on the people and on themselves (
Hosea 4:4-12 ).
C. An alien spirit dominates unfaithful people (
Hosea 4:12-19 ).
D. God chastises His unfaithful people (
Hosea 5:1-15 ).
1. God disciplines unfaithful leaders (
Hosea 5:1-2 ).
2. God disciplines because He knows His people fully (
Hosea 5:3 ).
3. Pride prevents repentance and promotes stumbling (
Hosea 5:4-5 ).
4. Extravagant giving is no substitute for lapses in living (
Hosea 5:6-7 ).
5. God is the agent of punishment for His people (
Hosea 5:8-14 ).
6. God seeks the return of His people through discipline (
Hosea 5:15 ).
E. Surface repentance does not satisfy the sovereign God (
Hosea 6:1-3 ).
F. Sharp judgment comes upon fleeting loyalty (
Hosea 6:4-5 ).
G. Loyal love and personal knowledge of God meet His requirements (
Hosea 6:6 ).
H. Covenant-breaking hinders restoration of God's people (
Hosea 6:7-7:2 ).
I. Making leaders by power politics shuts God out of the process (
Hosea 7:3-7 ).
J. Compromise leads to loss of strength and alienation from God (
Hosea 7:8-10 ).
K. Diplomatic duplicity interferes with God's redemptive activity (
Hosea 7:11-13 ).
L. Religious perversion ends in apostasy and bondage (
Hosea 7:14-16 ).
M. God's unfaithful people reap more than they sow (
Hosea 8:1-9:9 ).
1. The unfaithful disregard divine law (
Hosea 8:1-2 ).
2. The unfaithful reject God's goodness (
Hosea 8:3 ).
3. The unfaithful practice idolatory (1618389502_6 ).
4. The unfaithful will reap foreign domination (
Hosea 8:7-10 ).
5. The unfaithful will reap religious and moral corruption (
Hosea 8:11-13 ).
6. The unfaithful will reap national destruction (
Hosea 8:13-14 ).
7. The unfaithful will reap exile in a foreign land (
Hosea 9:1-4 ).
8. The unfaithful will reap punishment for their sins (
Hosea 9:5-9 ).
III. God's Loyal Love Is the Only Basis for a Lasting Relationship with His People (
Hosea 9:10-14:9 ).
A. Without God's love His people perish (
Hosea 9:10-17 ).
B. Without reverence for God, His people have no future (
Hosea 10:1-8 ).
1. Ornate altars cannot hide deceitful hearts (
Hosea 10:1-2 ).
2. Bad leaders produce bad times (
Hosea 10:3-8 ).
C. Without righteousness God's people cannot experience God's unfailing love (
Hosea 10:9-15 ).
D. God's love for His people will not allow Him to give them up (
Hosea 11:1-11 ).
E. Covenant-making with alien powers is infidelity to God (1618389502_8:1 ).
F. Judgment according to deeds is a universal principle (
Hosea 12:2-6 ).
G. Deception is repaid by destruction (
Hosea 12:7-14 ).
H. Rebellion against God leads to death (
Hosea 13:1-16 ).
I. Repentance results in restoration and life for God's people (
Hosea 14:1-9 ).
Billy K. Smith
Easton's Bible Dictionary -
Hosea, Prophecies of
The second part, containing 4-14, is a summary of Hosea's discourses, filled with denunciations, threatenings, exhortations, promises, and revelations of mercy.
Quotations from Hosea are found in
Matthew 2:15 ; 9:15 ; 12:7 ;
Romans 9:25,26 . There are, in addition, various allusions to it in other places (
Luke 23:30 ;
Revelation 6:16 , Compare
Hosea 10:8 ;
Romans 9:25,26 ;
1 Peter 2:10 , Compare
Hosea 1:10 , etc.).
As regards the style of this writer, it has been said that "each verse forms a whole for itself, like one heavy toll in a funeral knell." "Inversions (7:8; 9:11,13; 12:: 8), anacolutha (9:6; 12:8, etc.), ellipses (9:4; 13:9, etc.), paranomasias, and plays upon words, are very characteristic of (
Hosea 8:7 ; 9:15 ; 10:5 ; 11:5 ; 12:11 )."
The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary -
Hosea
âthe Prophet. His name is the same as that of Joshua, and signifies a Saviour. He was the son of Beevi. He is placed the first of what is called the minor prophets; not so called as if the writings of those holy men of old were considered less important than othersânot soâbut the reason of their being called minor prophets, was on account of the bulk of their prophetical writings being less. Very highly indebted hath the church been, in all ages, for their ministry; and believers in the present hour, find daily cause to bless God the Holy Ghost, for the instrumentality of those men. Hosea began to prophecy very early in the church, prehaps, as some think, the first of all the prophets whose writings have been preserved in the canon of Scripture; and he continued through several reigns, as the preface in his first chapter shews. On the subject of his marriage with Gomer,
(See Gomer)
some have thought, that this was a parable, and only intended by the Lord in a figurative way, to shew the Lord's grace to his adulterous Israel and Judah. But certainly the thing itself is real. And wherefore should it be more improbable, in the case of Hosea's marrying an adulteress, than in Jeremiah's instance, and in the case of Ezekiel also, being continued types of the doctrines they were directed to deliver to the people.
I cannot take leave of the history of Hosea without first desiring the reader to remark with me, what numberless things we discover in this man's writings, pointing to the person, offices, relation, and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. What grace, mercy, love, and condescension in the Lord marrying our adulterous nature! What blessedness is set forth in that betrothing nature, for ever! What sweet views of Jesus doth this man's writings give concerning his recoveries of his people under all their backslidings, and departures, and rebellions, and ingratitude! Surely, it is impossible for any enlightened eye to read the records of the prophet, and not perceive the Saviour in almost every chapter and verse, from beginning to end, And how blessed was it and gracious in God the Holy Ghost, in those distant ages from Christ, when the prophecy of Hosed was delivered; and how blessed and gracious now in our day, upon whom "the ends of the world are come;" that this man's ministry should be made instrumental to comfort and refresh both, concerning the glorious person, love, grace, and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a sweet proof of the constant and unceasing love watching over and blessing the church of Jesus, by God the Holy Ghost, (See
Isaiah 27:3)
There was another Hosea in the church, who was last king of Israel. (See
2 Kings 17:1)
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology -
Hosea, Theology of
Foundational to Hosea's message and teaching about God are his marriage to Gomer and her departure after the birth of three children. The opening surprise of the book is that God initiated Hosea's marriage to this harlot (1:2); but the greater, unexpected surprise is that he tells Hosea to find his adulterous wife, bring her back, and love her again (3:1-2). Hosea's personal tragedy speaks to readers at the deepest level, moving them emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
Hosea's theology brings together an awareness of God as holy (11:9,12) and sovereign (12:5) with an appreciation for his actions as husband (2:16) and parent (11:1-4) toward his people. Hosea's theology is not remotely theoretical but grows out of a grassroots understanding of his people as illustrated by frequent allusions to historical events and places and his personal involvement.
The details of Hosea's marriage begin the book but are quickly dropped as the focus shifts away from the personal life of Hosea to the relationship between God and Israel. Immortalized in this event that transcends culture are the message and emotions of God. The love, care, and feelings of God for his people as he calls for their return in the face of imminent judgment are a major part of Hosea's theology.
Fueling the symbolism of Hosea's marriage was the covenant, which provided a legal form for the expression and governance of the relationship God desired with his people. For Israel it provided a blueprint for the historical foundation of their faith and gave tangible evidence for God's requirements. At the same time it provided God with an acceptable witness to their loyalty and love. The Book of Hosea is a commentary on that relationship. It moves from the heights of an intimate knowledge, symbolized by marriage and paternal love, to the depths of anguish and despair over Israel's apostasy and idolatry as pictured by the adultery of Gomer.
The love of God for his people is more graphically portrayed by Hosea than any other Old Testament prophet. Refusing to give up on Israel, God continued to seek their return even in their apostate condition. Judgment and exile would come but restoration and future hope were always in sight. Israel would not be annihilated like the cities around Sodom but preserved (11:8-9).
God's continual provision for his people was further evidence of his love. Hosea likens God's care for Israel to that of a parent who daily provides for a child. In one of the most moving images in the book God depicts his paternal care for Israel when he says, "I bent down to feed them" (11:4). Through Hosea's life and message we see the strength of God's feeling for Israel—his compassion (11:8), his love (11:4), and his longing to be with them (7:13).
Yet, while glimmers of hope permeate the prophet's oracles God's judgment is given a more prominent place in his theology. After years of waywardness God was going to scatter the Israelites among the nations whose gods they served. In keeping with previous revelation the Lord would not allow his people to continue to violate their relationship with him. Just as an adulteress was stripped naked and expelled from her house (2:3,10) so too the land would be denuded of God's blessings (2:9-12; 9:2) and its people sent into exile (5:14; 9:15-17). The graciousness and mercy of God did not include ignoring sin!
Hosea's understanding of sin and its effects upon people is vividly presented through his own marriage and the list of crimes levied against his people. Enumerated are social, moral, political, and religious evils (4:2; 6:9; 7:1; 12:1). Attention is called to Israel's pride (5:5; 7:10), false trust (5:13; 8:14; 10:13), and violent actions (4:2; 6:9; 12:1). Paramount, however, was their neglected and broken relationship with God.
Impending judgment was a result of their breaking the covenant. Punishment was outlined in the covenant stipulations, which they had violated at every turn. Just as Jacob of old (12:2) they would reap the disaster of their ways (4:9; 8:7; 10:13). God sent his prophets to warn the people (6:5; 12:10), but eventually he allowed an enemy to conquer them and devastate the land (10:14; 13:16) with none to deliver them (13:10). Even future generations would be affected by their sin (4:14; 9:11-12,16).
Hosea focuses on Israel's accountability with specific reference to the covenant requirements. The covenant blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 28 ) as well as the required reading of the law (
Deuteronomy 31:10-13 ) were constant reminders of the people's obligation to the Lord. Despite God's warnings to the contrary Israel forgot God (2:13; 4:6). Turning away from God they took the fruits of the land and offered them to pagan idols, eventually attributing the source of these blessings to the gods of Canaan (2:8; 11:1). In contrast to Israel's unfaithfulness Hosea presents God as one who remembers and provides for Israel.
A major theological theme developed by the prophet is the concept of the knowledge of God. Hosea uses this concept to show the extent of God's relationship with his people and its reciprocal nature. The verb "to know" reflects both the intimacy of a relationship and mutual recognition on the part of suzerain and vassal. God's legal case against Israel was that there was "no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land" (4:1). But this was not a passive situation. Israel had willfully rejected the knowledge of God and would be judged accordingly (4:6). The key to the knowledge of God was obedience that came from the heart. God's reminder "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" (6:6) confirmed that their religious practices were without proper motivation and therefore worthless.
While God knew Israel (5:3) in the closeness of a relationship that could be imaged by marriage, Israel no longer knew God (2:8; 11:3). Their actions led them farther away from God (4:6; 5:4) and although they thought they still knew him (8:2) their actions proved otherwise. God announced his judgment so that Israel would realize the consequences (9:7-9). In the end, however, God's love would triumph by bringing back Israel to himself as Hosea did Gomer, by paying a price. Israel would once again know the Lord (2:20).
Undoubtedly the most blatant rejection of God was Israel's idolatry. It distorted their thinking and ultimately replaced God with another (4:11-12). Gomer's adulterous affairs provided penetrating images of Israel's apostasy and revealed the hurt and disaster associated with idolatryhurt suffered by God and disaster suffered by the people since the eventual outcome led to exile and destruction.
Fueled by a fertility cult religion Israel's neighbors linked productivity of the land, animals, and people with their gods. Caught up in the rituals of this fertility cult Israel attributed the gifts of God to pagan gods (2:8). Years of participation led them so far from the Lord that they could not return. They had developed a spirit of prostitution in their hearts (5:4;
cf. 4:12). Altars and idols were proliferated (8:4,11), with special emphasis on the bull (8:5-6; 10:5; 13:2). Hosea understands idolatry's grip upon the people. Their pride and arrogance caused them to pursue it more vehemently. They multiplied altars and alliances, which drove them farther from God (5:4-5). In an inescapable spiral this path led them even farther away from God (11:2) until they completely corrupted themselves (9:10). God, however, would not force them to return (4:17), but sadly watched as they withdrew from him (4:17; 11:8).
By emphasizing Israel's idolatry Hosea underscores both the waywardness of Israel and the jealousy of God. Having chosen, cared for, and entered into a special relationship with his people, God would accept no rival, especially the emptiness of idolatry. In the end God would destroy their idols (10:2).
Predating the parable of the prodigal son Hosea portrays Israel as realizing that the best days were those spent close to God (2:7,15). Israel had been taught the way back and the mercy of God (6:1-3), but they were blinded by arrogance and adultery (7:10,16; 11:7). Instead of moving back to God they went to their idols and formed alliances with Egypt and Assyria (7:11; 11:5).
For the most part God's endeavors to reach them went unheeded. Israel's half-hearted attempts to return were met by his absence (4:17; 5:6). True repentance was to be evidenced by internal (7:14) and external change (14:2-3). God wanted actioncovenant loyalty that evidenced kindness in action, justice at all levels, and a knowledge that portrayed the Lord's righteousness (6:6; 10:12; 12:6)but Israel offered insincerity and rejected God (6:4; 8:2-3).
Hosea never waivers from his understanding of the Lord as sovereign. God was in control of the situation rather than Israel and certainly not their impotent idols. Hosea effectively brings out the tension God felt as he agonized over the demands of his holiness and his love for his people. This is portrayed by Hosea with surprising force when the Lord says: "My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused" (11:8). God's justice meant that he would bring judgment upon them; his holiness meant that it was inescapable. But judgment, applied by a gracious Lord, is also discipline and effective discipline seeks restoration rather than alienation so God worked to restore his people to himself (2:12). In language reminiscent of a lover Hosea presents God as alluring and speaking tenderly to Israel to affect her return (2:14).
Hosea's eschatology is built upon the covenant relationship as administered by a sovereign Lord. The oscillation between hope and the certain judgment parallels the tension God feels between loving and judging his people. God's love, so powerfully illustrated by Hosea, reached beyond the people's stubborn rebellion and offered a future hope. But Hosea does not play God against himself. He presents restoration as God's planned goal in light of Israel's repentance, a repentance nurtured and won by God (2:14-16).
Restoration, however, depended upon genuine confession (5:15) and repentance (6:1-3). In its full form restoration would bring both physical and spiritual blessings. Hosea envisioned a new betrothal (2:19) and a new relationship (1:10; 2:16) that would produce the true covenant fruit of righteousness, justice, love, compassion, and knowledge (2:19-20). Material blessings of peace (2:18), unity (1:10-11), and productivity of the land (2:21-22) would also characterize this new relationship. Although judgment was inevitable God desired restoration reaching even to the grave (13:14).
Attempts to sever from the prophet's words the message of hope and the invitation to return that concludes the book have not effectively dealt with the continuity of its perspective. The allusions to a new, restored relationship so strongly portrayed in Hosea's marriage and by the names of his children are effectively balanced at the end of the book, which encloses the judgment of God within the parameters of his love and mercy. The people were challenged to understand that their salvation was only in God (13:4), anticipating the full scope of God's redemption through Christ.
Robert D. Spender
See also Israel ; Prophet, Prophetess, Prophecy
Bibliography . F. Anderson and D. N. Freedman, Hosea ; H. L. Ellison, The Prophets of Israel ; D. A. Hubbard, Hosea ; H. B. Huffmon, BASOR 181 (1966): 31-37; D. Kidner, Love to the Loveless ; J. L. Mays, Hosea ; N. H. Snaith, Mercy and Sacrifice ; J. O. Strange, Rev Exp 82 (1967): 437-48; D. Stuart, Hosea-Jonah .
Easton's Bible Dictionary -
Hosea
Salvation, the son of Beeri, and author of the book of prophecies bearing his name. He belonged to the kingdom of Israel. "His Israelitish origin is attested by the peculiar, rough, Aramaizing diction, pointing to the northern part of Palestine; by the intimate acquaintance he evinces with the localities of Ephraim (5:1; 6:8,9; 12:12; 14:6, etc.); by passages
like 1:2, where the kingdom is styled 'the land',
and 7:5, where the Israelitish king is designated as 'our' king." The period of his ministry (extending to some sixty years) is indicated in the superscription (
Hosea 1:1,2 ). He is the only prophet of Israel who has left any written prophecy.
Chabad Knowledge Base -
Hosea
(a) (7th century BCE) A contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Micah, he prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II. He called for the masses to return to G-d and avoid divine retribution.
Hosea, the Book of: The book of Tanach containing Hosea's prophecies, many of them reproving Israel for their faithlessness to G-d, warning of exile, and foretelling the future redemption.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible -
Hosea
HOSEA . The name of the prophet Hosea, though distinguished by the English translators, is identical with that of the last king of Israel and with the original name of Joshua; in these cases it appears in the EV
as Hoshea. Hosea, the son of Beeri, is the only prophet, among those whose writings have survived, who was himself a native of the Northern Kingdom. The main subject of the prophecy of Amos is the Northern Kingdom, but Amos himself was a native of the South; so also were Isaiah and Micah, and these two prophets, though they included the Northern Kingdom in their denunciations, devoted themselves mainly to Judah.
Hosea’s prophetic career extended from shortly before the fall of the house of Jerohoam ii. ( c
. b.c. 746) to shortly before the outbreak of the Syro-Ephraimitish war in b.c. 735 a period of rapidly advancing decay following on the success and prosperity of the reign of Jeroboam ii. He began to prophesy within some 10 or 15 years of the prophetic activity of Amos at Bethel, and continued to do so till some years after Isaiah had made his voice heard and his influence felt in the Southern Kingdom. Influenced himself probably by Amos, he seems to have exercised some influence over Isaiah; but these conclusions must rest on a comparison of the writings of the three prophets. Our direct knowledge of Hosea is derived entirely from the book which bears his name; be is mentioned nowhere else in the OT.
If the account given in the
1 JJames 3:1-18 rd chapters of Hosea were allegory, as many ancient and some modern interpreters have held, our knowledge of Hosea would be slight indeed. But since these chapters are clearly not allegorical, there are few prophets whose spiritual experience is better known to us. In favour of an allegorical interpretation the clearly symbolical character of the names of Hosea’s children has been urged; but the names of Isaiah’s children Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz are also symbolical (cf.
Isaiah 8:18 ). Moreover, if the narrative were allegorical, there would be just as much reason for the names of Hosea’s wife and her father as for the names of the children being symbolical; on the other hand, in real life it was within the power of the prophet to give symbolical names to the children, but not to his wife or her father. The names of Hosea’s wife, Gomer, and her father, Diblaim are not symbolical. Further, the reference to the weaning of Lo-ruhamah in
Isaiah 1:8 is purposeless in allegory, but natural enough in real life, since it serves to fix the interval between the birth of the two children.
The command in
Isaiah 1:2 has seemed to some, and may well seem, if prophetic methods of expression are forgotten, impossible except in allegory. It is as well, therefore, to approach the important narrative of Hosea with a recollection of such a method of describing experience as is illustrated by
Jeremiah 18:1-4 . This describes a perfectly familiar scene. The incident, translated out of prophetic language, is as follows. On an impulse Jeremiah one day went down to watch, as he must often have watched before, a potter at his work; but on this particular day the potter’s work taught him a new lesson. Then he recognized (1) that the impulse that had led him that day was from Jahweh, and (2) that the new suggestion of the potter’s wheel was a word from Jahweh. So again,
Jeremiah 32:6 f. describes what we should term a presentiment; after it was realized, it was recognized to have been a word from Jahweh (
Jeremiah 32:8 ). Interpreted in the light of these illustrations of prophetic methods of speech, the narrative of
Hosea 1:1-11 gives us an account of the experience of Hosea, as follows. Driven by true love in which, probably enough, Hosea at the time felt the approval, not to say the direct impulse of Jahweh, Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. After marriage she proved unfaithful, and Hosea heard that the woman whom he had been led by Jahweh to marry had had within her all along the tendency to unfaithfulness. She was not at the time of marriage an actual harlot, but, had Hosea only fully understood, he would have known when he married her, as these years afterwards he has come to know, that when Jahweh said, ‘Go, marry Gomer,’ He was really saying ‘Go, marry a woman who will bestow her love on others.’ His new, sad knowledge does not make him feel less but more that his marriage had been ordered of God. Not only through the love of youth, but even more through the conflict and the treachery and the ill-return which his love has received, Jahweh is speaking. Had Hosea spoken just like Jeremiah, he might have continued: ‘Then I discovered that my wife had played the harlot, and that my children were not mine. Then I knew that this was the word of Jahweh, and Jahweh said unto me: Even as the bride of thy youth has played the harlot, even so has My bride, Israel, played the harlot: even as thy children are children of harlotry, even so are the children of Israel children of harlotry, sons of the Baals whom they worship.’
Apparently Hosea reached the conclusion that none of the children were his; he calls them without exception ‘children of harlotry’ (
Hosea 1:2 ). But the name Jezreel (
Hosea 1:4 ) certainly does not suggest that at the birth of his firstborn he was already aware of his wife’s unfaithfulness, the name of the second, Lo-ruhamah (‘Not pitied,’
Hosea 1:6 ), does not prove it, and even that of the third child, Lo-ammi (‘Not my kinsman,’
Hosea 1:9 ), may merely carry further the judgment on the nation expressed unquestionably in the first and probably in the second. In any case we may somewhat safely infer that Hosea became a prophet before he had learned his wife’s unfaithfulness, and that in his earnest preaching he, like Amos, denounced inhumanity as offensive to God; for this is the purpose of the name Jezreel ; the house of Jehu, established by means of bloodshed and inhumanity (
Hosea 1:4 ), is about to be punished. ‘Kindness not sacrifice’ (
Hosea 6:6 ) must have been the ideal of religion which from the first Hosea held up before his people.
It has generally been inferred that Hosea’s wife subsequently left him (or that he put her away), but that at last in his love for her, which could not be quenched, he rescued her from the life of shame into which she had sunk (ch 3). And this perhaps remains most probable, though Marti has lately argued with much ability (1) that ch. 3 does not refer to Gomer, (2) that, unlike ch. 1, ch. 3 is allegorical, and (3) that ch. 3 formed no part of the original Book of Hosea. Be this as it may, it is clear that although the circumstances of Hosea’s married life were not the cause of his becoming a prophet, they do explain certain peculiar characteristics of his message and personality: his insistence on the love of God for Israel, and on Israel’s sin as consisting in the want of love and of loyalty towards God; and the greater emotional element that marks him as compared with Amos. At the same time, it is important not to exaggerate the difference between Amos and Hosea, of to lose sight of the fact that Hosea not less than Amos or Isaiah or Micah insisted on the worthlessness of religion or of devotion to Jahweh which was not ethical ( Jezreel ,
Hosea 1:4 ;
Hosea 6:6 ). In considering the greater sympathy of Hosea with the people whom he has to condemn, it must he remembered that he was of them, whereas Amos, a native of the South, was not.
G. B. Gray.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible -
Hosea, Book of
HOSEA, BOOK OF . The Book of Hosea formed the first section of a collection of prophetic writings which was formed after the Exile, probably towards the close of the 3rd century b.c., and entitled ‘The Twelve Prophets’ (see Micah
). The greater part of the Book of Hosea clearly consists of the writings of Hosea, the son of Beeri, who prophesied in the 8th cent. b.c. (see preced. art.), but it also contains the annotations or additions of editors who lived between the 8th and the 3rd centuries. It is not always possible to determine with certainty these editorial portions of the book.
Though we have no positive evidence to this effect, there is no reason to doubt that Hosea himself committed to writing the prophetic poems by which he gave expression to his message and of which the greater part of the Book of Hosea consists (chs.
Hosea 2:4-14 ), and that he prefixed to these the prose narrative of his life (chs. 1, 3, see Hosea) with which the hook now opens. It is possible, of course, that Hosea first circulated in writing single poems or a collection of two or three; but the complete collection, though scarcely made later than 735, since the prophecies make no allusion to the Syro-Ephraimitish war which broke out in that year, cannot be much earlier than 735, since the prophecies make allusions to the circumstances of the period that followed the death, in about b.c. 746, of Jerohoam ii. (anarchy,
Hosea 7:3-7 ,
Hosea 8:4 ; cf.
2 Kings 15:8-26 ; factions favouring appeal to Egypt and Assyria respectively,
Hosea 5:13 ,
Hosea 7:11 ,
Hosea 8:9 ,
Hosea 12:1 ), and probably in particular to the payment of tribute by Menahem to Tiglath-pileser
, which took place in b.c. 738 (
Hosea 5:13 ,
Hosea 10:5-6 ). Again, the opening narrative (ch. 1), though it describes Hosea’s life and teaching before the death of Jeroboam ii. (
Hosea 1:4 , see Hosea), was not written until some years later, for it also records the birth of Lo-ammi (
Hosea 1:9 ), which was separated by hardly less and possibly more than 5 years from the date of Hosea’s marriage.
In its earliest form, then, the Book of Hosea was published by the prophet about the year 736 in the Northern Kingdom . Now, in common with all literature of the Northern Kingdom, Hosea owes its preservation to the care of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. It is tolerably certain that the Jews who preserved the book adapted it for Jewish use; in other words, that the Book of Hosea as we have it is a Jewish edition of the writings of an Israelite prophet. The hand of a Jewish editor (and in this case a somewhat late one) is perhaps clearest in the title (
Hosea 1:1 ), for Hosea, a citizen of the Northern Kingdom and addressing himself to the North, would scarcely date his prophecy by kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, nor would a contemporary be likely to equate the days of Uzziah and his successors with the days of Jeroboam, since Uzziah himself outlived Jeroboam. With more or less reason, additions to or modifications of Hosea’s work by Jewish editors have been suspected in
Hosea 1:7 ,
Hosea 1:10 to
Hosea 2:1 ,
Hosea 3:5 (‘and David their king’)
Hosea 4:15 a,
Hosea 5:5 (last clause)
Hosea 6:11 ,
Hosea 8:14 ,
Hosea 10:11 ,
Hosea 11:12 b. In several other cases (
Hosea 5:10 ;
Hosea 5:12-14 ,
Hosea 6:4 ,
Hosea 12:2 ) it is possible that the editor has pointed the original prophecies at his own people of the South by substituting ‘Judah’ where Hosea had written ‘Israel’; thus, although at present Jacob-Judah are mentioned in
Hosea 12:2 , the terms ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel,’ synonyms for the people of the Northern Kingdom, were certainly in the mind of the writer of
Hosea 12:2-3 , for in
Hosea 12:3 he puns on these names: ‘In the womb he Jacobed his brother, and in his manhood Israeled with God.’
