Hosea 2:14-23
Earlier chapters have described God’s design for Israel as one which incorporated deliverance, covenant, experiential relationship, and the blessings of abundance. This fourfold purpose is clearly and programmatically stated at the beginning of Israel’s national history (Ex.
5:22-6:8). Whenever a design is implemented, whether from an artist’s sketch or from a builder’s blueprint, its workability is put to the test. From the vantage point afforded by history we may survey the implementation of God’s design in Israel’s life. Since God’s design is one which gives people a good measure of freedom, the path of progress toward the goal is not uniformly paced or even straight. Rather than to fdllow step by step the history of Israel, we will content ourselves with a synoptic view of two periods: the monarchy and the exilic/post-exilic period.
From the standpoint of history, as presented by the Old Testament itself, Israel moved from Egypt after years of wilderness wandering into the land of Canaan. Under Joshua much of the land, but not all, was brought under the control of the Israelite people. The period of the judges was marked by repeated cycles of spiritual apostasy, crises of subjugation by an alien power, cries of desperation for help, and deliverance by God through the agency of a judge, or leader. Eventually the people called for a new system of governance; they wanted a king. With the inauguration of Saul as king, there began a new era in the nation’s history. With the collapse of the divided kingdoms, Israel and Judah, in 722 BC and 586 BC, the story of the people continued in the context of exile. Later, however, Israel returned to her land, but not any more to be under the rule of kings.
Theologically, one can see the Old Testament as a drama in three acts. In the first the characters of the drama and their situation are presented. In the second act the developing conflict between God’s purpose and the reality of a people’s life is explored; and the third tells how the conflict is resolved.
Having established in Part 2 the cast of characters and the line of action we will look in Part 3 at the tension points which arise as God leads his people 119
God’s design tested: the era of the monarchy toward fulfillment of his purpose.
The period under review is the Israelite monarchy, which stretches for 400 years, from approximately 1000 to 600 BC. It encompasses the time of the united monarchy and the subsequent two kingdoms Israel and Judah, and thus includes kings from Saul, the first king, to Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. For Israel, prophets are as important during this period as are kings.
Non-writing prophets, including Samuel, Elijah and Elisha, confront kings, and so do the writing prophets Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah. In addition to the prophetic corpus, literary works by the wisdom teachers such as Proverbs belong to this period.
How does God’s design fare in this significant era of Israelite life? Basic- ally it is put to the test and challenged at several points. As first enunciated and demonstrated, deliverance came through Yahweh’s activity in the holy war. But in the monarchy period, while Yahweh’s help along the lines of holy war was occasionally apparent, the pattern of holy war was supplan- ted by the standing army. Under David, wars of conquest were waged in which skill and weaponry were factors larger than faith and reliance on God. As for the covenant, the relationships with Yahweh were strained, eventually to the breaking point. Instead of being a people of whom it could be said, ‘Their God is Yahweh,’ Israel fell victim to the temptation to give allegiance to Baal, and the prophets complained, ‘Israel has forgotten and forsaken Yahweh.’ God’s intention was for Israel to know him, a know- ledge which included the adventurous experience by Israel of God’s presence and activity. The prophets lamented, ‘There is . . . no knowledge of God in the land’ (Hosea 4: 1). The gift of the land, with its abundant blessings, was a gift which was suspended, so to speak, for Israel in 722 BC and for Judah, the southern kingdom, in 586 BC, when people were removed from the land and taken into exile. Yet between the pure ideal of God’s design and the utter failure to realize the design there were times in the course of the four cen- turies when Israel, even if for a brief while, approximated to God’s inten- tion.
Before the chequered progress of Israel relative to the divine intention is surveyed in greater detail, it is prudent to anchor our approach textually to establish the elements of God’s design toward which progress is to be made.
As in Part 1 we examined a key passage, Exodus 5:22-6:8, so here the elements of God’s design need to come into sharp focus before description and assessment of progress can be made. The scripture which further sets forth the divine intention is found in Hosea, who together with Amos is the first of Israel’s literary prophets. Writings from earlier prophets have not been preserved, but these eighth-century prophets recall, among other things, the foundations of Israel’s life.
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14Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
“And there 1 will give her vineyards,
Prologue: Hosea 2: 2 4-23
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth.
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16And in that day, says the LORD, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal.’ I7For 1 will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. “And 1 will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creep- ing things of tbeground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and 1 will make you lie down in safety. “And 1 will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. 2oI will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.
“And in that day, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens
and they shall answer the earth;
22and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answerJezree1;
23and 1 will sow him for myself in the land.
And I will have pity on Not pitied,
and I will say to Not my people, ‘You are my people’;
and be shall say, ‘Thou art my God.’
In this passage, Hosea 2: 14-23 (verses 16-25 in Heb.), there is given an announcement of what God will do in the new age. It is a statement which recalls Exodus 5:22-6:8, though it is given in different circumstances.
These verses bring to a conclusion a diatribe or argument between God and Israel. Israel has been rebuked for her alliance with Baal, the Canaanite fer- tility God. Using the picture language of adultery, God has charged Israel with leaving her first commitment and going after Baal, in the delusion that grain, wine and oil come as gifts from Baa1 (Hosea 2:5-13). The poem describing the spiritual harlotry is sandwiched between two narrative accounts of the marriage of Hosea and Gomer. Hosea has been instructed to take Gomer, a woman who eventually becomes a prostitute, for his wife.