Another whole group of passages has been suspected of consisting of additions to Hosea’s prophecies. These are the passages of promise (
Hosea 1:10 to
Hosea 2:1 ,
Hosea 2:14-23 ,
Hosea 3:1-5 Hosea 5:15 ,
Hosea 6:3 ,
Hosea 6:11 :10,
Hosea 6:11 , 14). There is little doubt that such passages were added to ancient prophecies, but it is not yet by any means generally admitted that the early prophets made no promises of a brighter future beyond judgment.
Apart from the intentional modifications of the original words of Hosea by later editors, the text has suffered very seriously from accidents of transmission. To some extent the Greek version allows us to see an earlier Hebrew text than that perpetuated by the Jews from which the EV
is made. The English reader will find the translation from a critically emended text by Dr. G. A. Smith ( Book of the Twelve Prophets , vol. i.) of great assistance. The best English commentary is that by W. R. Harper in the International Critical Commentary .
G. B. Gray.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary -
Hosea, the Book of
Fausset's Bible Dictionary -
Hosea
Placed first of the minor prophets in the canon (one collective whole "the book of the prophets,"
Acts 7:42), probably because of the length, vivid earnestness, and patriotism of his prophecies, as well as their resemblance to those of the greater prophets, Chronologically Jonah was before him, 862 B.C., Joel about 810 B.C., Amos 790 B.C., Hosea 784 to 722 B.C., more or less contemporary with Isaiah and Amos. Began prophesying in the last years of Jeroboam II, contemporary with Uzziah; ended at the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. The prophecies of his extant are only those portions of his public teachings which the Holy Spirit preserved, as designed for the benefit of the uuiversal church. His name means salvation. Son of Beeri, of Issachar; born in Bethshemesh.
His pictures of Israelite life, the rival factions calling in Egypt and Assyria, mostly apply to the interreign after Jeroboam's death and to the succeeding reigns, rather than to his able government. In
Hosea 2:8 he makes no allusion to Jehovah's restoration of Israel's coasts under Jeroboam among Jehovah's mercies to Israel. He mentions in the inscription, besides the reign of Jeroboam in Israel, the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, though his prophecies are addressed primarily to Israel and only incidentally to Judah; for all the prophets whether in Judah or Israel regarded Israel's separation from Judah, civil as well as religious, as an apostasy from God who promised the kingship of the theocracy to the line of David. Hence Elijah in Israel took twelve stones to represent Judah as well as Israel (
1 Kings 18:31). Eichhorn sees a Samaritanism in the masculine suffix of the second person (-ak ).
STYLE AND SUBJECT. Abrupt, sententious, and unperiodic, he is the more weighty and impressive. Brevity causes obscurity, the obscurity being designed by the Spirit to call forth prayerful study. Connecting particles are few. Changes of person, and anomalies of gender, number, and construction, abound. Horsley points out the excessively local and individual tone of his prophecies. He specifies Ephraim, Mizpah, Tabor, Gilgal, Bethel or Bethaven, Jezreel, Gibeah, Ramah, Gilead, Shechem, Lebanon, Arbela. Israel's sin, chastisement, and restoration are his theme. His first prophecy announces the coming overthrow of Jehu's house, fulfilled after Jeroboam's death, which the prophecy precedes, in Zachariah, Jeroboam's son, who was the fourth and last in descent from Jehu, and conspired against by Shallum after a six months' reign (
2 Kings 15:12).
The allusion to Shalmaneser's expedition against Israel as past, i.e. the first inroad against Hoshea whose reign began only four years before Hezekiah's, accords with the inscription which extends his prophesying to the reign of Hezekiah (
2 Kings 17:1;
2 Kings 17:3;
2 Kings 18:9). He declares throughout that a return to Jehovah is the only remedy for the evils existing and impending: the calf worship at Bethel, established by Jeroboam, must be given up (
Hosea 8:5-6;
Hosea 10:5;
Hosea 13:2); unrighteousness toward men, the necessary consequence of impiety towards God, must cease, or sacrifices are worthless (
Romans 9:25-262;
Hosea 6:6, based on Samuel's original maxim,
1 Samuel 15:22). The Pentateuch is the foundation of his prophecies.
Here as there God's past favors to Israel are made the incentive to loving obedience (
Hosea 2:8;
Hosea 11:1;
Hosea 12:9;
Hosea 13:4, compare
Exodus 20:2). Literal fornication and adultery follow close upon spiritual (
Hosea 4:12-14). Assyria, the great northern power, which Israel foolishly regards as her friend to save her from her acknowledged calamities, Hosea foresees will be her destroyer (
Hosea 5:13;
Hosea 7:11;
Hosea 8:9;
Hosea 12:1;
Hosea 14:3;
Hosea 3:4;
Hosea 10:6;
Hosea 11:11). Political makeshifts to remedy moral corruption only hasten the disaster which they seek to avert; when the church leans on the world in her distress, instead of turning to God, the world the instrument of her sin is made the instrument of her punishment.
Hosea is driven by the nation's evils, present and in prospect, to cling the more closely to God. Amidst his rugged abruptness soft and exquisite touches occur, where God's lovingkindness, balmy as the morning sun and genial as the rain, stands in contrast to Israel's goodness, evanescent as the cloud and the early dew (
Hosea 6:3-4; compare also
Hosea 13:3;
Hosea 14:5-7).
DIVISIONS. There are two leading ones: Hosea 1-3; Hosea 4-14. Hosea 1; Hosea 2; and Hosea 3 form three separate cantos or parts, for Hosea 1-3 are more prose than poetry. Probably Hosea himself under the Spirit combined his scattered prophecies into one collection. Hosea 4-14, are an expansion of Hosea 3. On his marriage to Gomer, Henderson thinks that there is no hint of its being in vision, and that she fell into lewdness after her union with Hosea, thus fitly symbolizing Israel who lapsed into spiritual whoredom after the marriage contract with God on Sinai. (See GOMER.) But an act revolting to a pure mind would hardly be ordained by God save in vision, which serves all the purposes of a vivid and as it were acted prophecy. So the command to Ezekiel (
Hosea 4:4-15).
Moreover it would require years for the birth of three children, which would weaken the force of the symbol. In order effectively to teach others Hosea must experimentally realize it himself (
Hosea 12:10). Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, was probably one associated with the lascivious rites of the prevalent idolatries. Hosea's union in vision with such an one in spite of his natural repugnance would vividly impress the people with God's amazing love in uniting Himself to so polluted a nation. Hosea's taking her back after adultery (Hosea 3), at the price of a slave, marks Israel's extreme degradation and Jehovah's unchangeable love yet about to restore her. The truth expressed by prophetic act in vision was Israel's idolatry (spiritual impurity, "a wife of whoredoms") before her call in Egypt and in Ur of the Chaldees (
Joshua 24:14) as well as after it.
So also the Saviour took out of an unholy world the church, that He might unite her in holiness to Himself. No more remarkable prophecy exists of Israel's anomalous and extraordinary state for thousands of years, and of her future restoration, than
Hosea 3:4-5; "Israel shall abide many days without a king (which they so craved for originally), without a sacrifice (which their law requires as essential to their religion), without an image ... ephod ... teraphim (which they were in Hosea's days so mad after). Afterward shall Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king ... in the latter days." But first must come her spiritual probation in the wilderness of trial (
Hosea 2:14) and her return to the Egypt of affliction (
Hosea 8:13;
Hosea 9:3), not literal "Egypt" (
Hosea 11:5).
New Testament references:
Hosea 11:1 =
Matthew 2:15;
Hosea 6:6 =
Matthew 9:13;
Matthew 12:7;
Hosea 1:10;
Hosea 2:1-23 = 1618389502_16;
Hosea 13:14 =
1 Corinthians 15:55;
Hosea 1:9-10;
Hosea 2:23 =
1 Peter 2:10;
Hosea 10:8 =
Luke 23:30;
Revelation 6:16;
Hosea 4:2 =
1 Corinthians 15:4;
Hosea 14:2 =
Hebrews 13:15. The later prophets also stamp with their inspired sanction Hosea's prophecies, which they quote. Compare
Hosea 1:11 with
Isaiah 11:12-13;
Hosea 4:3 with
Zephaniah 1:3;
Hosea 4:6 with
Isaiah 5:13;
Hosea 7:10 with
Isaiah 9:12-13;
Hosea 10:12 with
Jeremiah 4:3. (See OSHEA.)
1910 New Catholic Dictionary -
Hosea, Book of
(Hebrew: deliverance)
One of the minor prophets whose career is known only by his prophecy. The introductory verses record that he carried on his ministry during the reigns of the Judean kings Ozias, Joathan, Achaz and Ezechias; and in the days of Jeroboam II the son of Joas, king of Israel. Assuming that Jeroboam commenced his reign in 783 B.C., and that Ezechias ascended the throne in 721, we must conclude that Osee brought God's message to "the people for a period of 60 years. The field of his activity lay in the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of the 10 tribes that seceded from the house of Juda after the death of Solomon. The book is the first of the so-called Minor Prophets. It consists of 14 chapters, and presents only a brief summary of the message conveyed during a long career. It is difficult to arrive at any definite scheme of division which will satisfy all readers. Brevity commends the tri-partite sketch. The first part runs through three chapters, which assuredly form a connected whole. In a vivid and graphic discourse he portrays Israel as the faithless Bride. Despite her infidelities her Divine Lover remains true to her, induces her to repent and return to her First Love. The second part covers chapters
4 to 9:9. Here God reproaches Israel with her manifold sins, which culminated in a violation of her Covenant with God, and cry out for vengeance. The third part comprises
chapters 9:10 to 14:10. God contrasts His blessings with their ungrateful crimes, intimates the doom of puniahment, but concludes with an exhortation to repentance and the vista of dawning salvation. He is the prophet of God's incredible fidelity in His love for wayward men. The prophet is overpowered with emotion so that his sentences spurt forth abruptly and disconnectedly; they are strung together, not by logic but by powerful sentiment. His imagery is rich and varied. His rhetoric is colorful and dramatic. The canonicity of this book was never seriously questioned; this may be due to the frequency and fundamental bearing of the citations made in the New Testament. Twice does Our Lord repeat the familiar saying: "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." (Matthew 9,12; Osee 6), and in the Gospel of Saint Luke He repeats: "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills: 'Cover us!'" (Luke 23; Osee 10; Apocalypse 6). The remaining citations are: Osee, 10:1, in
Romans 9:26;
Osee 2:24, in
Romans 9:25, and
1 Peter 2:16;
Osee 6:3 in
1 Corinthians 15:4;
Osee 11:1 in
Matthew 2:15;
Osee 12:14 in
1 Corinthians 15:54 and
Hebrews 2:14. Used in the Breviary on the fourth Sunday of November and the following day. Used in the Missal on Good Friday; the lesson is taken from
Osee 6:1-6; on the Friday of the Ember week in September the Epistle is taken from
Osee 14:2-10. The half-verse, "Israel shall spring as the lily" (
Osee 14:6), occurs as a versicle on the feast of Saint Joseph, and on the feast of Saint John before the Latin Gate; also in commemorations of doctors, confessors not bishops, and abbots.
Hitchcock's Bible Names -
Hosea
Hoshea
Morrish Bible Dictionary -
Hosea
Nothing is related of the ancestors of the prophet Hosea. (whose name is identical with Hoshea) except that he was the son of Beeri. He prophesied in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam king of Israel. He is especially occupied with the moral condition of the people, principally of Israel, and the judgements that would follow. Israel is treated as in rebellion from the commencement. The prophecy divides itself thus: Hosea 1 - Hosea 3 give God's purposes respecting Israel; and in Hosea 4 — Hosea 14 the people are addressed: there are minor sub-divisions.
Hosea was to act a parable, by taking a 'wife of whoredoms,' which may mean that the woman that he was to take would be unfaithful to him; but grace abounds over sin. Hosea's wife was symbolical of Israel who had been unfaithful to Jehovah. He took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who bore him a son, who, by the Lord's direction, was called Jezreel. (a place that had witnessed the judgements of God.
2 Kings 9:30-37 ). The prophet's wife then bare a daughter, and her name was called Lo-ruhamah, 'not having obtained mercy:' no more mercy was to be shown to Israel. Again Gomer bare a son, and called his name Lo-ammi, 'not my people:' God would not acknowledge them as His. But a future blessing is at once announced to them, and those who had no claim to be God's people should be called 'sons of the living God.' Paul applies this to the Gentiles in
Romans 9:26 , as he does in
Romans 9:25 to the Jews (where Hosea, is called OSEE).
Hosea 2 . This introduces a remnant, the 'brethren' and 'sisters' of the prophet, those acted upon by the Spirit, to whom God's message was Ammi, 'my people;' and Ruhamah, 'received in mercy.' They will plead with their mother — Israel in the mass — and tell her that she was not the wife of Jehovah. She must be dealt with in judgement, but the valley of Achor (where God's anger was turned away,
Joshua 7:26 ) should be a door of hope. She will be able to call Jehovah Ishi , 'husband,' and not Baali , 'master.' Those that had not obtained mercy will obtain mercy; and those that had been declared 'not God's people' would be able to say, 'Thou art my God.' Cf.
1 Peter 2:10 .
Hosea 3 . This deals with the past, the present, and the future. Other details are given of their unfaithfulness and rejection. They should be many days without a king, or a sacrifice, or even an idol (as is the state of Israel in the present day); but they will afterwards return, and seek Jehovah and their king, that is Christ.
Hosea 4 . This commences the appeal to their consciences. The sins of the people are pointed out. Their prophets had failed, and the people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. The priests also had failed and it became 'like people, like priest.' In
Hosea 4:15 Judah is warned not to follow the evil example of Israel. In
Hosea 4:17 , as elsewhere, Israel is called Ephraim, that being the chief of the ten tribes.
Hosea 5 . The priests, the people, and the king are addressed. They had all sinned, and had been rebuked, but had not returned to Jehovah. Ephraim, instead of turning to Jehovah in his sickness, had sought the Assyrian — a king who could not cure them.
Hosea 6 , Hosea 7 . The prophet touchingly appeals to the people to return to Jehovah: it must be in reality, and not merely in outward forms. They had, like Adam (
Hosea 6:7 , instead of 'men'), transgressed the covenant: cf.
Romans 5:14 . The people encouraged the king and princes in their wickedness: their weakness was manifest, for strangers had devoured them. They would not turn to the Most High.
Hosea 8 . They are still threatened for their impiety. Israel had 'made many altars to sin,' and had leaned upon Assyria, an arm of flesh. Judah had trusted to her fenced cities: judgement should fall upon both.
Hosea 9 . This reveals a touching mixture of the prophet's affection for the people, and the judgements he is compelled to utter against them. Various illustrations are used to enforce his words.
Hosea 10 . Israel was an empty vine. They are reproached for their altars and the golden calves: they had sinned from the days of Gibeah. Cf.
Judges 19:15-25 .
Hosea 11 . Israel had been called out of Egypt, but the fulfilment of this call was verified in the history of the Lord.
Matthew 2:15 . For their sin they should be as Admah and Zeboim: cf.
Deuteronomy 29:23 . Assyria should be the place of their captivity. Jehovah yearned over them and would not destroy them, for He is God, not man.
Hosea 12 . The prophet enters into the detail of God's moral relationship with Israel, in order that the force of their being rejected by Him may convict them of their sin. They were to study how God had dealt with Jacob. The prophet in this chapter, as also in
Hosea 10:9 , refers to the beginning of evil in the history of the people. Jacob's character was reproduced in his descendants.
Hosea 13 . Here again is found the conflict between the prophet's affection for the people, and the punishment God was compelled to inflict. And here again, almost as soon as the punishment is pronounced, God's thoughts of grace are uttered.
Hosea 14 . This speaks of restoration. Iniquity is acknowledged and forgiveness asked. Assyria shall no more be appealed to, nor the work of their hands be called their God. Abundant blessing is then foretold. Ephraim will say, "What have I to do any more with idols?" God's answer, "I have heard him and observed him." Again Ephraim says, "I am like a green fir tree;" and the answer is, "From me is thy fruit found." The prophecy ends with the declaration that the wise and the prudent will grasp the things revealed; "for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein."
Thus the dealings of God with Israel and Judah are dealt with in Hosea more fully perhaps than in any other of the minor prophets. The learned look upon Hosea as the most difficult of the prophets to translate, its abrupt transitions being numerous and hard to understand, because of its dealing strictly with Jewish circumstances.
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament -
Hosea
(Ὠσηέ)
This prophet’s gracious words
in 2:23, containing a Divine promise that faithless Israel will be restored to God’s favour and be for ever His faithful people, receive in St. Paul’s revolutionary exegesis (
Romans 9:25 f.) a new application to the Gentiles, who had not, till the Christian era, been the people or the beloved of God, but who at length become the objects of His love and are called the sons of the living God. Before the coming of the Messiah there was probably no more Christ-like teacher than the prophet of Mount Ephraim, who provided our Lord with His favourite quotation, ‘I will have mercy
and not sacrifice’; and it is evident that his prevision of a new covenant, linking Divine and human love in everlasting bonds, was scarcely less precious to the Apostle of the Gentiles than to the Saviour of the world.
James Strahan.
People's Dictionary of the Bible -
Hosea
Hosea (ho-zç'ah), salvation. Son of Beeri, and one of the minor prophets. His prophetic career extended from b.c. 784 to 725, a period of 59 years. The prophecies of Hosea were delivered in the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam II. was ruler, and Israel was at the height of its splendor. Nothing is known of the prophet's life excepting what may be gained from his book.
People's Dictionary of the Bible -
Hosea (2)
Hosea, Book of. Consists of 14 chapters. It is easy to recognize two great divisions in the book: 1, chap. 1 to 3; 2, chap. 4 to end. The prophecies were probably collected by Hosea himself toward the end of his career. Of his style Eichhorn says: "His discourse is like a garland woven of a multiplicity of flowers; images are woven upon images, metaphor strung upon metaphor. Like a bee, he flies from one flowerbed to another, that he may suck Ms honey from the most varied pieces.... Often he is prone to approach to allegory; often he sinks down in obscurity." His prophecies are frequently referred to in the New Testament.
Matthew 9:13;
Matthew 12:7;
Luke 23:30, etc.
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary -
Hosea
son of Beeri, the first of the minor prophets. He is generally considered as a native and inhabitant of the kingdom of Israel, and is supposed to have begun to prophesy about B.C. 800. He exercised his office sixty years; but it is not known at what periods his different prophecies now remaining were delivered. Most of them are directed against the people of Israel, whom he reproves and threatens for their idolatry and wickedness, and exhorts to repentance, with the greatest earnestness, as the only means of averting the evils impending over their country. The principal predictions contained in this book, are the captivity and dispersion of the kingdom of Israel; the deliverance of Judah from Sennacherib; the present state of the Jews; their future restoration, and union with the Gentiles in the kingdom of the Messiah; the call of our Saviour out of Egypt, and his resurrection on the third day. The style of Hosea is peculiarly obscure; it is sententious, concise, and abrupt; the transitions of persons are sudden; and the connexive and adversative particles are frequently omitted. The prophecies are in one continued series, without any distinction as to the times when they were delivered, or the different subjects to which they relate. They are not so clear and detailed, as the predictions of those prophets who lived in succeeding ages. When, however, we have surmounted these difficulties, we shall see abundant reason to admire the force and energy with which this prophet writes, and the boldness of the figures and similitudes which he uses.
2. HOSEA, or HOSHEA, son of Elah, was the last king of Israel. Having conspired against Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, he killed him, A.M. 3265; B.C. 739. However, the elders of the land seem to have taken the government into their hands; for Hoshea was not in possession of the kingdom till nine years after,
2 Kings 15:30 ;
2 Kings 17:1 . Hoshea did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not equal to the kings of Israel who preceded him; that is, say the Jewish doctors, he did not restrain his subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship, if they would; whereas, the kings of Israel, his predecessors, had forbidden it, and had placed guards on the road to prevent it. Salmaneser, king of Assyria, being informed that Hoshea meditated a revolt, and had concerted measures with So, king of Egypt, to shake off the Assyrian yoke, marched against him, and besieged Samaria. After a siege of three years, in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, the city was taken, and was reduced to a heap of ruins, A.M. 3282. The king of Assyria removed the Israelites of the ten tribes to countries beyond the Euphrates, and thus terminated the kingdom of the ten tribes.
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary -
Hosea
The first of the twelve Minor Prophets, as arranged in our Bibles. He prophesied for a long time, from Uzziah to Hezekiah, about 785-725 B. C.
The BOOK OF HOSEA contains properly two parts.
Hosea 1:1-3:5 contains a series of symbolical actions directed against the idolatries of Israel. It is disputed whether the marriage of the prophet was a real transaction, or an allegorical vision; in all probability the latter is the correct view; but in either case it illustrates the relations of the idolatrous Israel to her covenant God.
Hosea 4:1-14:9 is chiefly occupied with denunciations against Israel, and especially Samaria, for the worship of idols, which prevailed there. Hosea's warnings are mingled with tender and pathetic expostulations. His style is obscure, and it is difficult to fix the periods or the divisions of his various predictions. He shows a joyful faith in the coming Redeemer, and is several times quoted in the New Testament,
Matthew 9:13 Romans 9:25,26 1 Peter 2:10 .
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary -
Hosea
At the time of the prophet Hosea’s ministry (the eighth century BC) the ancient Israelite nation was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Hosea began his ministry late in the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah, and continued it through the reigns of succeeding kings (
Hosea 1:1).
Unfaithful religion
Hosea’s work was concerned with the north more than the south. Israel’s religion had been corrupted through Baal worship, with the result that the nation was heading for judgment and would be taken captive to a foreign land.
Because the covenant between Israel and Yahweh was likened to a marriage covenant, Israel’s association with other gods was really spiritual adultery (
Hosea 4:17;
Hosea 5:4;
Hosea 6:10;
Hosea 7:16;
Hosea 8:5-6; see BAAL). Hosea saw a fitting illustration of this when his own wife Gomer left him for other lovers. She became a prostitute (
Hosea 1:2;
Hosea 2:2).
Gomer’s pleasures did not last and she was sold as a slave. Hosea, who still loved his erring wife, had remained faithful to his marriage covenant, and when he found Gomer a slave, he bought her back (
Hosea 3:1-3). Hosea’s covenant love for Gomer pictured Yahweh’s covenant love for his people. They too would go into captivity but, after being cleansed of their adulterous association with the Canaanite gods, would be brought back to live in their land again (
Hosea 2:17-20;
Hosea 3:4-5;
Hosea 14:4-7).
Corrupt society
During the reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah, Israel and Judah enjoyed political stability, economic prosperity and territorial expansion greater than at any time since the days of David and Solomon (
2 Kings 14:23-27;
2 Kings 15:1-2;
2 Chronicles 26:1-15). This development, however, brought with it greed and corruption on a scale that neither Israel nor Judah had experienced previously. The two prophets who began to attack the social injustice and religious corruption of the age were Amos and Hosea. They came from different parts of the country, but both were concerned more with the northern kingdom than with the southern.
The particular social evils that the prophets attacked were connected with the exploitation of the poor by those of the upper classes. The people who benefited from the prosperity of the age were not the farmers (who made up the majority of the population) but the officials and merchants. They could cheat and oppress the poor as they wished, knowing that because of the corruption of the courts, the poor had no way of defending themselves (
Hosea 4:1-2;
Hosea 6:8-9;
Hosea 12:7-8). Again, the judgment announced upon the nation was that of conquest and captivity (
Hosea 5:14;
Hosea 9:6;
Hosea 10:3-8;
Hosea 10:13-15; see also AMOS).
Outline of Hosea’s prophecy
Hosea recounts his unhappy family experiences and shows how those experiences reflect the state of affairs in Israel (1:1-2:1). Like Gomer, Israel has been unfaithful to her husband God (Yahweh) (2:2-23), but as Hosea redeemed Gomer from slavery, so God will redeem Israel from the coming captivity (3:1-5).
The central section of the book is a collection of various short messages that Hosea preached over the years. The messages are not in chronological order, but all are connected with Israel’s moral corruption. Corrupt religion produces a corrupt nation, whether in its everyday life (4:1-5:7), its foreign policy (5:8-14), its loyalty to God (5:15-6:6) or its concern for justice (6:7-7:7). The nation has rebelled against God by making alliances with foreign nations (7:8-16) and by giving itself to Baal worship (8:1-14).
Israel’s punishment is therefore certain (9:1-17). The nation will reap what it has sown (10:1-15). The people have despised God’s love (11:1-11) and exploited each other (11:12-12:14), and thereby have guaranteed captivity for their nation (13:1-16). But when the people repent, God will forgive them and bring them back to their land (14:1-9).
Sentence search
Hosea, Book of -
Hosea, BOOK OF . The Book of
Hosea formed the first section of a collection of prophetic writings which was formed after the Exile, probably towards the close of the 3rd century b. The greater part of the Book of
Hosea clearly consists of the writings of
Hosea, the son of Beeri, who prophesied in the 8th cent. ...
Though we have no positive evidence to this effect, there is no reason to doubt that
Hosea himself committed to writing the prophetic poems by which he gave expression to his message and of which the greater part of the Book of
Hosea consists (chs.