She bears three children whose names, symbolic of the message of God, are given in Hosea 1, but which reappear in the poem at the end of chapter 2, securely linking poetry and narrative, as interpretation is linked to parable.
In form Hosea 2: 14-23 consists of five segments. The first is a stanza of general announcements introduced by ‘Therefore’ and thus linked to the immediately preceding verses of judgment. This opening announcement (2: 14-15) with the use of participle is followed by three oracles character- istically marked with the formula ‘In that day’ (verses 16, 18,21). Each of
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God’s design tested: the era of the monarchy
the four sections includes statements of Yahweh’s initiative. The tense of the verbs is future, calling attention to what God will do. Each contains descrip- tions of that intervention. Except for the first statement of consequence (verse lSc, d) which is elaborated slightly, these statements, always at the conclusion of a segment, describe the result of God’s action in a short, almost cryptic way, e.g.: ‘And you shall know the LORD’ (verses 20; cf. 17b, 23d).
In content these ten verses are dominated by the covenant idea presented under the imagery of a marriage. The announcements of salvation open with courtship language: ‘I will allure (literally, ‘seduce’, ‘persuade’) her. . . and speak tenderly (literally, ‘to the heart’) to her’ (verse 14). In a future day, the second stanza continues, Israel will call God her husband and no more
‘my Baal’. While ‘Baal’ can mean lord, and was used of a husband in a mar- riage relationship, the word referred basically to the rights of possession.
Such formal, even legal language, was to be replaced by the expression ‘my husband’, a speech form more intimate, reserved apparently for a man who had only one wife. Still, carrying forward the marriage imagery, the third announcement unit (verses 18-20) singles out betrothal, by which the ancients meant more than ‘engagement’ means in contemporary marriage practice. ‘I will betroth you to me for ever’ is equivalent to saying, ‘I will pay the bridal price and thus remove the last obstacle in the way of our mar- riage.’ Betrothal virtually seals the marriage. God’s betrothal price will be made in the currency of righteous justice, love, loyalty and compassion and faithfulness. These are qualities which he brings to this relationship, though they are intended also to characterize the relationship as such. The final two lines of the announcement are in keeping with the marriage symbol, although formally they represent the formula of covenant, reminiscent of the Sinaitic covenant: ‘I will say. . . “
“Thou art my God” ’ (verse 23).
You are my people,” and you shall say, A second intention is God’s objective of bringing about a life of security and abundance in the land. In the first announcement God says, ‘And there I will give her her vineyards’ (verse 1.5). The scene pictures the transition from the wilderness into which Yahweh has temporarily brought Israel, to the land of fertility with its vineyards. In the second of the ‘in that day’ oracles, the security in the land is to be accomplished first by God’s covenant with beasts, birds, and creeping things, thus averting internal disaster, and secondly by the abolition of bow, sword and war; Israel will have security from external threats (verse 18). In the last oracle the land motif surfaces once more: ‘I will sow her (Israel) for myself in the land’ (verse 23). This promise is preceded by a reference to prosperity, artistically presented as the result of a chain reaction. God in initiative will activate the heavens. They shall respond to the earth by supplying rain, the earth responds with fertility
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Prologue: Hosea 2:14-23 in producing grain, wine, oil-all for Jezreel, understood as the people of the valley in northern Israel located in the breadbasket area of Israel (2:21- 22). A prosperous life in the land is clearly a major strand in the fabric of this announcement.
Two other themes, reminiscent of the design presented in Exodus 5 :22- 6:8, are more subdued. Reference to deliverance is apparent in the expres- sion, ‘And I will . . .make the Valley of Achor (trouble, misfortune) a door of hope’ (verse 15). God’s deliverance is also in view in the expression, ‘I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land’ (verse 18). The other motif, ‘knowledge of God’, is mentioned but not elaborated: ‘And you shall know the LORD' (verse 20).
Thus all four design elements-deliverance, covenant, knowledge of God, and land-are represented in this set of announcements, echoing Exodus 5:22-6: 8. As in Exodus, the time of the announcement represents a new stage of God’s relation to Israel. Hosea depicts judgment on Israel for its idolatry, but then looks beyond the judgment to a continuance of God fulfilling his design. The use of the covenant formula, modified here to fit dialogue, is similar to that of the Exodus passage. ‘I will take you to be my people and I will be your God.’ In Hosea, as in the Exodus passage, the an- ticipated result is for God’s people ‘to know Yahweh’. Reminiscent of the Exodus promise ‘I will bring you into the land’ is the expression, ‘I will sow him for myself in the land’ (verse 22).
Yet the Hosea passage is not an exact repetition of Exodus 6 even though all the motifs are present. Covenant is presented, not in the imagery of inter- national treaty, but in the imagery of marriage. The intimacy of this re- lationship of Israel with God is especially highlighted. The order in which the design elements are introduced in Hosea differs from that in the seminal passage, but the event of exodus is clearly in the mind of Hosea, ‘There she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out the land of Egypt’ (verse 15). It can hardly be accidental that the same four themes, and no others, are itemized for the listeners of the eighth century as the countdown, this time towards judgment, proceeds. With this affirma- tion of God’s purpose given by Hosea we proceed to an analysis of the mon- archical period, noting the fortunes of each component in turn.