Hosea 2:4-14 ), and that he prefixed to these the prose narrative of his life (chs. 1, 3, see
Hosea) with which the hook now opens. It is possible, of course, that
Hosea first circulated in writing single poems or a collection of two or three; but the complete collection, though scarcely made later than 735, since the prophecies make no allusion to the Syro-Ephraimitish war which broke out in that year, cannot be much earlier than 735, since the prophecies make allusions to the circumstances of the period that followed the death, in about b. (anarchy,
Hosea 7:3-7 ,
Hosea 8:4 ; cf.
2 Kings 15:8-26 ; factions favouring appeal to Egypt and Assyria respectively,
Hosea 5:13 ,
Hosea 7:11 ,
Hosea 8:9 ,
Hosea 12:1 ), and probably in particular to the payment of tribute by Menahem to Tiglath-pileser
, which took place in b. 738 (
Hosea 5:13 ,
Hosea 10:5-6 ). 1), though it describes
Hosea’s life and teaching before the death of Jeroboam ii. (
Hosea 1:4 , see
Hosea), was not written until some years later, for it also records the birth of Lo-ammi (
Hosea 1:9 ), which was separated by hardly less and possibly more than 5 years from the date of
Hosea’s marriage. ...
In its earliest form, then, the Book of
Hosea was published by the prophet about the year 736 in the Northern Kingdom . Now, in common with all literature of the Northern Kingdom,
Hosea owes its preservation to the care of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. It is tolerably certain that the Jews who preserved the book adapted it for Jewish use; in other words, that the Book of
Hosea as we have it is a Jewish edition of the writings of an Israelite prophet. The hand of a Jewish editor (and in this case a somewhat late one) is perhaps clearest in the title (
Hosea 1:1 ), for
Hosea, a citizen of the Northern Kingdom and addressing himself to the North, would scarcely date his prophecy by kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, nor would a contemporary be likely to equate the days of Uzziah and his successors with the days of Jeroboam, since Uzziah himself outlived Jeroboam. With more or less reason, additions to or modifications of
Hosea’s work by Jewish editors have been suspected in
Hosea 1:7 ,
Hosea 1:10 to
Hosea 2:1 ,
Hosea 3:5 (‘and David their king’)
Hosea 4:15 a,
Hosea 5:5 (last clause)
Hosea 6:11 ,
Hosea 8:14 ,
Hosea 10:11 ,
Hosea 11:12 b. In several other cases (
Hosea 5:10 ;
Hosea 5:12-14 ,
Hosea 6:4 ,
Hosea 12:2 ) it is possible that the editor has pointed the original prophecies at his own people of the South by substituting ‘Judah’ where
Hosea had written ‘Israel’; thus, although at present Jacob-Judah are mentioned in
Hosea 12:2 , the terms ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel,’ synonyms for the people of the Northern Kingdom, were certainly in the mind of the writer of
Hosea 12:2-3 , for in
Hosea 12:3 he puns on these names: ‘In the womb he Jacobed his brother, and in his manhood Israeled with God. ’...
Another whole group of passages has been suspected of consisting of additions to
Hosea’s prophecies. These are the passages of promise (
Hosea 1:10 to
Hosea 2:1 ,
Hosea 2:14-23 ,
Hosea 3:1-5 Hosea 5:15 ,
Hosea 6:3 ,
Hosea 6:11 :10,
Hosea 6:11 , 14). ...
Apart from the intentional modifications of the original words of
Hosea by later editors, the text has suffered very seriously from accidents of transmission
Hosea - One of David's officers bore the name (
1 Chronicles 27:20 ) as did a clan chief in the time of Nehemiah (
Hosea 5:1-25 ). English translators have often chosen to spell the prophet's name
Hosea to distinguish him from the others, whose names they spell, Hoshea. ...
The prophet's name “Hosea” appears in the Bible only at
Hosea 1:1-2 ;
Romans 9:25 .
Hosea's name symbolized the pressing need for national deliverance. His message pointed the nation to the deliverer (
Hosea 13:4 ). ...
The Book The two broad divisions of the Book of
Hosea are: (1)
Hosea's Marriage,
Hosea 1-3 ; and (2)
Hosea's Messages,
Hosea 4-14 . A similar pattern is discernible in the oracles of
Hosea (Hosea 4-14 ), though the pattern is not balanced as neatly nor revealed as clearly. Certainly the book ends on a hopeful note (
Hosea 14:1 ), but most of the oracles in
Hosea 4-13 are judgmental in nature. ...
The Prophet
Hosea is identified in the title verse (
Hosea 1:1 ) as a genuine prophet to whom “the word of the Lord” came. Not only are
Hosea's oracles (Hosea 4-14 ) the word of the Lord to Israel, but so also are the materials dealing with his domestic problems (Hosea 1-3 ). Based on information gleaned from his book,
Hosea was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In contrast, Amos, who ministered as a prophet in Israel shortly before
Hosea's ministry there, was from Tekoa in Judah. Both prophets preached judgment, Amos with a lion's roar and
Hosea with a broken heart. ...
Placement of
Hosea's ministry in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah indicates that he was a contemporary of Isaiah. Jeroboam II is the only Israelite king named in the title to
Hosea's book, in spite of the fact that internal evidence suggests that
Hosea's ministry continued from the last days of Jeroboam II to near the end of the Northern Kingdom (approximately 750-725 B. ...
Hosea's prophetic ministry included the period of Near Eastern history when Assyria emerged as a new world empire under the capable leadership of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 B.
Hosea rebuked efforts at alliance with Assyria and Egypt as the means to national security.
Hosea had the unenviable task of presiding over the death of his beloved nation, but he held out hope of national revival based on radical repentance (
Hosea 3:1-522 ). ...
The Marriage
Hosea's marriage and family life dominate
Hosea 1-3 and surface from time to time in the remainder of the book. References to
Hosea's family serve as prophetic symbolism of God and His family Israel. God ordered
Hosea to take a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry “for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord” (
Hosea 1:2 ). Primary interest is not in
Hosea and his family, but in God and His family. ...
The Theology At the heart of
Hosea's theology was the relationship between God and Israel.
Hosea presented Yahweh as a faithful husband and Israel as an unfaithful wife.
Hosea's stress is not upon righteousness and justice, as was the case with Amos, but the knowledge of God and loyal love. God Loves His Unfaithful People (
Hosea 1:1-3:5 ). God's forgiveness has its limits (
Hosea 1:1-9 ). God promises a future reversal of His judgment upon His people (
Hosea 1:10-2:1 ). The promise is based on God's earlier word to Abraham (
Hosea 1:10 ). The promise will result in a united people (
Hosea 2:1 ). The promise is a prediction of restored relationships (
Hosea 2:1 ). God works with His people to bring about reconciliation (
Hosea 2:2-15 ). God's legal actions call for His people's reform (
Hosea 2:2-5 ). God places obstacles in the path of His people to turn them back to God (
Hosea 2:6-8 ). God removes the bounty of His people to remind them that God is the Giver (
Hosea 2:9-13 ). God lures His people into the wilderness to open a door of hope (
Hosea 2:14-15 ). God initiates a new covenant with His people (
Hosea 2:16-23 ). God will remove the pagan elements of their worship (
Hosea 2:16-17 ). God will restore His people to a right relationship with the animal kingdom (
Hosea 2:18 ). God will abolish war and grant peace and security to His people (
Hosea 2:18 ). God will establish a new and permanent relationship with His people based on His character (
Hosea 2:19-20 ). God will bless His restored covenant people (
Hosea 2:21-23 ). God's love is strong enough to overcome the unfaithfulness of His people (
Hosea 3:1 ). God's love is deep enough to redeem His people (
Hosea 3:2 ). God's love is courageous enough to discipline His people (
Hosea 3:3-4 ). God's love will ultimately win the return of His people (
Hosea 3:5 ). Unfaithfulness Is the Basis of God's Controversy with His People (
Hosea 4:1-9:9 ). Unfaithful people break covenant commitments (
Hosea 4:1-3 ). Unfaithful ministers bring judgment on the people and on themselves (
Hosea 4:4-12 ). An alien spirit dominates unfaithful people (
Hosea 4:12-19 ). God chastises His unfaithful people (
Hosea 5:1-15 ). God disciplines because He knows His people fully (
Hosea 5:3 ). Pride prevents repentance and promotes stumbling (
Hosea 5:4-5 ). Extravagant giving is no substitute for lapses in living (
Hosea 5:6-7 ). God is the agent of punishment for His people (
Hosea 5:8-14 ). God seeks the return of His people through discipline (
Hosea 5:15 ). Surface repentance does not satisfy the sovereign God (
Hosea 6:1-3 ). Sharp judgment comes upon fleeting loyalty (
Hosea 6:4-5 ). Loyal love and personal knowledge of God meet His requirements (
Hosea 6:6 ). Covenant-breaking hinders restoration of God's people (
Hosea 6:7-7:2 ). Making leaders by power politics shuts God out of the process (
Hosea 7:3-7 ). Compromise leads to loss of strength and alienation from God (
Hosea 7:8-10 ). Diplomatic duplicity interferes with God's redemptive activity (
Hosea 7:11-13 ). Religious perversion ends in apostasy and bondage (
Hosea 7:14-16 ). God's unfaithful people reap more than they sow (
Hosea 8:1-9:9 ). The unfaithful disregard divine law (
Hosea 8:1-2 ). The unfaithful reject God's goodness (
Hosea 8:3 ). The unfaithful practice idolatory (
Hosea 8:4-6 ). The unfaithful will reap foreign domination (
Hosea 8:7-10 ). The unfaithful will reap religious and moral corruption (
Hosea 8:11-13 ). The unfaithful will reap national destruction (
Hosea 8:13-14 ). The unfaithful will reap exile in a foreign land (
Hosea 9:1-4 ). The unfaithful will reap punishment for their sins (
Hosea 9:5-9 ). God's Loyal Love Is the Only Basis for a Lasting Relationship with His People (
Hosea 9:10-14:9 ). Without God's love His people perish (
Hosea 9:10-17 ). Without reverence for God, His people have no future (
Hosea 10:1-8 ). Ornate altars cannot hide deceitful hearts (
Hosea 10:1-2 ). Bad leaders produce bad times (
Hosea 10:3-8 ). Without righteousness God's people cannot experience God's unfailing love (
Hosea 10:9-15 ). God's love for His people will not allow Him to give them up (
Hosea 11:1-11 ). Covenant-making with alien powers is infidelity to God (
Hosea 11:12-12:1 ). Judgment according to deeds is a universal principle (
Hosea 12:2-6 ). Deception is repaid by destruction (
Hosea 12:7-14 ). Rebellion against God leads to death (
Hosea 13:1-16 ). Repentance results in restoration and life for God's people (
Hosea 14:1-9 )
Hosea - ,
Hosea 784 to 722 B. In
Hosea 2:8 he makes no allusion to Jehovah's restoration of Israel's coasts under Jeroboam among Jehovah's mercies to Israel. Hence Elijah in Israel took twelve stones to represent Judah as well as Israel (
Hosea 4:4-1547). He declares throughout that a return to Jehovah is the only remedy for the evils existing and impending: the calf worship at Bethel, established by Jeroboam, must be given up (
Hosea 8:5-6;
Hosea 10:5;
Hosea 13:2); unrighteousness toward men, the necessary consequence of impiety towards God, must cease, or sacrifices are worthless (
Hosea 4:2;
Hosea 6:6, based on Samuel's original maxim,
1 Samuel 15:22). ...
Here as there God's past favors to Israel are made the incentive to loving obedience (
Hosea 2:8;
Hosea 11:1;
Hosea 12:9;
Hosea 13:4, compare
Exodus 20:2). Literal fornication and adultery follow close upon spiritual (
Hosea 4:12-14). Assyria, the great northern power, which Israel foolishly regards as her friend to save her from her acknowledged calamities,
Hosea foresees will be her destroyer (
Hosea 5:13;
Hosea 7:11;
Hosea 8:9;
Hosea 12:1;
Hosea 14:3;
Hosea 3:4;
Hosea 10:6;
Hosea 11:11). ...
Hosea is driven by the nation's evils, present and in prospect, to cling the more closely to God. Amidst his rugged abruptness soft and exquisite touches occur, where God's lovingkindness, balmy as the morning sun and genial as the rain, stands in contrast to Israel's goodness, evanescent as the cloud and the early dew (
Hosea 6:3-4; compare also
Hosea 13:3;
Hosea 14:5-7). There are two leading ones:
Hosea 1-3;
Hosea 4-14.
Hosea 1;
Hosea 2; and
Hosea 3 form three separate cantos or parts, for
Hosea 1-3 are more prose than poetry. Probably
Hosea himself under the Spirit combined his scattered prophecies into one collection.
Hosea 4-14, are an expansion of
Hosea 3. On his marriage to Gomer, Henderson thinks that there is no hint of its being in vision, and that she fell into lewdness after her union with
Hosea, thus fitly symbolizing Israel who lapsed into spiritual whoredom after the marriage contract with God on Sinai. In order effectively to teach others
Hosea must experimentally realize it himself (
Hosea 12:10).
Hosea's union in vision with such an one in spite of his natural repugnance would vividly impress the people with God's amazing love in uniting Himself to so polluted a nation.
Hosea's taking her back after adultery (Hosea 3), at the price of a slave, marks Israel's extreme degradation and Jehovah's unchangeable love yet about to restore her. No more remarkable prophecy exists of Israel's anomalous and extraordinary state for thousands of years, and of her future restoration, than
Hosea 3:4-5; "Israel shall abide many days without a king (which they so craved for originally), without a sacrifice (which their law requires as essential to their religion), without an image . teraphim (which they were in
Hosea's days so mad after). " But first must come her spiritual probation in the wilderness of trial (
Hosea 2:14) and her return to the Egypt of affliction (
Hosea 8:13;
Hosea 9:3), not literal "Egypt" (
Hosea 11:5). ...
New Testament references:
Hosea 11:1 =
Matthew 2:15;
Hosea 6:6 =
Matthew 9:13;
Matthew 12:7;
Hosea 1:10;
Hosea 2:1-23 =
Romans 9:25-26;
Hosea 13:14 =
1 Corinthians 15:55;
Hosea 1:9-10;
Hosea 2:23 =
1 Peter 2:10;
Hosea 10:8 =
Luke 23:30;
Revelation 6:16;
Hosea 6:2 =
1 Corinthians 15:4;
Hosea 14:2 =
Hebrews 13:15. The later prophets also stamp with their inspired sanction
Hosea's prophecies, which they quote. Compare
Hosea 1:11 with
Isaiah 11:12-13;
Hosea 4:3 with
Zephaniah 1:3;
Hosea 4:6 with
Isaiah 5:13;
Hosea 7:10 with
Isaiah 9:12-13;
Hosea 10:12 with
Jeremiah 4:3
Ruhamah - In the prophet
Hosea they were to say to their sisters in Israel, Ruhamah, 'having obtained mercy,' as in the margin.
Hosea had in
Hosea 1 called his daughter symbolically Lo-ruhamah, 'not having obtained mercy,' to signify the state of Israel; but in
Hosea 1:11 he speaks of restoration, so that Ruhamah apparently refers to the remnant, those who entered into the spirit and mind of the prophet, and in that sense were his 'sisters. '
Hosea 2:1 : cf
Hosea - At the time of the prophet
Hosea’s ministry (the eighth century BC) the ancient Israelite nation was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
Hosea began his ministry late in the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah, and continued it through the reigns of succeeding kings (
Hosea 1:1). ...
Unfaithful religion...
Hosea’s work was concerned with the north more than the south. ...
Because the covenant between Israel and Yahweh was likened to a marriage covenant, Israel’s association with other gods was really spiritual adultery (
Hosea 4:17;
Hosea 5:4;
Hosea 6:10;
Hosea 7:16;
Hosea 8:5-6; see BAAL).
Hosea saw a fitting illustration of this when his own wife Gomer left him for other lovers. She became a prostitute (
Hosea 1:2;
Hosea 2:2).
Hosea, who still loved his erring wife, had remained faithful to his marriage covenant, and when he found Gomer a slave, he bought her back (
Hosea 3:1-3).
Hosea’s covenant love for Gomer pictured Yahweh’s covenant love for his people. They too would go into captivity but, after being cleansed of their adulterous association with the Canaanite gods, would be brought back to live in their land again (
Hosea 2:17-20;
Hosea 3:4-5;
Hosea 14:4-7). The two prophets who began to attack the social injustice and religious corruption of the age were Amos and
Hosea. They could cheat and oppress the poor as they wished, knowing that because of the corruption of the courts, the poor had no way of defending themselves (
Hosea 4:1-2;
Hosea 6:8-9;
Hosea 12:7-8). Again, the judgment announced upon the nation was that of conquest and captivity (
Hosea 5:14;
Hosea 9:6;
Hosea 10:3-8;
Hosea 10:13-15; see also AMOS). ...
Outline of
Hosea’s prophecy...
Hosea recounts his unhappy family experiences and shows how those experiences reflect the state of affairs in Israel (1:1-2:1). Like Gomer, Israel has been unfaithful to her husband God (Yahweh) (2:2-23), but as
Hosea redeemed Gomer from slavery, so God will redeem Israel from the coming captivity (3:1-5). ...
The central section of the book is a collection of various short messages that
Hosea preached over the years
Loammi - Symbolical name of a son of
Hosea, signifying 'not my people. '
Hosea 1:9 . The same words occur in
Hosea 1:10 and
Hosea 2:23 , but are there translated.
Hosea 2:23 adds "I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. The wording of
Hosea 1:10 , quoted in
Romans 9:26 , leaves room for the Gentiles as 'sons of the living God
Diblaim - Gomer,
Hosea's (
Hosea 1:3) wife, was "daughter of Diblaim" i. (See
Hosea
lo-Ruha'Mah - (the uncompassionated ), the name of the daughter of
Hosea the prophet, given to denote the utterly ruined condition of the kingdom of Israel. (
Hosea 1:6 )
Ammi - (am' mi), meaning “my people,” was a name given to Israel by
Hosea in contrast to the name Lo-ammi (
Hosea 1:9 ) meaning “not my people. ” The name Lo-ammi was given to the third child of Gomer, the wife of
Hosea the prophet, to pronounce God's rejection of Israel
Ruhamah - The second child (a daughter) of Gomer,
Hosea’s wife, was called Lo-ruhamah , ‘unpitied’ (
Hosea 1:6 ;
Hosea 1:8 ). The return of God’s mercy is indicated in
Hosea 2:1 ‘Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi ( i. A similar play on the word is found in
Hosea 2:23 ‘I will have mercy on “her that had not obtained mercy” ( Lo-ruhamah )
lo-Ammi - ” Son of
Hosea the prophet whose name God gave to symbolize Israel's lost relationship with Him due to their sin and broken covenant (
Hosea 1:9 )
lo-Ruhamah - ” Name God gave
Hosea for his daughter to symbolize that Israel by rebelling against God and serving foreign gods had forfeited God's love (
Hosea 1:6 )
lo-am'mi - (not my people ), the figurative name given by the prophet
Hosea to his second son by Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, (
Hosea 1:9 ) to denote the rejection of the kingdom of Israel by Jehovah
Jareb -
Hosea accused Israel and Judah of turning to the “great king” of Assyria, probably Tiglath-pileser III (at least for Judah), to cure their ills rather than going to Yahweh, the great King of the universe and the Great Physician (
Hosea 5:13 ).
Hosea pronounced just punishment for Israel, their “calf-god” (REB) would be carried to Babylon as tribute to “the great king” (
Hosea 10:5-6 )
Hoshea - (hoh sshee' uh) See
Hosea
Beth-Arbel - ” Sight of infamous battle
Hosea could use as example of what would happen to Israel (
Hosea 10:14 )
Beth-Aven -
Hosea used the term as a description of Beth-el. Thus he commanded worshipers to refuse to go there (
Hosea 4:15 ), to prepare for battle against an army marching from the south against Benjamin (
Hosea 5:8 ), and to be afraid of the golden calves in the worship place of Beth-el, not because they represented the fearful presence of God but because they brought disaster on the nation (
Hosea 10:5 ). All the worship places were Aven, deception and idolatry (
Hosea 10:8 )
Oseas - OSEAS = the prophet
Hosea (wh
ty'Rus - This form is employed in the Authorized Version of the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Hosea (Joel has "Tyre"), Amos and Zechariah, as follows: (
Jeremiah 25:22 ; 27:3 ; 47:4 ;
Ezekiel 26:2,3,4,7,15 ; 27:2,3,8,32 ; 28:2,12 ; 29:18 ;
Hosea 9:13 ;
Amos 1:9,10 ;
Zechariah 9:2,3 )
Hosea - Nothing is related of the ancestors of the prophet
Hosea. The prophecy divides itself thus:
Hosea 1 -
Hosea 3 give God's purposes respecting Israel; and in
Hosea 4 —
Hosea 14 the people are addressed: there are minor sub-divisions. ...
Hosea was to act a parable, by taking a 'wife of whoredoms,' which may mean that the woman that he was to take would be unfaithful to him; but grace abounds over sin.
Hosea's wife was symbolical of Israel who had been unfaithful to Jehovah. ' Paul applies this to the Gentiles in
Romans 9:26 , as he does in
Romans 9:25 to the Jews (where
Hosea, is called OSEE). ...
Hosea 2 . ...
Hosea 3 . ...
Hosea 4 . ' In
Hosea 4:15 Judah is warned not to follow the evil example of Israel. In
Hosea 4:17 , as elsewhere, Israel is called Ephraim, that being the chief of the ten tribes. ...
Hosea 5 . ...
Hosea 6 ,
Hosea 7 . They had, like Adam (
Hosea 6:7 , instead of 'men'), transgressed the covenant: cf. ...
Hosea 8 . ...
Hosea 9 . ...
Hosea 10 . ...
Hosea 11 . ...
Hosea 12 . The prophet in this chapter, as also in
Hosea 10:9 , refers to the beginning of evil in the history of the people. ...
Hosea 13 . ...
Hosea 14 . "...
Thus the dealings of God with Israel and Judah are dealt with in
Hosea more fully perhaps than in any other of the minor prophets. The learned look upon
Hosea as the most difficult of the prophets to translate, its abrupt transitions being numerous and hard to understand, because of its dealing strictly with Jewish circumstances
lo-Ammi - A symbolical name given to
Hosea’s son (
Hosea 1:9 ), signifying ‘not my people,’ as Lo-ruhamah , the name of his daughter, signifies ‘not-pitied.
Hosea
Hosea, Prophecies of - The second part, containing 4-14, is a summary of
Hosea's discourses, filled with denunciations, threatenings, exhortations, promises, and revelations of mercy. ...
Quotations from
Hosea are found in
Matthew 2:15 ; 9:15 ; 12:7 ;
Romans 9:25,26 . There are, in addition, various allusions to it in other places (
Luke 23:30 ;
Revelation 6:16 , Compare
Hosea 10:8 ;
Romans 9:25,26 ;
1 Peter 2:10 , Compare
Hosea 1:10 , etc. ), paranomasias, and plays upon words, are very characteristic of (
Hosea 8:7 ; 9:15 ; 10:5 ; 11:5 ; 12:11 )
Foam - (
Hosea 10:7 ), the rendering of Ketseph , which properly means twigs or splinters (as rendered in the LXX. The expression in
Hosea may therefore be read, "as a chip on the face of the water," denoting the helplessness of the piece of wood as compared with the irresistable current
Ishi - Ishi (ĭsh'î or î'shî),
Hosea 2:16, signifying my husband, and Baali (bâ'al-î), in the same passage, signifying my Lord, are figuratively used to denote that Israel once played the whore in serving idols, but would now serve the living God.
Hosea 2:17
Hosea -
Hosea . The name of the prophet
Hosea, though distinguished by the English translators, is identical with that of the last king of Israel and with the original name of Joshua; in these cases it appears in the EV
Hosea’s prophetic career extended from shortly before the fall of the house of Jerohoam ii. Our direct knowledge of
Hosea is derived entirely from the book which bears his name; be is mentioned nowhere else in the OT. ...
If the account given in the
1 JJames 3:1-18 rd chapters of
Hosea were allegory, as many ancient and some modern interpreters have held, our knowledge of
Hosea would be slight indeed. In favour of an allegorical interpretation the clearly symbolical character of the names of
Hosea’s children has been urged; but the names of Isaiah’s children Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz are also symbolical (cf. Moreover, if the narrative were allegorical, there would be just as much reason for the names of
Hosea’s wife and her father as for the names of the children being symbolical; on the other hand, in real life it was within the power of the prophet to give symbolical names to the children, but not to his wife or her father. The names of
Hosea’s wife, Gomer, and her father, Diblaim are not symbolical. It is as well, therefore, to approach the important narrative of
Hosea with a recollection of such a method of describing experience as is illustrated by
Jeremiah 18:1-4 . Interpreted in the light of these illustrations of prophetic methods of speech, the narrative of
Hosea 1:1-11 gives us an account of the experience of
Hosea, as follows. Driven by true love in which, probably enough,
Hosea at the time felt the approval, not to say the direct impulse of Jahweh,
Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. After marriage she proved unfaithful, and
Hosea heard that the woman whom he had been led by Jahweh to marry had had within her all along the tendency to unfaithfulness. She was not at the time of marriage an actual harlot, but, had
Hosea only fully understood, he would have known when he married her, as these years afterwards he has come to know, that when Jahweh said, ‘Go, marry Gomer,’ He was really saying ‘Go, marry a woman who will bestow her love on others. Had
Hosea spoken just like Jeremiah, he might have continued: ‘Then I discovered that my wife had played the harlot, and that my children were not mine. ’...
Apparently
Hosea reached the conclusion that none of the children were his; he calls them without exception ‘children of harlotry’ (
Hosea 1:2 ). But the name Jezreel (
Hosea 1:4 ) certainly does not suggest that at the birth of his firstborn he was already aware of his wife’s unfaithfulness, the name of the second, Lo-ruhamah (‘Not pitied,’
Hosea 1:6 ), does not prove it, and even that of the third child, Lo-ammi (‘Not my kinsman,’
Hosea 1:9 ), may merely carry further the judgment on the nation expressed unquestionably in the first and probably in the second. In any case we may somewhat safely infer that
Hosea became a prophet before he had learned his wife’s unfaithfulness, and that in his earnest preaching he, like Amos, denounced inhumanity as offensive to God; for this is the purpose of the name Jezreel ; the house of Jehu, established by means of bloodshed and inhumanity (
Hosea 1:4 ), is about to be punished. ‘Kindness not sacrifice’ (
Hosea 6:6 ) must have been the ideal of religion which from the first
Hosea held up before his people. ...
It has generally been inferred that
Hosea’s wife subsequently left him (or that he put her away), but that at last in his love for her, which could not be quenched, he rescued her from the life of shame into which she had sunk (ch 3). 3 formed no part of the original Book of
Hosea. Be this as it may, it is clear that although the circumstances of
Hosea’s married life were not the cause of his becoming a prophet, they do explain certain peculiar characteristics of his message and personality: his insistence on the love of God for Israel, and on Israel’s sin as consisting in the want of love and of loyalty towards God; and the greater emotional element that marks him as compared with Amos. At the same time, it is important not to exaggerate the difference between Amos and
Hosea, of to lose sight of the fact that
Hosea not less than Amos or Isaiah or Micah insisted on the worthlessness of religion or of devotion to Jahweh which was not ethical ( Jezreel ,
Hosea 1:4 ;
Hosea 6:6 ). In considering the greater sympathy of
Hosea with the people whom he has to condemn, it must he remembered that he was of them, whereas Amos, a native of the South, was not
Ammi - It is to take the place of Lo-ammi (= ‘not my people’), the name given in the first instance by
Hosea to Gomer’s third child, but in the prophetic fragment,
Hosea 1:9-11 , referred to the people of Israel
Heifer - (
Hosea 10:11 ) but see
Judges 14:18 When it ran about without any headstall, (26:4) hence the expression an "unbroken heifer," (
Hosea 4:16 ) Authorized Version "backsliding" to which Israel is compared
Ruhamah - Having obtained mercy, a symbolical name given to the daughter of (
Hosea 2:1 )
Hosea -
Hosea (ho-zç'ah), salvation. The prophecies of
Hosea were delivered in the kingdom of Israel
Gomer - The purchased wife of the prophet
Hosea. (See
Hosea 1:2-3 and
Hosea 3:1-3) The history as it is given to us in the Bible, both of the prophet and this adulteress, appears very singular and surprising. But it should seem in the case of
Hosea, that the portion here was not given by the parents, but by the prophet; and that this was of the Lord. The Lord said unto
Hosea, "Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms. " (
Hosea 3:2)...
The spiritual sense of it is more plain than the literal. " (
Hosea 3:1)...
Hose'a - Probably the life, or rather the prophetic career, of
Hosea extended from B. The prophecies of
Hosea were delivered in the kingdom of Israel
lo-Ruhama - )
Hosea's daughter, representing Israel, from whom Jehovah withdrew His loving compassion. )
Hosea 1:6
be-ar'Bel - (house of God's court ), named only in (
Hosea 10:14 ) as the scene of a sack and massacre by Shalman
Jezreel - (jehz' reel), meaning “God sows”, refers to a major valley, a northern city, a southern city, and the son of
Hosea 1:1 . The prophet
Hosea named his son Jezreel as a symbol to indicate the evil nature of the dynasty of Jehu which began with much bloodshed in Jezreel. The name also symbolized that God will sow seeds of prosperity after the destruction (
Hosea 1:4-5 ;
Hosea 1:10-2:1 )
lo-Ruhamah - Not pitied, the name of the prophet
Hosea's first daughter, a type of Jehovah's temporary rejection of his people (
Hosea 1:6 ; 2:23 )
Shal'Man - (
Hosea 10:14 ) Others think it the name of an obscure Assyrian king, predecessor of Pul
Fornication - Also spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord, Israel's and the church's husband (Ezekiel 16; Jeremiah 2;
Hosea 1;
Revelation 17:4)
Baali - ”
Hosea used a play on words to look to a day when Israel would no longer worship Baal (
Hosea 2:16 )
Baali - My lord, a title the prophet (
Hosea 2:16 ) reproaches the Jewish church for applying to Jehovah, instead of the more endearing title Ishi, meaning "my husband
Jezreel - ...
...
A symbolical name given by
Hosea to his oldest son (
Hosea 1:4 ), in token of a great slaughter predicted by him, like that which had formerly taken place in the plain of Esdraelon (Compare
Hosea 1:4,5 )
lo-Ammi - ) Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah ("not loved"), and Lo-ammi are the three children of the prophet
Hosea's wife, Gomer, taken by God's command. "Jezreel" symbolised the coming destruction of Jehu's line, as Jehu had destroyed that of Ahab of Jezreel; also that as Jezreel means both God sows and God scatters, so God will yet sow Israel whom He now scatters (
Hosea 1:4-6;
Hosea 1:9-10;
Hosea 1:11), "great shall be the day of Jezreel," i. great shall be the day when they shall be God's seed planted in their own land by God (
Jeremiah 24:6;
Jeremiah 31:28;
Jeremiah 32:41;
Amos 9:15;
Hosea 2:23). "I will sow her (Jezreel, the sown one,
Hosea 2:22) unto
Admah - One of the four cities in the plain of Siddim, destroyed by fire from heaven and covered by the Dead Sea,
Genesis 14:2 ; 19:24,25 ;
Hosea 11:8
Mizpeh - ...
Mizpeh and Tabor, in after-ages, were places which lay in the path from Samaria to Jerusalem; so that here the priests of the calves set spies, which
Hosea the Prophet figuratively called nets, to catch the pure worshippers who ventured, in those dangerous times of idolatry, to go up to worship JEHOVAH at Jerusalem. (See
Hosea 5:1)...
Israel - ...
Some types which represent Israel in various aspects:...
Adulterers,
Hosea 7:4 (a)...
Bride,
Isaiah 62:5 (a)...
Brood,
Luke 13:34 (b)...
Cake not turned,
Hosea 7:8 (a)...
Caldron,
Ezekiel 11:3 (a)...
Calves of the stall,
Malachi 4:2 (a)...
Cedar Trees,
Numbers 24:6 (b)...
Chickens,
Matthew 23:37 (a)...
Dust,
Genesis 13:16 (a)...
Fig Tree,
Matthew 24:32 (b)...
Great Lion,
Numbers 23:24 (b)...
Heifer (backsliding).
Hosea 4:16 (a)...
Jonah,
Jonah 1:17 (c)...
Lign aloes,
Numbers 24:6 (a)...
Olive tree,
Romans 11:17 (b)...
Sand,
Genesis 22:17 (a)...
Seething pot,
Jeremiah 1:13 (a)...
Sheep of His hand,
Psalm 95:7 (a)...
Sheep of His pasture,
Psalm 100:3 (a)...
Silly dove,
Hosea 7:11 (a)
Hosea - ...
The BOOK OF
Hosea contains properly two parts.
Hosea 1:1-3:5 contains a series of symbolical actions directed against the idolatries of Israel.
Hosea 4:1-14:9 is chiefly occupied with denunciations against Israel, and especially Samaria, for the worship of idols, which prevailed there.
Hosea's warnings are mingled with tender and pathetic expostulations
Padan-Aram - called also Sedan-Aram in
Hosea; both names denoting Aram or Syria the fruitful, or cultivated, and apply to the northern part of Mesopotamia, in which Haran or Charran was situated
ru'Hamah, - (
Hosea 2:1 ) The name if name it be, is symbolical, and is addressed to the DAUGHTERS of the people, to denote that they were still the objects of love and tender compassion
Jeconiah - It was virtually Jehovah's declaration of ceasing all connection with him (
Hosea 9:12)
Jareb - It is not safe to pronounce dogmatically on the text and meaning of
Hosea 5:13 ;
Hosea 10:6 . If we adhere to the current text, we must regard Jareb (or Jarîb ) as a sobriquet coined by
Hosea to indicate the love of conflict which characterized the Assyrian king
Lewdness - Lewdness sometimes refers to an especially heinous crime: brutal gang rape resulting in murder (
Judges 19:25-27 ; murder by priests (
Hosea 6:9 ); any vicious crime (
Acts 18:14 ). Most often lewdness is used figuratively for idolatry (
Jeremiah 11:15 ;
Jeremiah 13:27 ;
Ezekiel 16:43 ,
Ezekiel 16:43,16:58 ;
Ezekiel 22:9 ;
Ezekiel 23:21 ,
Ezekiel 23:21,23:27 ,
Ezekiel 23:27,23:29 ,
Ezekiel 23:29,23:35 ,
Ezekiel 23:35,23:48-49 ;
Ezekiel 24:13 ;
Hosea 2:10 )
Dew - ...
Hosea 6:4 (b) This is descriptive of the transient character of the prosperity of the nation of Israel. ...
Hosea 14:5 (a) Here GOD compares Himself and His ministration of grace to the "dew of the morning
Hemlock - Modern translations agree in translating that in
Hosea 10:4 as poisonous weed(s)
Beth-Arbel - House of God's court, a place alluded to by (
Hosea 10:14 ) as the scene of some great military exploit, but not otherwise mentioned in Scripture
Dough - In the process of baking, the dough had to be turned (
Hosea 7:8 )
Beth-Arbel - Here were some large and almost inaccessible fortified caverns, in the sides of precipices,
Hosea 10:14
Ishi - Transliteration of
Hosea's wordplay between “my man” or “my husband” (Hebrew, ishi ) and “my master” or “my lord” (Hebrew, baali ) (
Hosea 2:16 KJV, NAS).
Hosea looked to the day when Israel would quit worshiping or even pronouncing the name of Baal and would be totally faithful to Yahweh as “her man” and “her master
Birthday - The ‘day of our king,’ to which
Hosea refers (
Hosea 7:5 ), may have been the anniversary either of the king’s birth or of his accession
Hosea (2) -
Hosea, Book of. The prophecies were probably collected by
Hosea himself toward the end of his career
Ruhamah - ” Name
Hosea used to symbolize the change in Israel's status before God following God's judgment (
Romans 2:1 ; compare
Romans 1:6 ).
1 Peter 2:10 applies
Hosea's image to Christians who have experienced God's mercy in Christ
Caul - In
Hosea 13:8 it is the pericardium, that which encloses the heart
lo-Ammi - Not my people, a symbolical name given by God's command to
Hosea's second son in token of Jehovah's rejection of his people (
Hosea 1:9,10 ), his treatment of them as a foreign people
Gomer - A harlot whom the prophet
Hosea appears to have married in prophetic vision, as directed by God, that the Jews might be led to reflect on the guilt of their spiritual uncleanness or idolatry,
Hosea 1:1-11
Balances - Reference is also made in (
Micah 6:11 ;
Hosea 12:7 ) to the dishonest practice of buying by heavier and selling by lighter weights
Shalman - ” Mysterious figure in
Hosea 10:14 , sometimes identified by scholars as an abbreviation of Shalmanezer V of Assyria and sometimes as a ruler of Moab listed by Tiglath-Pileser III among kings paying him tribute
Hemlock -
Hosea 10:4 (a) This tree is bitter and poisonous and causes damage to those who drink the extract from it
Bullock - ...
...
The translation of a word always meaning an animal of the ox kind, without distinction of age or sex (
Hosea 12:11 ). In
Hosea 14:2 , the Authorized Version has "calves," the Revised Version "bullocks
Beth-Peor -
Hosea described the actions of Peor as a turning point in Israel's blissful honeymoon with God (
Hosea 9:10 )
Hosea, Theology of - Foundational to
Hosea's message and teaching about God are his marriage to Gomer and her departure after the birth of three children. The opening surprise of the book is that God initiated
Hosea's marriage to this harlot (1:2); but the greater, unexpected surprise is that he tells
Hosea to find his adulterous wife, bring her back, and love her again (3:1-2).
Hosea's personal tragedy speaks to readers at the deepest level, moving them emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. ...
Hosea's theology brings together an awareness of God as holy (11:9,12) and sovereign (12:5) with an appreciation for his actions as husband (2:16) and parent (11:1-4) toward his people.
Hosea's theology is not remotely theoretical but grows out of a grassroots understanding of his people as illustrated by frequent allusions to historical events and places and his personal involvement. ...
The details of
Hosea's marriage begin the book but are quickly dropped as the focus shifts away from the personal life of
Hosea to the relationship between God and Israel. The love, care, and feelings of God for his people as he calls for their return in the face of imminent judgment are a major part of
Hosea's theology. ...
Fueling the symbolism of
Hosea's marriage was the covenant, which provided a legal form for the expression and governance of the relationship God desired with his people. The Book of
Hosea is a commentary on that relationship. ...
The love of God for his people is more graphically portrayed by
Hosea than any other Old Testament prophet.
Hosea likens God's care for Israel to that of a parent who daily provides for a child. Through
Hosea's life and message we see the strength of God's feeling for Israel—his compassion (11:8), his love (11:4), and his longing to be with them (7:13). The graciousness and mercy of God did not include ignoring sin!...
Hosea's understanding of sin and its effects upon people is vividly presented through his own marriage and the list of crimes levied against his people. ...
Hosea focuses on Israel's accountability with specific reference to the covenant requirements. In contrast to Israel's unfaithfulness
Hosea presents God as one who remembers and provides for Israel.
Hosea uses this concept to show the extent of God's relationship with his people and its reciprocal nature. In the end, however, God's love would triumph by bringing back Israel to himself as
Hosea did Gomer, by paying a price.
Hosea understands idolatry's grip upon the people. ...
By emphasizing Israel's idolatry
Hosea underscores both the waywardness of Israel and the jealousy of God. ...
Predating the parable of the prodigal son
Hosea portrays Israel as realizing that the best days were those spent close to God (2:7,15). ...
Hosea never waivers from his understanding of the Lord as sovereign.
Hosea effectively brings out the tension God felt as he agonized over the demands of his holiness and his love for his people. This is portrayed by
Hosea with surprising force when the Lord says: "My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused" (11:8). In language reminiscent of a lover
Hosea presents God as alluring and speaking tenderly to Israel to affect her return (2:14). ...
Hosea's eschatology is built upon the covenant relationship as administered by a sovereign Lord. God's love, so powerfully illustrated by
Hosea, reached beyond the people's stubborn rebellion and offered a future hope. But
Hosea does not play God against himself.
Hosea envisioned a new betrothal (2:19) and a new relationship (1:10; 2:16) that would produce the true covenant fruit of righteousness, justice, love, compassion, and knowledge (2:19-20). The allusions to a new, restored relationship so strongly portrayed in
Hosea's marriage and by the names of his children are effectively balanced at the end of the book, which encloses the judgment of God within the parameters of his love and mercy. Freedman,
Hosea ; H. Hubbard,
Hosea ; H. Mays,
Hosea ; N. Stuart,
Hosea-Jonah
Yeshayahu - (a) (7th century BCE) One of the greatest prophets, a contemporary of
Hosea, Amos and Micah
Isaiah - (a) (7th century BCE) One of the greatest prophets, a contemporary of
Hosea, Amos and Micah
Gomer - Daughter of Diblaim and wife of
Hosea the prophet (
Hosea 1:3 ). She is described in
Hosea 1:2 as “a wife of whoredoms. Still others have believed she was an ordinary woman who became unfaithful after her marriage to
Hosea
Pity -
Hosea illustrated the fate of Israel with Lo-ruhamah , a child's name meaning, “not pitied” (
Hosea 1:6 ;
Hosea 2:23 )
Ephraim -
Hosea 7:8 (a) This is another name for the nation of Israel, and was used about Israel when she turned her back on GOD to serve idols and live in rebellion. (See the thirty-five other times this name is mentioned in
Hosea
Foam -
Hosea 10:7 (a) This is a symbol of the lightness, frivolity and worthlessness of many of earth's great men, as GOD viewed their lives
Micah - ...
Micah the Prophet: (6th century BCE) Student of Elijah and a contemporary of
Hosea, Isaiah and Amos
Beth-Aven - It seems to be reproachfully used at times for Bethel itself, after the golden calves were there set up,
Hosea 4:15 ; 10:5 : Beth-el meaning the house of God; and Beth-aven, the house of sin, or of an idol
Calf - The calves of the lips, in
Hosea, signify the pure offerings of prayer, praise and thanks-giving
Beth-a'Ven - (
1 Samuel 13:5 ; 14:28 ) In (
Hosea 4:15 ; 5:8 ; 10:5 ) the name is transferred to the neighboring Bethel, --once the "house of God" but then the house of idols of "naught
Harrow - The verb rendered "to harrow," (
Job 39:10 ;
Isaiah 28:24 ;
Hosea 10:11 ) expresses apparently the breaking of the clods, and is so far analogous to our harrowing --but whether done by any such machine as we call a "harrow" is very doubtful
Hosea - ...
Hosea, the Book of: The book of Tanach containing
Hosea's prophecies, many of them reproving Israel for their faithlessness to G-d, warning of exile, and foretelling the future redemption
Aram-Naharaim - Aram of the two rivers, is Mesopotamia (as it is rendered in
Genesis 24:10 ), the country enclosed between the Tigris on the east and the Euphrates on the west (Psalm 60 , title); called also the "field of Aram" (
Hosea 12:12 , RSV) i
Poplar - libneh, "white", (
Genesis 30:37 ;
Hosea 4:13 ), in all probability the storax tree (Styrax officinalis) or white poplar, distinguished by its white blossoms and pale leaves
Men'Ahem - The contemporary prophets
Hosea and Amos have left a melancholy picture of the ungodliness, demoralization and feebleness of Israel
Gomer - Gomer ("completion or ripeness"), namely, of consummate wickedness; daughter of doubled layers of grape-cake (
Hosea 1:3).
Hosea in vision (not in external act, which would be revolting to purity)takes by God's command Gomer to wife, though a woman "of whoredoms"; symbolically teaching that out of this world, which whorishly has departed from the Lord, God takes a church to be sanctified by communion with Himself in Christ, as Gomer was sanctified by communion with the prophet, (
1 Corinthians 7:14). But (See
Hosea
Chemarim - ]'>[1] this word is found only in
Zephaniah 1:4 ; but the original of which it is the transliteration is used also at
2 Kings 23:5 and
Hosea 10:5 , and in both instances ChÄmârim is placed in the margin of AV
Teraphim - The translators of the Bible have retained the word as it is in the original, in this place, and also Hosea 3:4; but the same word, Genesis 31:19, they have rendered images, though they still have preserved the word Teraphim in the margin at that verse. It would be easy to suppose, and indeed at once conclude, that they were idols for worship, were it not that the Lord by the prophet Hosea seems to speak in the Scripture referred to, that the children of Israel in their desolations should be without them, which, if idols, would have been their mercy, and not their misery
Backsliding - The Lord himself, by his servant the prophet
Hosea, makes use of a simile, which seems to explain the meaning, "Israel (saith the Lord) slideth back as a backsliding heifer. " (
Hosea 4:16) Now, how doth an heifer slide back? I apprehend not by turning back, and going another path; but like one on slippery ground, whose steps, so far from gaining ground, rather lose ground. " (
Hosea 14:4;
Jeremiah 3:22)...
Betroth - The term is figuratively employed of the spiritual connection between God and his people (
Hosea 2:19,20 )
Aven -
Hosea speaks of the "high places of Aven" (10:8), by which he means Bethel
Cakes - Ephraim (that is Israel) is compared to 'a cake not turned,'
Hosea 7:8 , as unpalatable, like the lukewarm, 'neither hot nor cold,' of
Revelation 3:16
Admah - Jehovah, when speaking of His fierce anger against Ephraim said, "How shall I make thee as Admah?"
Hosea 11:8
Poison - Poisonous weeds illustrated lawsuits springing up from broken oaths and covenants (
Hosea 10:4 )
Moth - Literally “consumer” or “waster,” it is an insect whose destructive power is used to illustrate the result of sin (
Psalm 39:11 ) and the judgment of God (
Hosea 5:12 )
Aven - Referred to major worship centers of Israel such as Bethel and Dan (
Hosea 10:8 )
ja'Reb - " All these senses are represented in the Authorized Version and the marginal readings, (
Hosea 5:13 ; 10:6 ) and the east preferable has been inserted in the text
Landmark - The ancient and permanent limits, therefore, of individual property in the open field,
Ruth 2:3 , were marked by trees or heaps of stones at the corners; and as it was easy, by removing these, to encroach on a neighbor's ground, a peculiar form of dishonesty arose, requiring a severe punishment,
Deuteronomy 19:14 Proverbs 22:28 Hosea 5:10
Calf Worship - ...
Hosea denounces the calf worship, and calls Bethel Bethaven, the house of vanity, instead of the house of God (
Hosea 8:5-6;
Hosea 10:5-6). Kissing them was one mode of adoration (
Hosea 13:2); contrast God's command," Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and ye perish" (
Psalms 2:12). In
Hosea 14:2 we read "calves of our lips": instead of calves which we can no longer offer in our exile, we present praises of our lips; so
Hebrews 13:15
Jaw - According to one understanding of
Hosea 11:4 , God, pictured as a farmer, “lifts the yoke from their jaws,” that is, looses the yoke so that the oxen might better feed
Achor - ...
Hosea 2:15 (c) The valley in this passage is described as a door of hope
Baal-Peor - " (
Numbers 25:1-3;
Hosea 9:10) From what this prophet saith of their shame; and from the impure name of this strumpet idol; there is reason to believe that the greatest indecency was joined with idolatry, in the, worship of this Baal-peor
Diblaim - ”
Hosea 1:3 lists Diblaim as a parent of Gomer,
Hosea's harlot wife. Some Bible students see
Hosea's father-in-law so named; others, his mother-in-law
Gomer - Daughter of Diblaim, wife of the prophet
Hosea (wh
Caul - In
Hosea 13:8 KJV speaks of the “caul of their hearts,” which modern translations render more freely
Rod - It also denotes a staff, used by one walking,
Isaiah 3:1 Ezekiel 29:6 ; by a diviner,
Hosea 4:12 ; by a surveyor,
Psalm 74:2 ; by a shepherd,
Leviticus 27:32 Zechariah 11:10-14 ; as an instrument of correction,
Proverbs 23:13 29:15 ; as a sceptre,
Esther 8:4 Isaiah 14:5 ; and as a symbol of power,
Psalm 2:9 , support and direction,
Psalm 23:4
Flagon - ]'>[1] gives ‘flagons’ (
2 Samuel 6:19 ,
1 Chronicles 16:3 ,
Hosea 3:1 ,
Song of Solomon 2:5 ), the meaning of the Heb. ]'>[1] ‘flagon
,’ in
Hosea 3:1 ‘cakes of raisins’ for ‘flagons of wine,’ and in
Song of Solomon 2:5 ‘raisins’ (RVm
Rain - Υoreh , "the early rain of autumn"; malkosh , "the latter rain of spring" (Proverbs 16:15; Job 29:23; Jeremiah 3:3; Hosea 6:3; Zechariah 10:1). "The latter rain in the first (month)" in Joel 2:23 means in the month when first it is needed; or else, as Vulgate and Septuagint, "as at the first" (compare Isaiah 1:26; Hosea 2:15; Malachi 3:4); or in Νisan or Αbib , the Passover month, the first, namely, the end of March and beginning of April. Rain is the beautiful image of the Spirit's refreshing influences in Messiah's kingdom (Hosea 6:3; 2 Samuel 23:4; Psalms 72:6)
Remnant - ...
Hosea's book does not use the remnant terminology, but the concept of the Lord's mercy extended to those experiencing judgment is present in several places (
Hosea 2:14-23 ;
Hosea 3:4-5 ;
Hosea 6:1-3 ;
Hosea 11:8-11 ;
Hosea 13:14 ;
Hosea 14:1-9 ) including calls to repentance and descriptions of what the remnant may enjoy in life. ...
Amos,
Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah thus raised a chorus. ...
In the New Testament, Paul quoted (
Romans 9:25-33 ) from
Hosea and from Isaiah to demonstrate that the saving of a remnant from among the Jewish people was still part of the Lord's method of redeeming His people
Greed -
Hosea condemned priests who were greedy for the people's iniquity (
1 Samuel 4:8 NRSV), that is, greedy for the sin offerings
Admah - God could not stand to treat Israel, the people He loved, like He had treated Admah, even though Israel's behavior resembled Admah's (
Hosea 11:8 )
Jeroboam - (See
2 Kings 14:23) During this man's reign, the prophets
Hosea, Amos and, Jonah exercised their ministry
Amos - A contemporary of
Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, a wealthy man, he tended sheep and sycamore trees before G-d called upon him to prophesy in 621 BCE
Bethel - To this second occasion of God's speaking with Jacob at Bethel, (
Hosea 12:4,5 ) makes reference. Hence the prophet
Hosea (
Hosea 4:15 ; 5:8 ; 10:5,8 ) calls it in contempt Beth-aven, i
Heal - (See
Hosea 5:13;
Hosea 6:1). ...
Hosea 14:4 (b) The GOD of love offers in this passage to restore the land of Israel, to bring the hearts of her people back to Himself, and to repair and remove the damage done by invaders, and brought about by her idolatry
Calf, Golden - In the opinion of most recent scholars, the author or editor of
Exodus 32:1-35 has adapted the traditional material on which he worked so as to provide a polemic, in the spirit of
Hosea, against the established worship of the Northern Kingdom, which is here represented as condemned in advance by J″
), as revealed through the prophets who succeeded
Hosea, the Deuteronomic editor of the Books of Kings repeatedly characterizes the introduction of the bull images into the cult of J″
Wine - Genesis 27:28; Genesis 27:37; Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 33:28; Hosea 2:8; Hosea 2:22. Wine is said to produce different effects: as the "darkly flashing" or "red eye," Genesis 49:12, a mocker, Proverbs 20:1, the unbridled tongue, Isaiah 28:7, the excitement of the spirit, Proverbs 31:6; Isaiah 5:11; Zechariah 9:15; Zechariah 10:7, the enchained affections of its votaries, Hosea 4:11, the perverted judgment, Proverbs 31:6; Hosea 7:5. , Hosea 4:11, "Whoredom and wine (yayin) and new wine (tîrôsh) takeaway the heart," where tîrôsh appears as the climax of engrossing influences, in immediate connection with yayin. Hosea 14:7
Flagon - ' In
Hosea 3:1 the words 'of wine' are not added, but should be translated, as in the margin, 'of grapes,' signifying as before 'cakes of raisins
Oven - (
Hosea 7:4 ) The latter ia adapted to the nomad state, it consists of a large jar made of clay, about three feet high and widening toward the bottom, with a hole for the extraction of the ashes
Heifer - ...
Hosea 4:16 (a) The heifer evidently is difficult to break for work. ...
Hosea 10:11 (a) This type represents Israel in her true condition of sincere service to GOD, and her spirit of obedience
Oil - The Prophet
Hosea thus upbraids his degenerate nation with the servility and folly, of their conduct: "Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind; he daily increaseth falsehood and vanity; and a league is made with Assyria, and oil carried into Egypt,"
Hosea 12:1
Calf - The young of the cow, a clean animal much used in sacrifice; hence the expression, "So will we render the calves of our lips,"
Hosea 14:2 , meaning, we will offer as sacrifices the prayers and praises of our lips,
Hebrews 13:15 . The prophet
Hosea frequently alludes to the calf at Bethel, to the folly and guilt of its worshippers, and to the day when both idol and people should be broken in pieces by the Assyrians
Prostitution -
Hosea criticized the attitude which called for the punishment of prostitutes (and women committing adultery), while tolerating the men with whom these acts were committed (
Hosea 4:14 ).
Hosea also attacked the Israelite attraction to the fertility religion of Canaan as harlotry. He felt called of God to marry a harlot (
Hosea 1:2 ), a symbolic action (or object lesson) representing God's relationship with Israel.
Hosea's love for his unfaithful and harlotrous wife was analogous to God's love for unfaithful Israel
Lion - They are, among other things, strong (
Proverbs 30:30 ), especially in their teeth (
Job 4:10 ) and paws (
1 Samuel 17:37 ), fearless (
Proverbs 28:1 ; 30:30 ), stealthy (
Psalm 17:12 ), frightening (
Ezra 19:7 ;
Hosea 11:10 ;
Amos 3:8 ), destructive (
1 Samuel 17:34 ;
Micah 5:8 ), and territorially protective (
Isaiah 31:4 ). He is strong (
Isaiah 38:13 ), fearless in protecting his own (
Isaiah 31:4 ), stealthy in coming upon his prey (
Jeremiah 49:19 ;
Hosea 13:7 ), frightening (
Hosea 11:10 ;
Amos 3:8 ), and destructive (
Jeremiah 25:38 ;
Lamentations 3:10 ;
Hosea 5:14 ; 13:8 )
Jonah - , and thus was contemporary with
Hosea and Amos; or possibly he preceded them, and consequently may have been the very oldest of all the prophets whose writings we possess
Hosea - " The period of his ministry (extending to some sixty years) is indicated in the superscription (
Hosea 1:1,2 )
Aven - Aven is the contemptuous term appended to stigmatize its vanity, with all its idolatrous pomp, just as
Hosea 5:8 calls Bethel, where the idol calf was set up, Bethaven
Shalman - This name occurs only in the clause ‘as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle’ (
Hosea 10:14 )
Oven - ...
Hosea 7:4 (a) This strange figure describes the terrible passions that occupy the hearts of ungodly men who burn in their hatred of one another, or in their lusts for one another
pa'Dan-a'Ram - " (
Hosea 12:13 ) The term was perhaps more especially applied to that portion which bordered on the Euphrates, to distinguish if from the mountainous districts in the north and northeast of Mesopotamia
Teraphim - The ephod and teraphim are mentioned together in
Hosea 3:4 . It has been supposed by some (Cheyne's
Hosea) that the "ephod" here mentioned, and also in
Judges 8:24-27 , was not the part of the sacerdotal dress so called (
Exodus 28:6-14 ), but an image of Jehovah overlaid with gold or silver (Compare Judges 17,18 ;
1 Samuel 21:9 ; 23:6,9 ; 30:7,8 ), and is thus associated with the teraphim
Baal Peor -
Hosea, speaking of the worship of this idol, emphatically calls it "that shame,"
Hosea 9:10
Memphis - From the ancient hieroglyphic name Ma-m-Phtah came the Hebrew "Moph,"
Hosea 9:6, and "Noph," and the Greek form "Memphis
Landmark -
Hosea 5:10 condemns the ruthless rulers of Judah as like those who remove landmarks, that is, those who have no regard for justice or for the traditional law
Flax - It was early cultivated in Palestine (
Joshua 2:6 ); the failure of the flax was one of God’s judgments (
Hosea 2:9 )
East Wind - ...
Hosea 12:1 (a) In this passage again the Holy Spirit is comparing the vain talk of men with the various kinds of winds
Bands - (I) Of love (
Hosea 11:4), parallel to "cords of a man," not such as oxen are led by, but humane methods, as a father draws his child by leading strings, "teaching him to go (
Hosea 11:1)
Ignorance - In the OT, indeed, the knowledge of God is often spoken of as equivalent to true religion (see Knowledge), and therefore ignorance is regarded as its opposite (
1 Samuel 2:12 ,
Hosea 4:1 ;
Hosea 6:6 )
Heifer - I will put the Assyrian yoke upon it (
Hosea 10:11); in
Hosea 4:16 translated "Israel is refractory (tossing off the yoke) as a refractory heifer
Vision - The vision of prophets such as Isaiah, Amos,
Hosea, Micah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and John are representative of this aspect of revelation. ...
Among the classical prophets (Amos,
Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Obadiah, etc
Bent - ...
Hosea 11:7 (a) The hearts of the people of Israel were inclined toward evil practices and were always ready and alert to go into things that displeased GOD
Obadiah - Some think that he was contemporary with
Hosea, Amos, and Joel; while others are of opinion that he lived in the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and that he delivered his prophecy about B
Ephraim (1) - The "precious things of the earth," "flowers," "olive valleys," and "vines" are assigned to Ephraim (
Isaiah 28:1-4;
Hosea 10:1). (Hosea 5;
Hosea 6;
Hosea 7;
Hosea 9;
Hosea 10;
Hosea 11:1-8;
Hosea 12;
Hosea 13; Ezekiel 23; 2 Kings 17)
Hosea -
Hosea began to prophecy very early in the church, prehaps, as some think, the first of all the prophets whose writings have been preserved in the canon of Scripture; and he continued through several reigns, as the preface in his first chapter shews. And wherefore should it be more improbable, in the case of
Hosea's marrying an adulteress, than in Jeremiah's instance, and in the case of Ezekiel also, being continued types of the doctrines they were directed to deliver to the people. ...
I cannot take leave of the history of
Hosea without first desiring the reader to remark with me, what numberless things we discover in this man's writings, pointing to the person, offices, relation, and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a sweet proof of the constant and unceasing love watching over and blessing the church of Jesus, by God the Holy Ghost, (See
Isaiah 27:3)...
There was another
Hosea in the church, who was last king of Israel
Baal (1) - A confusion, however, of Jahweh and the Canaanitish deities seems to have taken place, to avoid which,
Hosea (
Hosea 2:16-17 ) demands that Jahweh be no longer called Ba‘ali (‘my Baal’), but ’Ishi (‘my husband’). Under the influence of such prophecies the Israelites abandoned the use of Baal for Jahweh , and in later times developed so great an antipathy to this word that later revisers substituted bôsheth (‘shameful thing’), not only wherever Ba’al occurred for the Canaanitish deities (
Hosea 9:10 ,
Jeremiah 3:24 ;
Jeremiah 11:13 ), but also, forgetful of its former application to Jahweh, in some of the above names (see Ishbosheth), supposing them to allude to local gods
Savior - In the Old Testament God Himself and no other is savior (
Isaiah 43:11 ;
Isaiah 45:21 ;
Hosea 13:4 ), though individuals such as Moses and the judges may serve as agents of God's deliverance. God reveals His role as savior primarily through the Exodus from Egypt and provision for Israel during the wilderness years (
Hosea 13:4-6 )
Calf - ...
Hosea 8:5 (a) The Samaritans made a calf their god. ...
Hosea 14:2 (b) From this we learn that the offering of praise, thanksgiving and worship from their lips would bring joy to the heart of GOD, as though Israel offered a calf on the altar
Gilead - Jacob fled toward Gilead,
Genesis 31:21; it was conquered by Israel,
Numbers 21:24;
Judges 10:18;
Joshua 12:2;
Deuteronomy 2:36; was given to Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh,
Joshua 17:6; under Jephthah it defeated the Ammonites,
Judges 10:18; was a refuge for Saul's son and for David,
2 Samuel 2:9;
2 Samuel 17:22;
2 Samuel 17:24; the home of Elijah,
1 Kings 17:1; taken in part by Syria,
2 Kings 10:33; by Assyria,
2 Kings 15:25-29; referred to in the minor prophets,
Hosea 6:8;
Hosea 12:11;
Amos 1:3;
Amos 1:13;
Obadiah 1:19;
Micah 7:14;
Zechariah 10:10
Harlot - We find the Lord commanding
Hosea the prophet to marry an adulteress. (See
Hosea 3:1) And as a figurative representation, by type, of Jesus marrying our adulterous nature, nothing could be more striking
Teraphim - " We find them also censured in
Zechariah 10:2 : and
Hosea employed the term to signify the state of Israel with no kind of worship either of the true God or of false deities.
Hosea 3:4
Fir - The precise kind of tree meant by the "green fir tree" (
Hosea 14:8 ) is uncertain
Ahaz - Notwithstanding the remonstrances and warnings of Isaiah,
Hosea, and Micah, he appealed for help against Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Israel, who threatened Jerusalem, to Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, to the great injury of his kingdom and his own humilating subjection to the Assyrians (
2Kings 16:7,9; 15:29)
Betrothing - God speaks of betrothing his people to himself, in bonds of tender affection, and pledging his word that all his gracious promised will be fulfilled to them,
Jeremiah 2:2 Hosea 2:19,20
Rechab, Rechabites - That his influence was a matter of some importance is clear from the prominent place which the new ruler gave him (
Hosea 2:10-1215 ;
2 Kings 10:23 ). And the peril was a very real one, because of the inveterate popular belief that the local baals were the dispensers of all blessings pertaining to field and vineyard (
Hosea 2:5 ; 1618389502_2 ). Hence it seemed to more than one of the prophets that the early, simple period of the nation’s life, ere it became immersed in the Canaanite civilization, was preferable to all later developments (
Judges 2:2 ,
Hosea 10:1 )
Bottle - "Bottles of wine" in the Authorized Version of
Hosea 7:5 is properly rendered in the Revised Version by "the heat of wine," i
Baker - In
Hosea 7:4,6 , the heating of the oven by the baker is used figuratively for those who, as it were, prepared their lusts for evil, and then waited till the moment when they could satisfy them more greedily
Lip - Thus JEHOVAH takes to himself the sovereignty of this work, when he saith, (
Isaiah 57:19) "I create the fruit of the lips" Hence the church is represented as speaking the effusions of the heart, when she saith; "So will we render thee the claves of our lips" (
Hosea 14:2) And hence, when commending the beauties of Jesus, she saith; "his lips are like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh:" (Song of
Song of Solomon 5:13) meaning, that so sweet and fragrant are Christ's words, his gospel of salvation, and his tokens of grace, so refreshing to the soul of a poor sinner conscious of the want of it; that as lilies, they charm and afford a sweet smelling savour, by which all the spiritual senses are ravished and made glad
Slide - ...
Hosea 4:16 (b) This interesting picture describes Israel refusing to come at GOD's call, and resisting the sweet influences of His Word, and His prophets
Joel - It is impossible to ascertain the age in which he lived, but it seems most probable that he was contemporary with
Hosea
Ahaz - The eleventh king of Judah; he was contemporary with the prophets Isaiah,
Hosea, and Micah
Consecration - “I am God, and not man; the Holy One in your midst” (
Hosea 11:9 ).
Hosea pointed to both the otherness or separateness of God and His nearness
Dew - Hence, we read, by his servant the prophet
Hosea, how the Lord saith, "I will be as the dew unto Israel. " (
Hosea 14:5) And how is that? The Lord answereth in another Scripture
Jeroboam - With all this outward prosperity, however, iniquity widely prevailed in the land (
Amos 2:6-8 ; 4:1 ; 6:6 ;
Hosea 4:12-14 ). The prophets (
Hosea 1:1 ), (
Joel 3:16 ;
Amos 1:1,2 ), (
Amos 1:1 ), and Jonah (
2 Kings 14:25 ) lived during his reign. His name occurs in Scripture only in
2 Kings 13:13 ; 14:16,23,27,28,29 ; 15:1,8 ;
1 Chronicles 5:17 ;
Hosea 1:1 ;
Amos 1:1 ; 7:9,10,11
Amos - 787, and was thus a contemporary of
Hosea, Joel, and Isaiah
Baal (2) - ...
So strong was Israelite orthodox feeling against the name, that they altered names in which it occurred: Jerubbaal into Jerubbesheth, Merib-baal into Mephibosheth: compare
Hosea 2:16
Gomer -
The daughter of Diblaim, who (probably in vision only) became the wife of (
Hosea 1:3 )
Leopard - They cunningly lie in wait in thickets and often near villages for their prey, as distinguished from the lion's bold, open attack (
Jeremiah 5:6;
Hosea 13:7): "as a leopard by the way, I will observe (lie in wait for) them
Shalman -
Hosea 10:14 the 'eser common to Shalman with three other Assyrian kings is omitted, Tiglath Pil-eser, Esar-haddon, and Sharezer
Teraphim - In
Hosea 3:4 the Jews are described as having neither king, nor prince, nor sacrifice, nor image, nor ephod, nor teraphim — as they are at this day bereft of their sacrifices, and without even the divination and false gods they once had
Zebo'im - It is mentioned in (
Genesis 10:19 ; 14:2,8 ; 29:23;
Hosea 11:8 ) in each, of which passages it is either coupled with Admah or placed next it in the lists --perhaps represented by Talaa Sebaan , a name attached to extensive ruins on the high ground between the Dead Sea and Kerak
Corn - ...
Hosea 2:22 (b) The figure here describes the blessing that will come to Palestine when Israel is fully restored as a nation. ...
Hosea 14:7 (a) As the grain comes up freshly in the spring, so Israel will, again grow as a thriving nation
Barley -
Hosea bought his emblematic bride for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a half of barley,
Hosea 3:2
Thummim - They may have been, as some suppose, two small images, like the teraphim (Compare
Judges 17:5 ; 18:14,17,20 ;
Hosea 3:4 ), which were kept in the bag of the breastplate, by which, in some unknown way, the high priest could give forth his divinely imparted decision when consulted
Samuel - In one stratum-the earliest-of the two books which bear his name he is the ‘seer’ of a small town; in another he is the ‘judge’ who rules over the whole people; in a third he is the ‘prophet’ who speaks like an Amos or a
Hosea
Floor - ...
Hosea 13:3 (a) The judgment of Israel is described by this figure
Shur - " (
Hosea 2:14) Indeed, the very word Shur, a wall, carries with it this idea
Earring - ...
Hosea 2:13 (a) The figure is used here to describe those who make themselves attractive to the world and to GOD's enemies, and turn their affections to those things and those people who do not love the Lord, nor want His presence
Gall - ...
Rosh , generally translated "gall" in the English Bible, is in (
Hosea 10:4 ) rendered "hemlock:" in (32:33) and
Job 20:16 rosh denotes the "poison" or "venom" of serpents
Troop - Genesis 49; 2 Samuel 23;
Hosea 7 That which should accompany old age, ...
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, ...
I must not look to have
Hoshea (2) - " Tiglath Pileser had carried off the golden calf from Dan, and Shahnaneser from Bethel, in his first invasion (
2 Kings 15:29;
Hosea 10:14). ...
His speedy removal is graphically depicted (
Hosea 10:7); "as for Samaria her king is cut off as the foam upon the water
Ass -
Hosea (
Hosea 8:9) compares Israel to a wild ass: "they are gone up to Assyria, (whereas he ought to dwell) a wild donkey alone by himself" (
Numbers 23:9). ) In
Jeremiah 2:24 headstrong, undisciplinable obstinacy, and untamable perversity, and lust after the male, answering to Israel's spiritual lust after idols and alliances with pagan, are the point (
Hosea 2:6-7): "all they (the males) that seek her will not (have no need to) weary themselves in searching for her, in her month (the season when sexual impulse is strongest), they shall find her" putting herself in their way, and not needing to be sought cut by the males. The wild asses' characteristics noticed in holy writ are their love of unrestrained freedom, self will in pursuit of lust (
Jeremiah 2:24), fondness for solitary places (
Hosea 8:9), standing on high places when athirst (
Jeremiah 14:6; when even the pere , usually so inured to want of water, suffers, the drought must be terrible indeed)
Wine - "
Hosea 4:11, "whoredom, wine, and tirowsh take away the heart": the tirowsh is denounced not as evil in itself, but as associated with whoredom to which wine and grape cakes were stimulants; compare
Hosea 3:1, "love pressed cakes of dried grapes" (not "flagons of wine"):
Ezekiel 16:49. "
Hosea 4:13, chomets , "vinegar" or sour wine, such as the posca which the Roman soldiers drank, and such as was offered to Jesus on the cross (
Psalms 69:22). Instead of "flagons," 'ashishah ought to be translated "grape cakes" (
2 Samuel 6:19;
Hosea 3:1, etc. In
Hosea 4:18 "their drink is sour," i. Noisy shouting (
Zechariah 9:15;
Zechariah 10:7), rejoicing, taking away the understanding (
Hosea 4:11). "...
Producing sickness (
Hosea 7:5), "princes made him sick with bottles (else owing to the heat) of wine
Thorns, Thistles, Etc - dardar (
Genesis 3:18 ,
Hosea 10:8 ), some thistly or thorny plant. chôach (
2 Kings 14:9 ,
2 Chronicles 25:18 , and
Job 31:40 ‘thistle’;
2 Chronicles 33:11 ,
Song of Solomon 2:2 , and
Hosea 9:6 ‘thorns’;
Isaiah 34:13 AV
Bread - Besides there were public bakers (Hosea 7:4), and in Jerusalem a street tenanted by bakers (Jeremiah 37:21); Nehemiah mentions "the tower of the furnaces," or ovens (Nehemiah 3:11; Nehemiah 12:38). ...
The leavened dough was sometimes exposed to a moderate heat all night while the baker slept: Hosea 7:4-6; "as an oven heated by the baker who ceaseth from raising (rather, heating) after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened; for they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait . Hosea 7:8, "Ephraim is a cake not turned": burnt on one side, unbaked on the other, the fire spoiling, not penetrating it; so religious professors, outwardly warm, inwardly cold; on one side overdone, on the other not vitally influenced at all; Jehus professing great "zeal for the Lord," really zealous for themselves
Rock - ;
Hosea 10:8 );
Luke 8:6,13 , used illustratively;
1 Corinthians 10:4 (twice), figuratively, of Christ; in
Romans 9:33 ;
1 Peter 2:8 , metaphorically, of Christ; in
Matthew 16:18 , metaphorically, of Christ and the testimony concerning Him; here the distinction between petra, concerning the Lord Himself, and Petros, the Apostle, is clear (see above)
Vine - ...
Hosea 10:1 is rendered in the Revised Version, "Israel is a luxuriant vine, which putteth forth his fruit," instead of "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself," of the Authorized Version
Teraphim - The Syriac teraph means "to inquire" of an oracle, Hebrew toreph "an inquirer" (
Hosea 3:4-5)
Moon - The Israelites were guilty of the same wrong attitudes towards the ceremonies of the new moon as towards other religious ceremonies, and as a result God’s prophets condemned them (
Isaiah 1:13-14;
Hosea 2:11;
Amos 8:5; cf
Hoshea - ) There was then anarchy for about 9 years, thought to be noticed in
Hosea 10 ; and Hoshea began to reign B
Moth - ...
Hosea 5:12 (a) The destructive insect eating away at the cloth is a picture of the way our Lord would quietly and slowly deal with Israel, taking away his blessings, one by one, and leaving them as a damaged garment, with no strength, no beauty and no power
Hoshe'a - 726) Shalmaneser cruelly stormed the strong caves of Beth-arbel, (
Hosea 8:14 ) and made cruel tributary, (
2 Kings 17:3 ) for three years
Joshua - The Hebrew variations of Joshua are Oshea (
Numbers 13:16 );
Hosea (
Exodus 17:8-13 ). He was Moses' general, who led the troops in the actual fighting while Aaron and Hur held up Moses' hands (
Hosea 1:1 )
Jehu -
Hosea saw that the blood of Jezreel rested upon the house of Jehu, and that it would be avenged (
Hosea 1:4 )
Hosea - The style of
Hosea is peculiarly obscure; it is sententious, concise, and abrupt; the transitions of persons are sudden; and the connexive and adversative particles are frequently omitted.
Hosea, or HOSHEA, son of Elah, was the last king of Israel
Cord - ...
Hosea 11:4 (b) This is a type of those lovely and gracious attributes in GOD's heart which draws other hearts to Him
Fig, Fig-Tree - This was typical of Israel which had been compared to a fig-tree, bringing forth its first-ripefigs,
Hosea 9:10 ; but in the days ofthe Lord, Israel had plenty of leaves, professing to be God's favoured people, but producing no real fruit to Him
Leopard - ...
Hosea 13:7 (a) In this passage the lion represents power, the leopard represents swiftness, the bear represents silence and certainty, and these are characteristics of the GOD whom they abandoned
Bow - The phrase, "a deceitful bow," to which the people of Israel are compared,
Psalm 78:57 Hosea 7:16 , means an ill-made or twisted bow, which does not shoot the arrow as it is aimed
Pierius, a Presbyter of Alexandria - One was a homily upon
Hosea, which he recited on Easter Eve, wherein he notes that the people continued in church on Easter Eve till after midnight
Esdraelon -
Hosea prophesied vengeance on the house of Jehu for his role in the slaughter at Jezreel (
Hosea 1:4-5 )
Reap - ...
Hosea 8:7 (a) This figure is used to inform us that a little bit of sin may produce a tremendous lot of evil and harm. ...
Hosea 10:12 (a) In contrast with
Hosea 8:7, the Lord is telling us that a little investment in goodness will produce great and numerous blessings
Bull -
Hosea 14:2; "so shall we render the calves of our lips;" instead of sacrifices of calves, which we cannot offer to Thee in exile, we present the praises of our lips
Sabaoth - ‘Lord of Hosts,’ יְהֹוָה צְבָאֹוח) is a common title for Jahweh in the prophets, with the exception of
Hosea and Ezekiel
Horse - The horse was used among the Israelites only for war, either in chariots or for what is now called cavalry; but its use betokened failure in confidence on the Lord: see
Hosea 14:3
Hide - ...
Hosea 13:14 (a) This type informs us that GOD will no more alter His plan or purpose to give to Israel everlasting blessings
Oven - "
Hosea 7:4, 7: "they are all adulterers, as an oven heated by (burning from) the baker," i
Ambush - The people of Shechem waited in hiding to attack and rob people who crossed the mountain (
Judges 9:25 ; compare
Hosea 6:9 )
Memphis - The Hebrew of this is Moph,
Hosea 9:6 , and is judged to be the capital of lower or northern Egypt
Noph - Sometimes called also, in Hebrew, MOPH,
Hosea 9:6 , the ancient city of Memphis in Egypt
Harvest - As God of the harvest, the Lord speaks and takes it away (
Hosea 2:9 ). In fact, Israel herself becomes a harvest (
Hosea 6:11 )
Captivities of Israel -
Hosea says, "They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord,"
Hosea 11:11
Bread - The wheat was ground daily, in small stone mills; the flour was made into dough in a wooden trough, and subsequently leavened,
Exodus 12:34 Hosea 7:4 . A tire was built on the floor of this oven; and the sides being sufficiently heated, thin cakes were adroitly stuck upon towns there were public ovens, and bakers by trade,
Jeremiah 37:21 Hosea 7:4
Wine - (
Isaiah 25:6 ) To wine, is attributed the "darkly-flashing eye," (
Genesis 40:12 ) Authorized Version "red," the unbridled tongue, (
Proverbs 20:1 ;
Isaiah 28:7 ) the excitement of the spirit, (
Proverbs 31:6 ;
Isaiah 5:11 ;
Zechariah 9:15 ; 10:7 ) the enchained affections of its votaries, (
Hosea 4:11 ) the perverted judgment, (
Proverbs 31:5 ;
Isaiah 28:7 ) the indecent exposure, (
Habakkuk 2:15,16 ) and the sickness resulting from the heat (chemah , Authorized Version "bottles") of wine. (
Hosea 7:5 ) The allusions to the effects of tirosh are confined to a single passage, but this a most decisive one, viz. (
Hosea 4:11 ) "Whoredom and wine (yayin ) and new wine ( tirosh ) take away the heart," where tirosh appears as the climax of engrossing influences, in immediate connection with yayin . (
Hosea 14:7 ) With regard to the uses of wine in private life there is little to remark
Peniel - " (
John 1:18) Let the reader read the whole passage concerning this Peniel, this hallowed ground, as it is recorded through the whole chapter, (
Genesis 32:1-32) and let him then compare what is there said with what the prophet
Hosea, about a thousand years after, said concerning this vision; and let him then, looking up for the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, determine for himself. "He took his brother by the heel (said
Hosea, speaking of Jacob) in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed. " (
Hosea 12:3;
Hos 12:5)...
The history of Jacob, in this very interesting transaction, I am not at present engaged in: it is Jacob's Lord that we are now seeking after. Now it is remarkable, that he whom the prophet
Hosea, in the passage just quoted, in one verse calls the angel, in another he calls "the Lord God of hosts," and saith that "the Lord is his memorial
Hezekiah - ...
Religious reforms...
The prophets of Hezekiah’s time (he reigned from 716 to 687 BC) were
Hosea, Isaiah and Micah.
Hosea was by this time very old (cf.
Hosea 1:1), Isaiah was very influential around the palace (
Isaiah 1:1;
Isaiah 38:1) and Micah was preaching with such authority that the king was taking good notice of him (
Micah 1:1;
Jeremiah 26:17-19)
Moth - The minute wasting of garments, stored up as they are in the East as wealth, by the larva which forms its own case out of the cloth material on which it feeds, is the chief point of similitude (
Matthew 6:19-20;
James 5:2);
Hosea 5:12, "I will be unto Ephraim as a moth," gradually, silently, and surely consuming the nation's substance (
Isaiah 50:9;
Isaiah 51:8)
Achor - (
Hosea 2:15) In this sweet chapter, the Lord is following up his rich promises of grace, in return for Israel's repeated ingratitude and rebellion
Bear - " And the third,
Hosea 13:8 , "I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart
Oak - It is translated "elm" in
Hosea 4
Cloud - Cloud is also used for morning mists: "Your goodness is as a morning cloud; and as the early dew it goeth away,"
Hosea 6:4 ;
Hosea 13:3
Jonah - ...
Hosea and Amos prophesied in the latter part of the 41 years' reign of Jeroboam II. The book begins with "And," implying that it continues his prophetic work begun before; it was written probably about
Hosea's and Amos' time.
Hosea (
Hosea 6:2) saw the prophetical meaning of Jonah's entombment: "after two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up;" primarily Israel, in a short period (
Luke 13:32-33) to be revived from its national deadness, antitypically Messiah, raised on the third day (
John 2:19;
1 Corinthians 15:4); as Israel's political resurrection typifies the general resurrection, of which Christ's resurrection is the firstfruits (
Isaiah 26:19;
Ezekiel 37:1-14;
1 Corinthians 15:22-23;
Daniel 12:2). ...
Hosea too (
Hosea 9:3) had foretold their eating unclean things in Assyria. Moreover, Nineveh was the foretold (
Hosea 9:3;
Hosea 11:5;
Hosea 11:11;
Amos 5:27) executioner of God's coming judgment on Israel
Moth - עיש ,
Job 4:19 ; and עשש ,
Job 13:28 ;
Job 27:18 ;
Psalms 6:7 ;
Psalms 31:9-10 ;
Psalms 39:11 ;
Isaiah 50:9 ;
Hosea 5:12 . In the prophecies of
Hosea, God himself says, "I will be as a moth unto Ephraim, and as a lion;" that is, I will send silent and secret judgments upon him, which shall imperceptibly waste his beauty, corrode his power, and diminish his strength, and will finish his destruction with open and irresistible calamities. It is in this sense that the Lord threatens: "I will be unto Ephraim as a moth,"
Hosea 5:12
Calf - , priase, is called "the calves of our lips" (
Hosea 14:2 , RSV, "as bullocks the offering of our lips
Jotham - He was contemporary with the prophets Isaiah,
Hosea, and Micah, by whose ministrations he profited
Fir (Tree) - ...
Hosea 14:8 (c) By this figure is represented a happy Christian life, a life of usefulness for the Lord, and a happy situation
Kindness (2) - Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Hosea). God’s goodness and graciousness are gratefully celebrated in the Psalms; witness the refrain of Psalms 107, ‘Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness (הַסרּוֹ)!’ Stress on this Divine quality is the great characteristic of
Hosea.
Hosea 4:1;
Hosea 6:4;
Hosea 6:6), and both are made imperative by a right sense of J″
Compassion - Thus Hosea 11:8 concludes, “my repentings are kindled together” (KJV) or “all my compassion is aroused” (NAS). At another time God can say, “I will have no compassion” ( Hosea 13:14 NAS). Compare Hosea 2:4 ,Hosea 2:4,2:23 ; Zechariah 1:16 ; Zechariah 10:6
Valley - ...
...
'Emek, "deep;" "a long, low plain" (
Job 39:10,21 ;
Psalm 65:13 ;
Song of Solomon 2:1 ), such as the plain of Esdraelon; the "valley of giants" (
Joshua 15:8 ), usually translated "valley of Rephaim" (
2 Samuel 5:18 ); of Elah (
1 Samuel 17:2 ), of Berachah (
2 Chronicles 20:26 ); the king's "dale" (
Genesis 14:17 ); of Jehoshaphat (
Joel 3:2,12 ), of Achor (
Joshua 7:24 ;
Isaiah 65:10 ), Succoth (
Psalm 60:6 ), Ajalon (
Joshua 10:12 ), Jezreel (
Hosea 1:5 )
Wind - winds are frequent; blowing from the deserts, their dry heat causes the furniture to crack, and makes life a burden (
Hosea 13:15 )
Barley - Its inferiority to wheat is marked by the jealousy offering being of barley, whereas the ordinary (minchah ) meat, offering was of fine wheaten flour (
Leviticus 2:1), and the purchase price of the adulteress (
Hosea 3:2)
Gilgal - At a later period it became the scene of idolatrous worship (
Hosea 4:15 ; 9:15 )
Menahem - "
Hosea and Amos depict Israel's demoralization at the time
Son of God -
Hosea uses the phrase (1:10) to designate the gracious relation in which men stand to God
Millstone - A great millstone flung impetuously (ὁρμήματι, ‘with a rush,’ or ‘indignantly’; see Septuagint
Hosea 5:10) into the sea, to rise no more, is his image of the overthrow of Imperial Rome (
Revelation 18:21)
Heat - ’ καύσων in LXX Septuagint has both meanings: (1) scorching heat (
Genesis 31:40, Isaiah 49:10, Sirach 18:16;
Sirach 43:22); (2) the east wind (קָדִים), hot, dry, dust-laden, withering up all vegetation, and blowing from the desert, like the simoom (
Job 27:21, Jeremiah 18:17, Ezekiel 17:10;
Ezekiel 19:12, Jonah 4:8, Hosea 13:15), usually ἄνεμος or πνεῦμα καύσων
Cloud - ...
Hosea 6:4 (a) It is descriptive of the evanescent and transient character of the good deeds of these people
Hezekiah - The prophecies of
Hosea and Micah were delivered partly in his reign; compare
Jeremiah 26:17-19; and Nahum was perhaps his contemporary
Gilead or Galeed - Upon it are the ruined towns of Jelad and Jelud; probably the site of the ancient city Gilead of
Hosea 6:8 , else where called Ramoth Gilead
Tabor - At a later day it appears to have been desecrated by idolatry,
Hosea 5:1
mi'Cah - He was contemporary with
Hosea and Amos during the part of their ministry in Israel, and with Isaiah in Judah
Breast - ...
Hosea 2:2 (a) GOD presents to us a graphic picture of the wicked associations of Israel with the idolatrous nations around her. ...
Hosea 9:14 (a) GOD is warning Israel that He will punish them by preventing the blessings which they expected to receive and would dry up their natural resources of sustenance
Vessel - ...
Hosea 8:8 (a) It describes the failure of Israel to be a receptacle for GOD's glory and GOD's Word. ...
Hosea 13:15 (b) These vessels represent the excellent qualities of the leaders of Israel which GOD would take away and destroy
Backsliding -
Hosea describes Israel in particularly graphic terms as an adulterous people (2:5; 4:12; 5:7; 9:1). "Like Adam, they have broken the covenant—they were unfaithful to me there" (
Hosea 6:7 ). Through divine cleansing Israel would once again become the people of God (
Hosea 2:23 )
Concubine - (See
Hosea 2:19-20) At the final consummation of all things, Jesus will bring home his bride, and then will be the marriage-supper of the Lamb in heaven. " (
Hosea 2:19-20. See the whole chapter
Sin -
1 Chronicles 21:13 ;
Job 2:1-7 ,
Hosea 2:1-23 ). are Amos,
Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. The love of money, with its attendant evils of injustice, and robbery of the poor by the wealthy, is inveighed against by both Amos and
Hosea as deserving of the wrath of God (cf.
Hosea 12:7 f. ,
Hosea 4:9 ;
Hosea 9:7 f. ,
Hosea 5:1 ,
Micah 3:5 ;
Micah 3:11 etc. It was the prophetic function to deepen the consciousness of sin by revealing a God of moral righteousness to a people whose peculiar relationship to Jehovah involved both immense privileges and grave responsibilities (
Amos 3:2 ,
Hosea 3:5 ff. ,
Micah 7:18 ,
Hosea 6:1 ,
Amos 9:11 ff
the Angel of the Church in Thyatira - READ the first three chapters of
Hosea and this Epistle to the angel of the Church in Thyatira together, and substitute the dura lectio, the hard reading, "thy wife," for the easy reading, "that woman" in the twentieth verse, and it will be seen at once that the angel of the Church in Thyatira is just the prophet
Hosea over again. Very much the same scandal and portent that
Hosea and his house were in Israel; nay, almost more of a scandal, has the house of the angel of the Church in Thyatira been in Christendom. And this so paradoxical-sounding, but truly scientific, principle of our great scholars, has been taken up by some of our greatest expositors and preachers, and has been applied by them to the exegetical and homiletical treatment both of
Hosea's household history in the Old Testament, and of this so similar household history in the New Testament. ...
It was not the schools of the prophets in Israel that made
Hosea the great and original and evangelical prophet that he was. We would never have heard so much as
Hosea's name had it not been for his wife and her children. Both the prophet
Hosea in the Old Testament and this apostolical minister in the New Testament had come to see that when any man is called of God to this work of God, all he is and all he has, all his talents, all his affections, all his possessions, all his enjoyments, his very wife and children, must all be held by him under this great covenant with God, that they are all to be possessed and enjoyed and used by him, in the most absolute subordination to his ministry. "
Hosea learned at home, and all the week, that new sensibility to sin, that incomparable tenderness to sinners, and that holy passion as a preacher, with all of which he carried all Israel captive Sabbath after Sabbath, and so did his antitype in Thyatira
Rain - The prophet
Hosea beautifully expresseth this truth in one of his chapters. " (
Hosea 2:21-23) It is in vain for the men of Jezreel to expect the corn, and oil, and fruits of the earth, if the Lord restrain the clouds of heaven and the rain, that they withhold their fatness. But the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and vallies, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven; a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year?" (
Deuteronomy 11:10-12)...
I cannot dismiss this view of the former and latter rain without first calling upon the reader to notice a passage in the writings of
Hosea, where, if I mistake not, the Holy Ghost, by his servant the prophet, hath blessedly made those springs and autumns of the rain beautifully descriptive of the person and visits of Jesus. " (
Hosea 6:3) If the reader will consult the Bible, from whence these words are taken, he will discover, what the whole context proves, that what is here said is spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See
Deuteronomy 32:2;
Job 20:22-23;
Psalms 65:10;
Psa 68:9;
Psa 72:6;
Psa 147:8;
Isaiah 30:23;
Isa 55:10;
Hosea 10:2;
Acts 14:17)...
I cannot however refrain from making one observation more upon the subject of rain, though differing in quality from the ordinary rain to which in this country we are accustomed
Bread - In the towns there were public ovens, which were much made use of for baking bread; there were also bakers by trade (
Hosea 7:4 ;
Jeremiah 37:21 )
Cord - The "cords of a man" (
Hosea 11:4 ) means that men employ, in inducing each other, methods such as are suitable to men, and not "cords" such as oxen are led by
Bride - In the Old Testament, the prophets presented Israel as a bride who had committed repeated adulteries (
Jeremiah 3:1 ; Ezek, 16;
Hosea 3:1 )
Bird - ...
Hosea 9:11 (b) The actions of the bird in flying away are compared to the way in which the pomp, power, glory, and wealth of Israel was to pass away
Bed - ...
Hosea 7:14 (c) This is a picture of the rebellion of Israel even in affliction and trouble
Sand - ...
Hosea 1:10 (a) This represents the great number of people of Israel and their diversified beauty as the grains of sand
Jeroboam - See also the contemporary prophets, particularly Amos and
Hosea
Amos, Book of - Though Amos and
Hosea were prophets at the same time, and both prophesied of the sins of Israel, there is much difference in the style of the two.
Hosea is more fervent, stirred with righteous indignation at the sins of the people; whereas with Amos there is great calmness in declaring God's judgements.
Hosea's prophecy is confined to the sins of Judah and Israel, whereas Amos tells of the judgements that should fall upon some of the surroundingnations that had molested Israel, especially upon those that retained any part of the land that had been promised to Abraham; and then he recounts the sins, not only of Judah to which he himself belonged, but also of Israel, indeed there is more concerning the latter than the former
Guilt -
Hosea, also, spoke of the various sins of the nation Israel. Even though the people did not acknowledge their sins, the Lord pronounced them guilty (
Hosea 5:15 ;
Hosea 10:2 )
Justification -
Hosea provides the best example of this infidelity because it was personified in his life.
Hosea's personal experience in marriage served also as a parable of God's relationship with Israel. This is how
Hosea interpreted God's judgment upon sin and unfaithfulness to the covenant. Even in the midst of Israel's rebellion,
Hosea vividly portrayed God saying to them, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?” (
Romans 4:1-256 NIV)
Isaiah - , some of whose prophecies are preserved in the OT, Isaiah appeared third in the order of time some twenty years after Amos preached at Bethel, and a few years after
Hosea had begun, but before he had ceased, to prophesy.
Hosea was a native of the Northern Kingdom, and addressed himself mainly, if not exclusively, to his own people. Like
Hosea, he gave to his children, Shear-jashub (
Isaiah 7:3 ) and Maher-shalai-hash-baz (
Isaiah 8:3 ), names which briefly stated characteristic elements in his teaching; his own name, though of a normal and frequent Hebrew type, also happened to have a significance (‘help of Jahweh’ or ‘Jahweh helps’) of which he could have made use; that he actually did so we may perhaps infer from
Isaiah 8:18 , if we do not rather interpret that statement, so far as Isaiah himself is concerned, of such symbolic conduct as that which he pursued when he went ‘half-clad and barefoot’ (ch. In this teaching, as in his lofty conception of God, Isaiah did not fundamentally advance beyond the already lofty moral and religious standpoint of Amos and
Hosea, though there are naturally enough differences in the details of the presentation
Fig - ...
The fig-tree of Palestine (Ficus carica) produces two and sometimes three crops of figs in a year, (1) the bikkurah, or "early-ripe fig" (
Micah 7:1 ;
Isaiah 28:4 ;
Hosea 9:10 , RSV), which is ripe about the end of June, dropping off as soon as it is ripe (
Nahum 3:12 ); (2) the kermus, or "summer fig," then begins to be formed, and is ripe about August; and (3) the pag (plural "green figs,"
Song of Solomon 2:13 ; Gr
Jeroboam - Jonah, Amos, and
Hosea prophesied during his reign
Faithfulness - In spite of their unfaithfulness, God reminds them that he is betrothed to them in faithfulness (
Hosea 2:20 )
Weather - Before long the Israelites fell to the temptation to combine the worship of these gods with the worship of their own God, Yahweh (
Judges 2:11-13;
Hosea 2:5-13; see BAAL)
Lily - ...
Hosea 14:5 (a) This is a type of Israel in the regeneration when they will be restored to the Lord and shall bring joy to His heart by the beauty and fragrance of their testimony
Jeroboam - The temporary prosperity of Israel was accompanied by social and moral degeneracy, as is set forth distinctly by Amos and
Hosea
Heart - To want heart, sometimes denotes to want understanding and prudence: "Ephraim is like a silly dove, without heart,"
Hosea 7:11
Eagle - The march of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, is predicted in similar terms: "Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles,"
Jeremiah 4:13 48:
40 49:22 Hosea 8:1
Pride - ...
Fifteen Old Testament texts (NIV ) contain the word "arrogance, " nearly half of them (7) in the prophets (
Isaiah 2:17 ; 9:9 ; 13:11 ;
Jeremiah 13:15 ; 48:29 ;
Ezekiel 7:10 ;
Hosea 5:5 ; 7:10 ). When the prophets accuse Israel of pride (Jeremiah 13:9 ; Ezekiel 7:10,20 ; 16:56 ;
Hosea 5:5 ; 7:10 ; Amos 6:8 ; 8:7 ; Zephaniah 2:10 ), the word hybristes [ ὑβριστής ]'>[5] connotes a wanton, insolent person
Sow (Verb) - ...
Hosea 2:23 (b) This passage is somewhat similar to the one above, except that probably it has reference to the blessing that GOD will make Israel to be for all the earth. ...
Hosea 10:12 (b) The truth revealed in this passage probably is a result of the Scripture above
Water of Jealousy - ...
The Talmud says the trial lapsed into disuse 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and that because adultery was so common God would no longer inflict upon women the curses (compare
Hosea 4:14)
Gilgal - It seems to have been the place in which Jeroboam or some of the kings of Israel instituted idolatrous worship; and hence the allusions to it by the prophets,
Hosea 4:15 ;
Amos 4:4
Thorn, Thorns - , in
Numbers 33:55 ;
Ezekiel 28:24 ;
Hosea 2:6 ),
2 Corinthians 12:7 , of the Apostle's "thorn in the flesh;" his language indicates that it was physical, painful, humiliating; it was also the effect of Divinely permitted Satanic antagonism; the verbs rendered "that I should (not) be exalted overmuch" (RV) and "to buffet" are in the present tense, signifying recurrent action, indicating a constantly repeated attack
Prostitution -
Hosea entered into an elaborate sign act in order to preach to the northern kingdom about its sin of spiritual harlotry. God told him to marry Gomer (
Hosea 1:2-3 )
Adoption - Some Old Testament traditions approach the idea that Israel's relationship with God was that of an adopted child (
Exodus 4:22 ;
Deuteronomy 14:2 ;
Hosea 11:1 ), though the idea is never stated explicitly (compare
Romans 9:4 ). Adoption has always been God's way of operating with His people (
Hosea 11:1 ), for only spiritual birth, not natural birth, has determined who belonged to the covenant people (
Romans 9:1 )
Eating -
Hosea reproaches the priests of his time with eating the sins of the people,
Hosea 4:8 ; that is, feasting on their sin offerings, rather than reforming their manners
Esau - From the first Jacob sought to gain advantage over Esau (
Hosea 12:3 )
Mizpah - Whether the Mizpah of
Hosea 5:1, was in Benjamin or in Gilead is uncertain
Ramah -
Hosea mentioned Ramah (
Joshua 5:8 ), and Isaiah prophesied that the approaching Assyrian army would march through Ramah (
Isaiah 10:29 )
Olive (Tree) - ...
Hosea 14:6 (b) Here we see a picture of Israel restored to her place of prominence and power with the land healed, the rains falling on rich pastures, and the glory of all lands again seen in Palestine
Leopard -
Hosea 13:7), as well as the same ruthless cruelty, as that much-dreaded inhabitant of Palestine and the East
Bands - ...
Hosea 11:4 (a) These are love bands that hold us to our Lord with strong cords which nothing can break
Dry Dried Drieth - ...
Hosea 9:16 (a) The foundations of the very national existence in Israel (Ephraim), were destroyed by the enemy through the will of GOD so that they cease to be a national power. (See also
Hosea 13:15)
Agriculture - The period denoted by the common scriptural expressions of the "early" and the "latter rain," (11:14;
Jeremiah 5:24 ;
Hosea 6:3 ;
Zechariah 10:1 ;
James 5:7 ) generally reaching from November to April, constituted the "rainy season," and the remainder of the year the "dry season. (
Isaiah 7:25 ) New ground and fallows, (
Jeremiah 4:3 ;
Hosea 10:12 ) were cleared of stones and of thorns, (
Isaiah 5:2 ) early in the year, sowing or gathering from "among thorns" being a proverb for slovenly husbandry
Children (Sons) of God - Thus
Hosea declares that God loved Israel and called His ‘son’ out of Egypt (
Hosea 11:1 , cf.
Exodus 4:22 ‘Israel is my son, my firstborn’); and, in spite of the Divine rejection of the Northern Kingdom (
Hosea 1:9 Lo-ammi , ‘not my people’), prophesies that it shall still be said to them ‘ye are the sons of the living God’ (
Hosea 1:10 ). So too Isaiah: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me … Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider’ (
Hosea 1:2-3 )
Galilee - " This saying of theirs was "not historically true, for two prophets at least had arisen from Galilee, Jonah of Gath-hepher, and the greatest of all the prophets, Elijah of Thisbe, and perhaps also Nahum and
Hosea
Boar - ...
Instead of gratitude for the deliverance, the Gadarenes prefer their swine, though at the cost of the demons' presence, to the Savior at the cost of sacrificing their swine; so they entreat Him to "depart out of their coasts," forgetting His word, "Woe to them when I depart from them" (
Hosea 9:12); a striking contrast to him who was delivered from the demons and who "prayed that he might be with Jesus (
Mark 5:15-18)
Branch - More often, however, the prophets use the analogy of the vine and branches to describe Israel's future restoration (
Isaiah 60:21 ;
Hosea 14:6 )
Esau - The standing feature of Esau’s history is rivalry with Jacob, which is represented as even preceding the birth of the twins (
Genesis 25:22 ,
Hosea 12:3 )
Hedge - ...
Hosea 2:6 (a) This type reveals that GOD will surround the people with troubles, sorrows, griefs and pains so that they can hardly escape and must be punished
Swallow - ...
Hosea 8:8 (b) This action is used to describe the scattering of the Jews among the Gentiles in which they were absorbed after their dispersion
Resurrection - ...
The prophets proclaimed hope for the future in terms of national renewal (see
Hosea 6:1-3 ;
Ezekiel 37:1 ). So pointed is the prophetic expression of national hope that the New Testament writers sometimes used the language of the prophets to expound the doctrine of resurrection (compare
Hosea 13:14 ;
1 Corinthians 15:55 )
Egypt - ...
God speaks of his love for his people in an oracle of the prophet
Hosea: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son" (11:1). Matthew applies the oracle of
Hosea 11 to this situation, further linking Jesus with the historic suffering of the people of God (
Matthew 2:15 )
How the Prophetic Gift Was Received - --Of the sixteen prophets, four are usually called the great prophets, namely, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, and twelve the Minor prophets, namely,
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakuk,Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. They may be divided into four groups: the prophets of the northern kingdom --Hosea, Amos, Joel, Jonah; the prophets of the southern kingdom --Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah; the prophets of the captivity --Ezekiel and Daniel; the prophets of the return --Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
Israel, Israelite - But the earlier prophets, though they do not expressly mention a covenant—except
Hosea (
Hosea 6:7 doubtful,
Hosea 8:1)—all teach the truth that Jahweh requires moral, ethical service from His people. It had been foreshadowed in the life story of
Hosea, and was to be the fulfilment of the dreams and longings of all the prophets
Name, Names - Again, an Isaiah (
Isaiah 7:3 ;
Isaiah 8:3 ) or a
Hosea (
Hosea 2:4 ;
Hosea 2:8-9 ) is quite ready to bestow symbolical names on his children; a Jeremiah (
Jeremiah 20:3 ) predicts the change from Pashhur to Magor-missabib , because the latter will more accurately correspond to the surroundings; and the same prophet sums up all his hopes for the future in the title which he bestows on the Messianic King and the holy city (
Jeremiah 23:6 ;
Jeremiah 33:16 ; cf. ,
Genesis 35:18 ,
1Sa 1:20 ;
1 Samuel 4:21 ,
Isaiah 7:14 ), sometimes the father (
Genesis 4:26 ;
Genesis 16:15 ;
Genesis 17:19 ;
Genesis 21:3 ,
Exo 2:22 ,
2 Samuel 12:24 ,
Hosea 1:4 ff
Ephod - ...
The importance of the ephod in Hebrew worship is seen in the fact that, even after the division of the nation into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, there is mention of the ephod in worship in the Northern Kingdom (
Hosea 3:4 )
Kindness - ...
Human response to the covenant with God, however, was bewailed by the prophets as a youthful loyalty that vanished like the morning dew (
Jeremiah 2:2 ;
Hosea 6:4 )
Eagle - ...
Hosea 8:1 (a) Here is a reference to the swiftness with which the enemy of Israel would invade the land and conquer the people of GOD because of their disobedience
Brier - This word is translated by the Septuagint, παροιστρησουσιν , stung by the aestrus, or gadfly; and they use the like word in
Hosea 4:16 , where, what in our version is "a backsliding heifer," they render "a heifer stung by the oestrus
Jezreel - Its elevated site gives one a fine view of the great plain of Esdraelon on the west, and the hills that border it; and towards the east it overhangs the wide and fertile "valley of Jezreel,"
Joshua 17:16 Judges 6:33 Hosea 1:5 , which runs down east-south-east from the great plain to the Jordan, between Gilboa and little Hermon
Cedar - Every thing about this tree has a strong balsamic odor; and hence the whole grove is so pleasant and fragrant, that it is delightful to walk in it, Song of
Song of Solomon 4:11 Hosea 14:6
Covenant - ...
Theologians use the phrase "covenant of works" to denote the constitution established by God with man before the fall, the promise of which was eternal life on condition of obedience,
Hosea 6:7 Romans 3:27 Galatians 2:19
Jehu - But people never forgot his butchery, and his dynasty was doomed to end, as it had begun, with violence (
2 Kings 10:30;
Hosea 1:4)
Golden Rule - Similarly, God's unfailing love is clearly evident throughout
Hosea. His compassion for people is seen in his love for the aliens among Israel, pagan nations such as Nineveh, and sinful persons such as Gomer in
Hosea
Tabernacles, Feast of - So
Hosea (
Hosea 12:9) uses "tabernacles" or "tents" for "booths," when speaking of the feast; the booth was probably used at times in the desert, when at certain places they made a more permanent stay during the forty years
Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament - Matthew's use of
Hosea 11:1 (
Hosea 2:15 ) suggests that the Gospel writer saw a correspondence between Jesus' journey into Egypt and the Egyptian sojourn of the people of Israel. The redemptive purposes of God demonstrated in the Exodus (reflected by the prophet
Hosea) were being demonstrated in Jesus' life
Samaria - The Prophet
Hosea,
Hosea 10:4 ;
Hosea 10:8-9 , speaks of the cruelties exercised by Shalmaneser against the besieged; and
Micah 1:6 , says that the city was reduced to a heap of stones
Prophecy - ...
Jonah...
856-784...
Amos...
810-785...
Hosea...
810-725...
Isaiah...
810-698...
Joel...
810-660...
Micah...
758-699...
Nahum...
720-698...
Zephaniah...
640-609...
Jeremiah...
628-586...
Habakkuk...
612-598...
Daniel...
606-534...
Obadiah...
588-583...
Ezekiel...
595-536...
Haggai...
520-518...
Zechariah...
520-518...
Malachi...
436-420...
Plow (And Forms) - ...
Hosea 10:11 (b) The passage reads as though GOD's people of both Judah and Israel would destroy their enemies and break up the ground as with a plow, so that their enemies would be made desolate
Hair - ...
Hosea 7:9 (a) This figure is used to describe the fact that GOD's people may grow weak, old and helpless without recognizing the fact
Zephaniah - ; and in
Zephaniah 1:4-6 threatens "cutting off" to "the remnant of Baal" and "the name of the (See CHEMARIMS with the priests "; see
Hosea 10:5 margin, "and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham
Bear -
Hosea uses the image of marriage and childbearing to describe God’s relationship to Israel (1:3, 6, 8)
Staff - ...
Hosea 4:12 (b) Evidently Israel was depending upon idols for help, and was following the counsel which they received from their divinations
Zephaniah, Prophecy of - " God could see the followers of Baal still there, and the Chemarim (idolatrous priests, mentioned in
2 Kings 23:5 and
Hosea 10:5 , margin ), and those who worshipped the host of heaven; and those that sware by Jehovah and by Malcham, or 'their king,' that is, Baal: cf
Water - For example, in the Old Testament water is a metaphor or simile for fear (
Joshua 7:5 ), death (
2 Samuel 14:14 ), sin (
Job 15:16 ), God's presence (
Psalm 72:6 ), marital fidelity (
Proverbs 5:15-16 ), the knowledge of God (
Isaiah 11:9 ), salvation (
Isaiah 12:3 ), the Spirit (
Job 36:27 ), God's blessings (
Isaiah 58:11 ), God's voice (
Ezekiel 43:2 ), God's wrath (
Hosea 5:10 ), and justice (
Amos 5:24 )
Meshach - ) The faith of these youths was made instrumental in overruling the foretold evil (
Ezekiel 4:13;
Hosea 9:3) to the glory of God; they "chose affliction with the people of God rather than the pleasures of sin for a season" (
Hebrews 11:24-26)
Redeemer - So our Redeemer "through death has destroyed Satan (man's "murderer from the beginning",
John 8:44) who had the power of death," and has delivered us from everlasting "bondage" to him (
Hebrews 2:14-15;
Hosea 13:14)
Kindness - Indeed, expressing kindness to other human beings is more important than performing ritual sacrifice to God (
Hosea 6:6 ;
Matthew 9:13 ; 12:7 )
Rain - ...
Hosea 6:3 (a) The passage no doubt refers to the restoration of Israel in their own land as a nation
Orphan - But they could at the same time hope for salvation, for in Yahweh "the fatherless find compassion" (
Hosea 14:4 )
Thorn - ...
Hosea 2:6 (a) GOD will see to it that Israel has trouble on every side, and from every source
Amos - The others were
Hosea, Isaiah and Micah
Olive - The cultivation of the olive tree had the closest connection with the domestic life of the Israelites (
2 Chronicles 2:10 ) their trade, (
Ezekiel 27:17 ;
Hosea 12:1 ) and even their Public ceremonies and religious worship
Love - ...
Hosea used the image of married love to teach us to understand both the faithlessness of Israel and the faithfulness of God. Israel's love is âlike a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth awayâ (
Hosea 6:4 ). His own relationship with an adulterous wife allowed
Hosea the insight that God had not given up Israel in spite of her faithlessness
Lebanon - On the declivities of the mountain grew the vines which furnished the rich and fragrant wine which
Hosea celebrated,
Hosea 14:7 , and which may still be obtained by proper culture
Prophets - , before Amos and
Hosea came upon the stage.
Hosea, under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and under Jeroboam II And his successors, kings of Israel
Lebanon - The trees striking their roots into the fissures of rocks illustrate
Hosea 14:5, "Israel shall strike forth his roots as Lebanon
Micah, Book of - Amos and
Hosea had brought God’s message mainly to the northern kingdom Israel, whereas Isaiah and Micah were more concerned with the southern kingdom Judah
Cuttings in the Flesh - The custom is referred to without condemnation by the pre-Deuteronomic prophets, see
Hosea 7:14 (corrected text, as RVm
Night - ...
Hosea 7:6 (b) We may learn from this that those in Israel who should have been producing blessing and profit for the nation were not doing so
Keys - The knowledge from which the people are thus excluded is ‘that of the way of salvation’ (Plummer), or, more profoundly, that knowledge of the Lord, for lack of which the ‘people perish’ (
Hosea 4:6), to seek which they had been urged by the prophets (cf
on (2) - ) Tradition makes On the place visited by Joseph, Mary, and our Lord, and a sycamore is shown under which they rested in their flight (
Hosea 11:1;
Matthew 2:15)
Handicraft - Bakers are noticed in Scripture,
Jeremiah 37:21;
Hosea 7:4; and the well-known valley Tyropœon probably derived its name from the occupation of the cheese-makers, its inhabitants
Cedar Tree - " (
Hosea 14:6) Such, and many more of the like nature, open to our view, while considering the church in Jesus's esteem, as the Cedar of Lebanon
Whoring, To Go; Harlot, To Be - ...
The Book of
Hosea, in which
Hosea’s wife Gomer became unfaithful and most likely was involved in such cult prostitution, again illustrates not only
Hosea’s heartbreak but also God’s own heartbreak because of the unfaithfulness of his wife, Israel
Sacrifice -
Hosea spoke about the necessity of Israel’s love for God: “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (
Offence - in
Hosea 4:17 , "Ephraim partaking with idols hath laid stumblingblocks in his own path
Calf - The "calves of the lips," mentioned by
Hosea 14:2 , signify the sacrifices of praise which the captives of Babylon addressed to God, being no longer in a condition to offer sacrifices in his temple
Fig Tree - Something like this may be alluded to by the Prophet
Hosea, when he says, ‘I saw your fathers as בכורה , the first ripe, in the fig tree, at her first time,'
Hosea 9:10
Repentance -
Hosea anticipated the day when Israel "will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king" (3:5). An especially vivid illustration of this reversal is found in
Hosea 11:8-9 : "How can I give you up, Ephraim? My heart is changed within me I will not carry out my fierce anger
Gardens - In the prophecies of
Hosea, God threatens his treacherous and idolatrous people with many painful embarrassments and perplexities, which would as effectually retard or obstruct their progress in the paths of wickedness, as a hedge of thorny plants stretching across the traveller's way, the prosecution of his journey: "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths,"
Hosea 2:6
Israel, History of - The Divided Monarchy (1–2Kings; Amos;
Hosea; Isaiah 1–39 ; Micah; Jeremiah) The north was contextually tied into international politics more than was the south, in part because the primary east-west trade route traversed Israel at the Valley of Jezreel. During an approximate fifty-year period, two primary prophets spoke in the south—Isaiah (742-701) and Micah (724-701)—while two prophets spoke in the north—Amos (about 750) and
Hosea (about 745). ...
Hosea, the only northern prophet whose message is recorded in a book bearing his name, was Israel's eighth-century proponent of hesed (“covenant fidelity”) theology. On the analogy of his relationship with his wife Gomer (
Hosea 1-3 ), he exhorted Israel to be faithful to Yahweh. While assuring Israel of Yahweh's love,
Hosea warned her of impending judgment resulting from her abuse of the covenant relationship
High Places - ...
The priests whom the kings of Judah ordained to burn incense in the high places were called Chemarim; compare
Hosea 10:5;
Zephaniah 1:4 idol priests not having reached the age of puberty, meaning "ministers of the gods," the Tyrian camilli, (black attired ministers, subordinate to the priests, they felled the victim), from chaamar "to be black
Understanding - While artisans have made idols according to their understanding (
Hosea 13:2 ), Isaiah challenges the effectiveness of such effort, noting that artisans can create no gods at all (44:17)
Achan - Thomson (The Land and the Book) on
Hosea 2:15; "That valley runs up from Gilgal toward Bethel
Companion - The prophet
Hosea was commanded to take back his wife from her “friend” (lover), as she had played the adulteress long enough
Mother - ”
Hosea calls the priests (probably) the “mother” of Israel: “… And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother” (
Spirit - Thus we read of a spirit of jealously, a spirit of fornication, a spirit of prayer, a spirit of infirmity, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of fear of the Lord,
Hosea 4:12 Zechariah 12:10 Luke 13:11 Isaiah 11:2
Oven - The heat is considerably greater than what is needed for the more gradual firing of our larger European loaf, and the Oriental oven thus became the emblem of vehement desire (
Hosea 7:6-7) and the indignant anger of God (
Psalms 21:9)
Wine And Strong Drink - In some OT passages, however, and notably
Hosea 4:11 , where tîrôsh is named with yayin and whoredom, as taking away the understanding (RV
Canticles; the Song of Solomon - ; Hosea 1; 2; 3; Ezekiel 16; 23). If we view the bride as Israel (the primary sense), Hosea 2:14-16 is exactly parallel to the whole song. Israel," made like the chariots of Amminadib" ("My willing people") instead of as heretofore "Lo-ammi," not My people (Hosea 1:9-10), shall "look forth as, the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners" (Revelation 21:2; Revelation 12:1; Revelation 19:14)
Jacob - By the time of Jacob this earlier history of the word was overlooked or forgotten, and the name was understood as meaning ‘one who takes by the heel, and thus tries to trip up or supplant’ (
Genesis 25:26 ;
Genesis 27:36 ,
Hosea 12:3 ).
Hosea 12:4 ). By a ruse Laban secured fourteen years’ service (
Genesis 29:27 ,
Hosea 12:12 ,
Jdt 8:26 ), to which six years more were added, under an ingenious arrangement in which the exacting uncle was at last outwitted (
Genesis 30:31 ff. His name was changed to Israel , which means etymologically ‘God perseveres,’ but was applied to Jacob in the sense of ‘Perseverer with God’ (
Hosea 12:3 f
Violence - ...
Hosea accused Ephraim of loving to oppress, a description that is paired with a description of a merchant with false balances (
Hosea 12:7 )
Egypt - In the first instance the passage quoted is
Hosea 11:1 ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt’ (מִמִּצרַיִם קָרִאחי לִבִנִי, LXX Septuagint τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ, ‘his, i.
Hosea recalls the deliverance and mercies of the past (cf
Judah, Kingdom of -
Hosea (
Hosea 3:4-5) vividly depicts Israel's state for ages, clinging to the law yet without "altar, priest, or sacrifice," which the law ordains, yet not relapsing into idolatry to which they were so prone in his day, "without teraphim" and "without a king"; then finally "seeking the Lord and David their king
Egypt - In the first instance the passage quoted is
Hosea 11:1 ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt’ (מִמִּצרַיִם קָרִאחי לִבִנִי, LXX Septuagint τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ, ‘his, i.
Hosea recalls the deliverance and mercies of the past (cf
Trump Trumpet - In early Hebrew history they were used for secular purposes, such as signalling the approach of an enemy (
Hosea 5:8, Amos 3:6), but in later days their use became increasingly religious
Hazael - The atrocities foretold (the same as in
Hosea 13:16) were doubtless perpetrated by him when in Jehu's days "Jehovah cut Israel short, and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel, from Jordan eastward, all
Do - ...
What have I to do any more with idols?
Hosea 14
Fig - ...
Esteemed a delicacy (
Jeremiah 24:2;
Hosea 9:10;
Micah 7:1): "when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up"; it looks so tempting he instantly swallows it; so the Assyrian conqueror Shalmaneser shall not merely conquer, but with impatient avidity destroy Samaria
Smoke - ...
Hosea 13:3 (a) The Lord again warns His people about the tragedy that awaits them because of their wickedness and rebellion against His Word
Faithfulness -
Hosea portrays God’s relation to Israel as a marriage and states God’s promise of “faithfulness” to Israel: “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies
Canaan; Canaanite - 31:24 and
Job 41:6 and notably, in speaking of the sins of Israel,
Hosea says, “He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand …” (
Name - " (
Hosea 2:16-17) The Israelites were not only in danger from using the same name of Baali, which signifies Lord, as their idolatrous neighbours did, when speaking of their gods, but they had been upon numberless occasions infected also with their idolatry
Romans - The Apostle, after expressing his affection to the Roman Christians, and asserting that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, takes a comprehensive view of the conduct and condition of men under the different dispensations of Providence; he shows that all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, were equally "under sin," and liable to the wrath and punishment of God; that therefore there was a necessity for a universal propitiation and redemption, which were now offered to the whole race of men, without any preference or exception, by the mercy of him who is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews; that faith in Jesus Christ, the universal Redeemer, was the only means of obtaining this salvation, which the deeds of the law were wholly incompetent to procure; that as the sins of the whole world originated from the disobedience of Adam, so the justification from those sins was to be derived from the obedience of Christ; that all distinction between Jew and Gentile was now abolished, and the ceremonial law entirely abrogated; that the unbelieving Jews would be excluded from the benefits of the Gospel, while the believing Gentiles would be partakers of them; and that this rejection of the Jews, and call of the Gentiles, were predicted by the Jewish Prophets
Hosea and Isaiah
Prophet, Prophetess, Prophecy - It is enough for us to know that in many cases there was such a definite call from God, as the testimonies of Elisha, Isaiah, Amos,
Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel demonstrate. ...
No less direct was God's call on
Hosea. Just as resolute as God was in his call of
Hosea, so too was
Hosea in his resolve to love his wife Gomer even after she had forsaken him for other lovers. After bearing three children to
Hosea, whose very names were as symbolic as the message and love of this man for his estranged wife,
Hosea wooed back his wife again as God would ultimately his people Israel
Messiah - Jahweh);...
Have made princes, but I knew them not’ (
Hosea 8:4). ...
It is not surprising, amid the rapid changes of rulers and the disasters wrought by foreign invasion, that
Hosea should have prophesied the discipline of exile for his faithless countrymen, and as its final issue that they should return and seek Jahweh their God and ‘David their king. ’*
Prophet - As to symbolic actions, ninny are only parts of visions, not external facts, being impossible or indecent (Jeremiah 13:1-10; Jeremiah 25:12-38; Hosea 1:2-11). The prophets so commissioned were the national poets (so David the psalmist was also a prophet, Acts 2:30), annalists (2 Chronicles 32:32), theocratic patriots (Psalm 48; 2 Chronicles 20:14-17), promoters of spiritual religion (Isaiah 1), extraordinarily authorized expounders of the spirit of the law (Isaiah 58:3-7; Ezekiel 18; Micah 6:6-8; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21) which so many sacrificed to the letter, official pastors, and a religious counterpoise to kingly despotism and idolatry, as Elijah was to Ahab. So also Jeremiah, Matthew 2:18; Hebrews 8:8; Daniel, Matthew 24:15; Hosea, Matthew 2:15; Romans 9:25; Joel, Acts 2:17; Amos, Acts 7:42; Acts 15:16; Jonah, Matthew 12:40; Micah, Matthew 12:7; Habakkuk, Acts 13:41; Haggai, Hebrews 12:26; Zechariah, Matthew 21:5; Mark 14:27; John 19:37; Malachi, Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27. The primary sense does not exclude the secondary, not even though the sacred writer himself had nothing in his thought; beyond the primary, for the Holy Spirit is the true Author, who often made the writers unconsciously utter words reaching far beyond the primary and literal sense; so Hosea 11:1, compare Matthew 2:15; so Caiaphas, Hebrews 12:1
High Place, Sanctuary - From OT the names of Horeb (or Sinai), the ‘mountain of God’ (
Exodus 3:1 ), of Ebal and Gerizim, of Carmel and Tabor (
Hosea 5:1 ), at once suggest themselves as sanctuaries where the Hebrews worshipped their God.
1 Kings 19:18 ,
Hosea 13:2 ).
Deuteronomy 12:3 ,
Hosea 10:1 RV
Eagle - Referring to the Babylonian monarch, the prophet Hosea proclaimed in the ears of all Israel, the measure of whose iniquities was nearly full, "He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord," ...
Hosea 8:1
Theophany - It is also clear that in the events at the Jabbok ford, Jacob somehow received a revelation through an encounter with God, although neither a strict reading of the text (
Genesis 32:22-32 ) nor its later interpretation by
Hosea (12:3-4) demand a theophany
Famine - " (
Hosea 3:4-5) But let not the reader close up his view of this spiritual famine as it relates to the Jews, without going farther, and enquiring whether the threatening may not belong equally to the Gentile church? yea, and whether it is not now in the present hour accomplishing in the earth? Is there not a famine of hearing the word of the Lord in numberless places which are called Christian countries, as well as idolatrous lands? Are there not multitudes who call themselves after Christ, but yet know no more of him than the name? Yea, to come nearer home, are there not villages and country places in this kingdom where the spiritual famine prevails, notwithstanding our land is called, a land of Bibles, and societies for disseminating the word of God are every where opening? Alas! while the grand and distinguishing principles of the faith of Christ are so openly and impudently denied; while God the Father's gracious purposes in the gift of salvation by his dear Son, is thought nothing of; while the GODHEAD of Christ, and redemption wholly by his blood, is daringly opposed; and while the person, work, and influence of God the Holy Ghost is not made the very foundation of a sinner's hope, in reading the sacred word to make wise unto salvation; while these things are kept in the back ground, and the object with many in teaching is but to introduce a flimsy system of morality to supply the place of vital godliness, is there not still a famine, yea, with many, with the Bible in their hand? Pious regenerated Christians see this, and find cause to mourn in secret over it; while they can only pray the Lord to take away the reproach of our land, and remove this spiritual famine from our people
Love -
Hosea appears to use this nuance when he writes that God told him to “go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress …” (3:1)
Micah, Book of - He prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and was thus contemporary with Isaiah and
Hosea
Floor - In
Hosea 13:3 , we read of the chaff which is driven by the whirlwind from the floor
Joshua - His first name was
Hosea, or Oshea;
Hoseah signifying saviour; Jehoshua, the salvation of God, or he will save
Idol - ...
(5) bosheth , "shame": not merely shameful, but the essence of shame, bringing shame on its votaries and especially expressing the obscenity of Baal's and Baal Peor's worship (
Jeremiah 11:13;
Hosea 9:10).
Hosea 2:16-17; "thou shalt call Me Ishi (my Husband, the term of affection), no more Baali" (my Lord, the term of rule, defiled by its application to Baal, whose name ought never to be on their lips:
Exodus 23:13;
Zechariah 13:2), etc. ;
2 Kings 23:7;
Hosea 4:14), "separated with whores (withdrawn from the assembly of worshippers for carnal connection with them) . The Babylonian captivity almost thoroughly purged the Jews from their proneness to idols (
Jeremiah 44:17-18, contrast
Hosea 3:4)
Time - The most outstanding Old Testament example of this is Israel's redemption from Egypt (
Nehemiah 9:9-25 ;
Psalm 78:12-55 ;
Hosea 11:1 ); in the New Testament it is the coming of Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and Lord (
Acts 3:12-26 ; 10:34-43 ; 13:16-41 ). The injunction "it is time to seek the Lord" (
Hosea 10:12 ) was to be Israel's perpetual desire
Sacrifice - They were taught that without repentance, faith, and reformation, all sacrifices were an abomination to God,
Proverbs 21:27 Jeremiah 6:20 Amos 5:22 Micah 6:6-8 ; that He desires mercy and not sacrifice,
Hosea 6:6 Matthew 9:13 , and supreme love to him,
Mark 12:33 . The Jews, without these dispositions, could not present any offering agreeable to God; and he often explains himself on this matter in the prophets,
Psalm 40:6 Isaiah 1:11-14 Hosea 6:6 Joel 2:12-18 Amos 5:21,22 , etc
Dan (1) - Dan is omitted among the sealed in Revelation 7 as having been the first to lapse into idolatry, for which cause Ephraim also is omitted (Judges 17;
Hosea 4:17) and Joseph substituted
Mercy, Merciful - ]'>[5] ‘lovingkindness (mercy) and truth’ being the regnant qualities of His dealings with Israel and with ‘covenant’ (
Deuteronomy 7:9 ,
1 Kings 8:23 ,
Nehemiah 1:6 ;
Nehemiah 9:32 ,
Psalms 89:28 ,
Isaiah 55:8 ,
Daniel 9:4 ), as well as with ‘goodness’ and ‘compassion’ (above); while it is contrasted with ‘anger,’ ‘judgment,’ and ‘sacrifice’ (
Micah 7:18 ,
Psalms 101:1 ,
Hosea 6:6 )
Root - ...
Hosea 9:16 (a) We see by this figure that GOD's wrath would be poured out upon His people so that their basic supplies would be cut off
Ammi - (See
Hosea 2:1) There is a great sweetness in these words, and the translators of our Bible, having retained them in their original language, as they have done, while at the same time giving the English of them in the margin, (as the reader will perceive if he consults his Bible) seem to show their view of the importance of the words themselves, and their wishes that the English reader should, in some measure, be acquainted with them, so as to have some apprehension of their importance
Go Out, Go Forth - So
Hosea says that the Lord’s “going forth” to redeem His people is as certain as the sunrise (6:3)
Mourning - "Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners: all that eat thereof shall be polluted,"
Hosea 9:4
Ten Commandments - David himself had teraphim in his house (
1 Samuel 19:13-16 ); Isaiah speaks of a pillar as a natural and suitable symbol of worship (
Isaiah 19:19 );
Hosea classes pillar, ephod, and teraphim with sacrifices as means of worship, of which Israel would be deprived for a while as a punishment (
Hosea 3:4 )
Mizpah - In
Hosea 5:1, "ye house of the king, ye have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor," the sense is, Ye ought to have been "watchers" guarding Israel from evil, but ye have been as hunters entrapping them into it
Repentance - For the prophets, such a turning or conversion was not just simply a change within a person; it was openly manifested in justice, kindness, and humility (
Micah 6:8 ;
Amos 5:24 ;
Hosea 2:19-20 )
Rehoboam - ...
Therefore, the Lord "granted them some deliverance," at the same time that He gave them up to Shishak's service, who took the Jews' fenced cities and came to Jerusalem, that they might know to their sorrow its contrast to "His service" (
Deuteronomy 28:47-48;
Isaiah 47:13;
1 John 5:3;
Hosea 2:7)
Bread - After a little the ashes are again removed, the cake is turned (
Hosea 7:8 ) and once more covered
Galilee - ‘Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet’ (
John 7:52 ) was another, in the face of the fact that Galilee was the home of Deborah, Barak, Ibzan, Tola, Elon, with the prophets Jonah, Elisha, and possibly
Hosea
Sanctification - In the prophets especially, the ethical responsibility of being holy in conduct came to the forefront (
Isaiah 5:1 ; Jeremiah 5-7 ; Amos 4-5 ;
Hosea 11:1 )
Fig (Tree) - ...
Hosea 9:10 (a) GOD chose Israel in the beginning as a nation which would be full of possibilities for His glory; it would be a nation giving Him an opportunity to manifest His wisdom, His power, and His grace
Proverbs - Eliakim, Shebna, Josh, Isaiah,
Hosea, and Micah, personages of eminence and worth, were contemporary with Hezekiah; but whether these or others executed the compilation, it is now impossible to determine
Oil - We find special mention made of trading in oil with the Tyrians (
Ezekiel 27:17), who probably re-exported it, and with Egypt (
Hosea 12:1)
Deuteronomy -
Hosea and Amos find much to condemn in the worship which was practised at Bethel and Dan, but never suggest that any worship offered at these shrines was ipso facto illegitimate. ’ Besides, the abuses which were associated with the local shrines compelled the religious leaders of the nation, who had been influenced by the teaching of
Hosea and Amos, to go to the root and abolish such worship altogether
Devote, Devoted - In fact
Hosea prophesied the fall of the house of Jehu for his wholesale shedding of blood in the Valley of Jezreel (1:4)
Covenant - The covenant alluded to in
Hosea 6:7 margin is not with Adam (KJV "men" is better, compare
Psalms 82:7), for nowhere else is the expression "covenant" applied to Adam's relation to God, though the thing is implied in
Romans 5:12-19;
1 Corinthians 15:22; but the Sinaitic covenant which Israel transgressed as lightly as "men" break their every day covenants with their fellow men, or else they have transgressed like other "men," though distinguished above all men by extraordinary spiritual privileges
Sabbath - Oh, that the Lord would hasten the time when "the Deliverer shall arise out of Zion, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob?" (
Romans 11:26;
Hosea 3:4-5)...
Law - He gave, also, a law to Adam, and which was in the form of a covenant, and in which Adam stood as a covenant head to all his posterity,
Romans 5:1-21 :
Genesis 2:1-25 : But our first parents soon violated that law, and fell from a state of innocence to a state of sin and misery,
Hosea 6:7
Ethics - Wizardry, sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy, and soothsaying flourished under the patronage of such religion, and eventually even the Jerusalem temple housed similar rights, together with sun-worship, astrology, and altars to foreign gods (
1 Kings 12:28-32 ; 14:23-24 ;
2 Kings 17:7-18 ; 21:1-7 ;
Isaiah 8:19 ;
Jeremiah 2:20-25 ; 3:1-13,23 ; 5:1 ; 6:15 ;
Hosea 2:5-8 ; 4:12,18 ; 5:3-4 ; 8:4-6 ; 13:1-2 ;
Amos 2:7-8 ; 6:4-6 ;
Micah 5:10-15 ; 6:6-7 ). ...
Hosea declares repeatedly that Israel does not know her God. Sad domestic experience had taught
Hosea that love outlasts unfaithfulness (2:8,14-16,19; 3:1; 4:1,6; 5:4,11; 6:3,6; 11:1-4,8-9)
Kiss - " (
Hosea 13:2)...
Besides the actions of kissing to imply the most complete adoration, we find among the orientals the act of kissing the hand, together with the corresponding action of bending the knee, smiting on the thigh, and the like, intended as expressive altogether of the most implicit subjection and reverence
Poetry - ...
Poetry in the Old Testament...
Ezekiel 32:2-80 ;
Genesis 3:14-19 ;
Genesis 3:23-24 ;
Genesis 8:22 ;
Genesis 9:25-27 ;
Genesis 14:19-20 ;
Genesis 16:11-12 ;
Genesis 25:23 ;
Genesis 27:27-29 ,
Genesis 27:27-29,27:39-40 ;
Genesis 48:15-16 ;
Genesis 49:2-27 ...
Exodus 15:1-18 ,
Exodus 15:1-18,15:21 ...
Leviticus 10:3 ...
Numbers 6:24-27 ;
Numbers 10:35-36 ;
Numbers 12:6-8 ;
Numbers 21:14-15 ;
Numbers 21:17-18 ,
Numbers 21:17-18,21:27-30 ;
Numbers 23:7-10 ;
Numbers 23:18-24 ;
Numbers 24:3-9 ,
Numbers 24:3-9,24:15-24 ...
Deuteronomy 32:1-43 ;
Deuteronomy 33:2-29 ...
Joshua 10:12-13 ...
Judges 5:2-31 ;
Judges 14:14 ,
Judges 14:14,14:18 ;
Judges 15:16 ...
Ruth 1:16-17 ,
Ruth 1:16-17,1:20-21 ...
1 Samuel 2:1-10 ;
1Samuel 15:22-23,1 Samuel 15:33 ;
1 Samuel 18:7 ;
1 Samuel 21:11 ;
1 Samuel 29:5 ...
2 Samuel 1:19-27 ;
2 Samuel 3:33-34 ;
2 Samuel 22:2-51 ;
2 Samuel 23:1-7 ...
1 Kings 8:12-13 ;
1 Kings 12:16 ...
2 Kings 19:21-28 ...
1 Chronicles 16:8-36 ...
2 Chronicles 5:13 ;
2 Chronicles 6:41-42 ;
Ecclesiastes 10:1-4,10 ;
2 Chronicles 10:16 ;
2 Chronicles 20:21 ...
Ezra 3:11 ...
Job 3:2-42:6 ...
Psalm 1-150 ...
Proverbs 1-31 ...
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 ,
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11,1:15 ,
Ecclesiastes 1:15,1:18 ;
Ecclesiastes 3:2-9 ;
Ecclesiastes 7:1-13 ;
Ecclesiastes 8:1 ;
Ecclesiastes 10:1-4 ,
2 Chronicles 7:3:8-20 ;
Ecclesiastes 11:1-4 ...
Song of Song of Solomon 1-8 ...
Isaiah—largely poetry...
Jeremiah—poetic selections throughout except for 32–45...
Lamentations 1-5 ...
Ezekiel 19:2-14 ;
Ezekiel 23:32-34 ;
Ezekiel 24:3-5 ;
Ezekiel 26:17-18 ;
Ezekiel 27:3-9 ;
Ezekiel 27:25-36 ;
Ezekiel 28:1-10 ;
Ezekiel 28:12-19 ;
Ezekiel 28:22-23 ;
Ezekiel 29:3-5 ;
Ezekiel 30:2-4 ;
Ezekiel 30:6-8 ;
Ezekiel 30:10-19 ;
Ezekiel 31:2-9 ; 1618389502_85 ;
Ezekiel 32:12-15 ;
Ezekiel 32:19 ...
Daniel 2:20-23 ;
Daniel 4:3 ;
Daniel 4:34-35 ;
Daniel 6:26-27 ;
Daniel 7:9-10 ;
Daniel 7:13-14 ; 7:23-27
Hosea—all poetry except for 1;
Daniel 2:16-20 ;
Daniel 3:1-5 ...
Joel—all poetry except for
Daniel 2:30-3:8 ...
Amos—largely poetry...
Obadiah 1:1 ...
Jonah 2:2-9 ...
Micah 1-7 ...
Nahum 1-3 ...
Habakkuk 1-3 ...
Zephaniah 1-3 ...
Zechariah 9-11:3 ;
Zechariah 11:17 ;
Zechariah 13:7-9 ...
Parallelism The predominant feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism
Heart - The effect of the rending of the pericardium is referred to by
Hosea as well known (
1 Samuel 13:8 ); and although the proverb ‘a sound (RVm
Fatherhood of God - (At times the father imagery is present although the term "Father" is not used )
Song of Solomon, Theology of - One of the most memorable scenes in the Old Testament is when God commands his prophet
Hosea to marry a prostitute to symbolize his love for a faithless Israel
Holy One - It is so found in the Books of Job, Psalms, Isaiah,
Hosea, and Habakkuk, קָדו̇שׁ ‘the Holy One,’ LXX Septuagint ὁ ἄγιος
Jacob - When he was alone God took him in hand: a 'man' (called 'the angel' in
Hosea 12:4 ) wrestled with him
Sow - 2:9) and to the symbolically named son of
Hosea (
Jacob - When he was alone God took him in hand: a 'man' (called 'the angel' in
Hosea 12:4 ) wrestled with him
Agur - In the names Eve, Cain, Seth, Noah, &c, before alluded to; in the appellation Nabal; in the enigmatical names in the first chapter of
Hosea; in the descriptive names given to places, as Beer-sheba, Jehovah-jireh, Peniel, Bethel, Gilgal; and in many other instances, the meaning of the terms is either explained, or the circumstances are mentioned which led to their selection
Jacob - As Jacob "took his brother by the heel (the action of a wrestler) in the womb" (
Hosea 12:3), so the spiritual Israel, every believer, having no right in himself to the inheritance, by faith when being born again of the Spirit takes hold of the bruised heel, the humanity, of Christ crucified, "the Firstborn of many brethren. "By his strength he had power with God, yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed, he wept and made supplication unto Him" (
Hosea 12:3-4). Tears (recorded by
Hosea under an independent Spirit of revelation) and supplications were his weapons; type of Messiah (
Hebrews 5:7)
Canon of the Old Testament - On the other hand,
Hosea (
Hosea 8:12 ), about b. It had left behind, as its contribution to the future Bible, at least the works of
Hosea and the Elohist historian
Hebrew - Some Bible students think many of the difficulties of the text of
Hosea may be clarified by considering the Hebrew of that book as an example of northern or Israelite idiom
Obadiah - He stands fourth of the minor prophets in the Hebrew canon, fifth in the Septuagint Jerome makes him contemporary with
Hosea, Joel, and Amos
Micah - Contemporary with Isaiah in Judah, with whose prophecies his have a close connection (compare
Micah 4:1-3 with
Isaiah 2:2-4, the latter stamping the former as inspired), and with
Hosea and Amos during their later ministry in Israel
Micah, Book of - Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah,
Hosea, and possibly Amos
Vine - When apostate, Israel was "an empty vine," "the degenerate plant of a strange vine," "bringing forth fruit unto himself" not unto God (
Jeremiah 2:21;
Hosea 10:1)
Abba - ) So again she is spoken of as the sister (Ruhamah) (
Hosea 2:1
Church - (See those Scriptures,
Hosea 2:19-20;
Revelation 19:7-9)...
The best service, I apprehend, which I can render to the reader, under this article of the church, will be (to do what I should otherwise have done under the former, when speaking of Christ, but conceiving it might as well be noticed under this,) to bring into one view the several names which Christ and his church have, in common, in the word of God, which certainly form the highest evidence that can be desired, in proof of their union and oneness and interest in each other
Jeroboam - The Prophets Amos and
Hosea, as well as Jonah, lived during this reign
Poetry of the Hebrews - Thus the parallelism is irregular when one member is shorter than the other; as
Hosea 4:17 : ...
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone
Palm Tree - " (
Hosea 14:8) And so again, (
John 15:4) "Abide in me, and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me?"...
We are told that the palm tree is all evergreen
Joel - The position of his book in the Hebrew canon between
Hosea and Amos implies that he was
Hosea's contemporary, slightly preceding Amos who at Tekoa probably heard him, and so under the Spirit reproduces his words (
Joel 3:16, compare
Amos 1:2)
Covenant - With
Hosea, the figure of marriage, probably not viewed as yet by the prophet as a species of covenant, serves the same purpose. There is no reason, however, for denying that
Hosea knew the covenant conception in its comprehensive religious sense, and on this ground to call in question the genuineness
of 8:1.
Hosea has it in the form of the new marriage which Jehovah will contract with Israel
Cloud, Cloud of the Lord - ...
In a negative sense, clouds are used to symbolize prideful self-exaltation (of the wicked,
Job 20:6 ; of Satan,
Isaiah 14:14 ); misery or gloom (at the day of Job's birth,
Job 3:5 ; at the day of the Lord,
Isaiah 60:2 ;
Jeremiah 13:16 ;
Ezekiel 30:3 ; 34:12 ;
Joel 2:2 ;
Zephaniah 1:15 ); pervasiveness (of enemy invasion,
Ezekiel 38:9,16 ); transitoriness (of Job's prosperity and life,
Job 7:9 ; 30:15 ; of Israel's love and life,
Hosea 6:4 ; 13:3 ); futile, idle activity (
Ecclesiastes 11:4 ); dimness (of eyesight in old age,
Ecclesiastes 12:2 ; of a nation's splendor following divine judgment,
Lamentations 2:1 ;
Ezekiel 30:18 ); swiftness (of divine judgment,
Jeremiah 4:13 ); and covering or concealing (of divine mercy in judgment,
Lamentations 3:44 )
Esau - " Jacob took hold of his twin brother in the womb when the latter was coming out first, from whence he got his name = supplanter (
Hosea 12:3)
Prayer - The writing prophets noted that genuine prayer calls for accompanying moral and social accountability (
Hosea 7:14 ;
Amos 4:4-5 )
Oil - ...
As might have been expected from the extensive cultivation of the olive by the Hebrews, oil not only formed an important article of inland commerce , but was exported in large quantities both to the West, by way of Tyre (
Ezekiel 27:17 ), and to Egypt (
Hosea 12:1 )
Resurrection - ...
The first specific mention of the hope of a resurrection is found in
Hosea, where the prophet’s words are rather of the nature of an aspiration than the distinct announcement of a future event (
Hosea 6:2 , cf.
Hosea 13:14 )
Agriculture - The same implement was employed for breaking up large clods of earth (
Isaiah 28:24, Hosea 10:11), but whether the reference includes the clods upturned by the plough, or merely those occurring in ‘stony ground,’ is not quite certain. Cattle (
Hosea 10:11) were then driven over it repeatedly, or a threshing wain drawn by cattle
Magic - As with magic, the biblical writers did not view divination as connected with the gods, but instead considered it a magic or wisdom art that revealed secrets of God in a wrong way (
Isaiah 19:3 ;
Ezekiel 21:26 ;
Hosea 4:12 )
Canaan, History And Religion of - Similar association may be found in passages such as
Hosea 12:7-8 ;
Ezekiel 17:4 ;
Zephaniah 1:11 . Religiously, in the Northern Kingdom,
Hosea gave voice to the anti-Baalistic message. In some cases, such as the use of sex in worship, the level of antipathy witnessed in the Old Testament may not always have characterized Israel's actual practice, as prophetic denouncements like
Hosea's show
War, Holy War - Judah's leaders are destined for wrath because they sought to expand their borders when Israel was weakened by Assyrian aggression in the north (
Hosea 5:10 ). There were even conservation laws governing destruction of trees in a siege (
Hosea 1:4 )
Sabbath - In the prophetic and historical books ‘Sabbath’ and ‘ new moon ’ are associated in such a way as to suggest that both were lunar festivals (
Amos 8:5 ,
Hosea 2:11 ,
Isaiah 1:13 ,
2 Kings 4:23 ); and the attempt has been made to trace the transition from the Babylonian institution to the Hebrew Sabbath by the hypothesis that originally the Sabbath in Israel was the feast of the full moon, just as in Babylonia
Exile - ...
The prophets
Hosea and Amos had prophesied the fall of Israel
Cherub (1) - ...
They were "the provisional occupants of man's lost inheritance" (Fairbairn), the pledge of the restoration of man and the creaturely world closely allied with and subject to him (Psalm 8;
Isaiah 11:6-9;
Romans 8:17-24;
Ezekiel 34:25;
Hosea 2:18); the symbolical prophecy of the recovery of the tree of life; for they guard it, not against but for man, against the time when man shall be fit to enjoy it and never to lose it
Family -
Hosea and other prophets constantly dwell upon the thought of a monogamous marriage as being a symbol of the union between God and His people; and denounce idolatry as unfaithfulness to this spiritual marriage-tie
Prophets, the - Of the remainder,
Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah are anterior to the captivity of the ten tribes
Old Testament - " The Samaritans certainly did not receive their Pentateuch from the Israelite northern kingdom, for they have not received the books of Israel's prophets,
Hosea, Jonah, Amos. For "after the commandment" (
Hosea 5:11) the Septuagint, Syriac, and targums read "vanity," Jerome "filthiness
Samuel, Books of - The text of Samuel is the worst in the OT; only Ezekiel and
Hosea can approach it in this respect
Egypt - The first six dynasties constitute what is known as the Old Empire, which had its capital at Memphis, south of Cairo, called in the Old Testament Moph (
Hosea 9:6 ) and Noph
Commentary - ...
Hosea: ...
Burroughs, Bishop Horsley's translation, with explanatory notes
Bread - The upper surface is frequently studded with seeds of Indian corn, and they are generally turned in the process of baking (
Hosea 7:8)
Divination - ...
Divination by rods is alluded to in
Hosea 4:12, "their staff declareth unto them"; a rod stripped of bark on one side, not on the other, was thrown up; if the bore side alighted uppermost it was a good omen, otherwise a bad omen
Poor And Poverty, Theology of - The key terms for "poor" are used almost exclusively by Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah while
Hosea and Micah, who also showed great sensitivity to the needs of their people, do not use the terms at all
Money - Hence those deceitful balances of the merchants, who would increase the shekel, that is, would augment the weight by which they weighed the gold and silver they were to receive, that they might have a greater quantity than was their due; hence the weight of the sanctuary, the standard of which was preserved in the temple to prevent fraud; hence those prohibitions in the law, "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights," in Hebrew, stones, "a great and a small,"
Deuteronomy 25:13 ; hence those scales that the Hebrews wore at their girdles,
Hosea 12:7 , and the Canaanites carried in their hands, to weigh the gold and silver which they received in payment
Adultery - "...
ADULTERY, in the prophetic scriptures, is often metaphorically taken, and signifies idolatry, and apostasy from God, by which men basely defile themselves, and wickedly violate their ecclesiastical and covenant relation to God,
Hosea 2:2 ; Ezekiel 16
House - " Chimneys were few (
Hosea 13:3), simple orifices in the wall, both admitting the light and emitting the smoke
Isaiah - Isaiah was contemporary with the Prophets Amos,
Hosea, Joel, and Micah
Zechariah, Book of - 9 11 and 12 14 were distinguished as separate prophecies, dated respectively, from internal evidence, in the time of
Hosea, and shortly after the death of Josiah
Lord - The prophets
Hosea, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel spoke out against the hidden “Baalizing” of the religion of Yahweh
Hell - Since death is not a natural occurrence but issues from the fall, the Old Testament confidently awaits God's demonstration of his lordship over Sheol by raising the righteous to life (Genesis 2-3 ;
Psalm 16:10 ; 49:15 ;
Luke 16:19-31 ;
Hosea 13:14 )
Arms And Armor - For instance, one's primary dependence on military arms is considered foolish, since they are not the ultimate source of deliverance, whether it be by the bow or sword (
Joshua 24:12 ;
Psalm 44:6 ;
Hosea 1:7 )
Commandments - He subordinates the law of the Sabbath to the requirements of duty and humanity (
Mark 2:27, Luke 6:9;
Luke 13:15-16); He confronts the formal piety of His time with the Divine demand as stated by
Hosea: ‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice’ (
Matthew 9:13;
Matthew 12:7); He challenges the whole system of rules concerning meat and drink by His great principle, ‘that which cometh out, not that which goeth in, defileth a man’ (
Matthew 15:11, Mark 7:15)
Dwelling - There were no chimneys; that so called,
Hosea 13:3, was but a hole; indeed there were ordinarily no fires except in a kitchen, where, on a kind of brick platform, places were provided for cooking
mo'Ses - (
Hosea 12:13 ) He was in a sense peculiar to himself the founder and representative of his people; and in accordance with this complete identification of himself with his nation is the only strong personal trait which we are able to gather from his history
God - Human beings also have knowledge, power, will and feelings, but that does not mean that God is like a human being (
Hosea 11:9)
Peace - Peace as a religious bonum applies to the sphere of nature as well as of politics, and the former as well as the latter plays an important part in eschatological prophecy (
Hosea 2:20 ff
Law -
Hosea 8:12 ), tôrah came to signify such a collection; and ultimately the same word was used as a convenient and comprehensive term for the whole Pentateuch, in which all the most important legal collections were carefully included. is itself seen to be an attempt to realize in a legal code those great principles which had been so emphatically enunciated by
Hosea and Isaiah
Ezekiel - ...
Along with all the prophets except
Hosea, Ezekiel did not limit his messages to the covenant people
Righteousness -
Hosea, the prophet of divine love, ties righteousness with mercy, loving kindness, and justice (2:19; 10:12)
Jonah - Paul, to Jonah’s deliverance after three days from the ‘whale’ as typifying the resurrection (
Luke 24:46, 1 Corinthians 15:4), it being much more unlikely that the reference in these places is to
Hosea 6:2 or
Genesis 22:4; and this may be thought to add some strength to the probability that our Lord did utter the words recorded in v
Prayer - Jacob's wrestling with the divine Angel and prayer, in Genesis 32, is the first full description of prayer; compare the inspired continent on it,
Hosea 12:3-6
Sanctify - This noun appears in the Pentateuch, all periods of historical writings, and
Hosea and Job
Priest - One of the chief employments of the priests, next to attending upon the sacrifices and the service of the tabernacle or temple, was the instruction of the people and the deciding controversies, distinguishing the several sorts of leprosy, the causes of divorce, the waters of jealousy, vows, all causes relating to the law, the uncleannesses that were contracted several ways; all these things were brought before the priests,
Hosea 4:6 ;
Malachi 2:7 , &c;
Leviticus 13:14 ;
Numbers 5:14-15
Hieronymus, Eusebius (Jerome) Saint - ) Jerome had already, as we have seen, translated in part his book on the Holy Spirit; and now, at the request of his distinguished pupil, Didymus composed his Commentary on
Hosea and Zechariah (Hieron. to
Hosea , and de Vir
Law - This is illustrated in
Hosea 6:6, "I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings
Old Testament in the New Testament, the - ...
Matthew suggestively applies
Hosea 11:1 to Jesus' return from Egypt (2:15), highlighting the parallel between Israel, who failed the temptations in the wilderness, and Jesus, who came through them victoriously to form the heart of a renewed people of God
War - ...
Previously to commencing war, the Heathen nations consulted oracles, soothsayers, necromancers, and also the lot, which was ascertained by shooting arrows of different colours,
1 Samuel 28:1-10 ;
Hosea 5:8 ;
Ezekiel 25:11
Judges, the Book of - The appended histories are placed at the end not to interrupt the historical sequence of judges according to the plan stated at the first, also chiefly because these histories are not isolated facts but permanent influences for evil (
Judges 18:30-31); Gibeah's evil was not eradicated by Benjamin's terrible punishment, but must have affected the tribes generally, as their sore chastisement at first proves; and
Hosea testifies the evil continued ever afterward (
Judges 9:9;
Judges 10:9)
Isaiah - He was contemporary with the last five kings of Israel: Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and
Hosea
Matthew, Gospel According to - The principles of interpretation common among the Jews are applied; a text, for example, which in its literal sense applies to the Exodus, is taken to refer to the departure of the Child Jesus from Egypt (
Matthew 2:15 ,
Hosea 11:1 ), and the Evangelist conceives of events as coming to pass that prophecy might be fulfilled (
Matthew 1:22 f
Isaiah - Son of Amoz (not Amos), a younger contemporary of Jonah, Amos, and
Hosea in Israel, and of Micah in Judah
Tribes of Israel, the - For instance,
Hosea refers to Israel some three dozen times using the name Ephraim as being synonymous with Israel
Leadership - God sent prophets to sound a warning before the northern kingdom fell to Assyria (Amos,
Hosea, Isaiah, Micah) and before Babylon took Judah (Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel)
Fire - ...
Hosea 7:6 (a) This is a type of the burning passion of sin which ruled the lives of the people of Israel
Word - In the Old Testament God's word is creative (
Psalm 33:6 ), good (
Micah 2:7 ), holy (
Jeremiah 23:9 ), complete (
Jeremiah 26:2 ), flawless (
2 Samuel 22:31 ;
Psalm 12:6 ; 18:30 ;
Proverbs 30:5 ), all-sufficient (
Deuteronomy 8:3 ;
Isaiah 50:4 ;
Jeremiah 15:16 ), sure (
Isaiah 31:2 ; 45:23 ;
Deuteronomy 19:15-19 ), right and true (
Judges 13:12,17 ;
1 Samuel 3:19 ;
Psalm 33:4 ;
Isaiah 55:11 ), understandable (
Deuteronomy 4:10,12 , 36 ;
Nehemiah 8:12 ), active (
Hosea 6:5 ), all-powerful (
Psalm 68:11-14 ;
147:15-18 ), indestructible (
Jeremiah 23:29 ), supreme (
Psalm 17:4 ), eternal (
Psalm 119:89 ;
Isaiah 40:8 ), life-giving (
Deuteronomy 32:46-47 ), wise (
Psalm 119:130 ), and trustworthy (
2 Samuel 7:28 ;
1 Kings 17:16 )
Preaching - The Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes; but they have never since this period lapsed into gross idolatry,
Hosea 2, 3; Ezekiel 2; 3:34
Division of the Earth - This country of Aram is frequently rendered Syria in Scripture,
Judges 10:6 ;
Hosea 12:12 , &c; which is not to be confounded with Palestine Syria, into which they afterward spread themselves, still retaining their original name of Αριμοι , or Arameans, noticed by Homer in his "Iliad
Dead Sea Scrolls - One approach to such interpretation was the production of continuous commentaries on the following Old Testament books: Habakkuk, Micah, Psalms, Isaiah,
Hosea, Nahum, and Zephaniah
Gods, Pagan - While the Hebrew word baal was not in itself considered pagan, perhaps its use as a divine title in Canaanite religion is behind God's rejection of the appellation Baali, “my master” (
Hosea 2:16-17 )
Gospel - Jeremiah , 2 Isaiah, and
Hosea may be instanced
Marriage - ...
(2) The normal type is where the wife becomes the property of her husband, who is her ‘Baal’ or possessor (
Hosea 2:16 ), she herself being ‘Beulah’ (
Isaiah 62:4 )
Righteous, Righteousness -
Hosea and Jeremiah illumined the conception of man’s duty to his neighbour by the preaching of God’s loving-kindness to His people
Peter - "...
Simon, when the net which they had spread in vain all night now broke with the multitude of fish, exclaimed, "depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" He forgot
Hosea 9:12 end; our sin is just the reason why we should beg Christ to come, not depart
Priests And Levites - The cult of the ‘high places’ seems gradually to have relapsed into familiar and popular types of Semitic worship; and in the books of the early prophets Amos and
Hosea it is not always easy to distinguish between heathenism and a heathenish worship of Jahweh
Herod - Unimportant as the event seemed to the world, the murder of the innocents was the consummation of his guilt before God, and places him among the foremost of Satan's and the world's foretold (
Jeremiah 31:15) representative adversaries of the Lord and His church, answering to the Pharaoh who oppressed Christ's type, Israel, murdering the male children in the nation's infancy in order to stifle the nation's first beginnings; but in vain, for God secured the nation's Exodus from Egypt by the tyrant's overthrow, just as subsequently He saved Jesus and destroyed Herod, and in due time "called His (antitypical) Son out of Egypt" (
Matthew 2:15; compare
Hosea 11:1)
Holiness - As the moral nature of God was more clearly apprehended, the conception of His holiness was spiritualized; in
Hosea 11:9 ‘I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee,’ the Divine holiness is the ethical motive of the resolve, ‘I will not come in wrath ((Revised Version margin)) into the city
Inspiration - In Scripture itself we find the idea in
Hosea 9:7 (LXX Septuagint) expressed by the word πνευματοφόρος—though in this case the inspiration was not Divine
Preaching - the Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes; but they have never since this period lapsed into idolatry,
Hosea 2:1-23 d and 3d chap
Animals - In
Hosea 13:7 , the lurking, noiseless movement of the leopard symbolizes God's wrath
Biblical Theology - ...
The drift that God's prophets decry is documented by writing prophets like Isaiah,
Hosea, Micah, and Amos
Bible - we come to
Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah
God -
Hosea 3:4 ); and patriarchal names, such as Abraham, Sarah , have been taken for the titles of pre-historic divinities
Terah - Till he testifies to all who fear God, and challenges us out of
Hosea, saying to us: Come, let us return to the Lord our God: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up
Jeremiah - He strongly recalls
Hosea, whose love for ‘Ephraim’ he shares, and whose similitude of the marriage-union between Jehovah and Israel supplies the basis of his appeals
Offering -
Hosea proclaimed to Israel that its pagan bull-god would “be carried unto Assyria for a present
” (
Prophecy - Many passages then in the Old Testament, which in their first aspect appear to be historical, are in fact prophetic, and they are so cited in the New Testament, not by way of ordinary accommodation, or casual coincidence, but as intentionally predictive, as having a double sense, a literal and a mystical interpretation,
Hosea 11:1 ;
Matthew 2:15
Covenant -
Hosea (6:7) refers to Adam breaking the covenant
Elijah - )...
Ahab and his party represented Baal and Jehovah as essentially the same God, in order to reconcile the people to this further and extreme step in idolatry; compare
1 Kings 18:21;
Hosea 2:16
Jesus Christ - It is noteworthy that Jesus brings against them no such sweeping accusations of immorality and cruelty as are met with in Amos and
Hosea
Persecution - There never were truer patriots than
Hosea and Jeremiah
Bible - the Pentateuch or five books of Moses, called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth , 1 & 2 Samuel , 1 & 2 Kings , 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah with his Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
Palestine - to imitate the nations round about her) was denounced by her prophets as a betrayal (
Hosea 6:7)