The images and focus of Hosea goes back and forth between his marital situation and Israel – sometimes he is referring to both. The chapter begins with an earnest plea to the children to get their mother to cease her ways. He then offers a dire warning about punishment.
The punishment threatened is of stripping her bare and inflicting tremendous humiliation. This was not a punishment established by scriptural law, which only provided a death sentence for adultery7. There is, however, some evidence (Ezekiel 16:35-39) that it was used within the Hebrew community and it certainly was used elsewhere in the Ancient Near East.
Hosea then moves from the personal anguish to the national one. He foresees a time when the land will also be made bare, surely a frightening image for a largely agricultural society. We may forget the importance of this in today’s world, where less than six percent of the people make their living from the land. Yet all ultimately depend upon it. If the land fails to produce, the people do not survive. (Think Dust Bowl here!)
The threat for the ancient Hebrews had added weight because their spiritual “adultery” had been to worship other gods, particularly Ba’al of the Canaanite peoples. Ba’al was a nature/fertility god, as was his consort, Asherah. Apparently, it had seemed a good idea to the people to get his favor, thinking Ba’al was the one who provided food and drink, wool, flax, oil and perfumes (Hoses 2:6-7). Yet, God will show that Ba’al cannot protect the land, only the creator of the universe can do that.
After the punishment is threatened, the reader sees the dual longing of Hosea for his wife and Yahweh’s longing for Israel to return to relationship. The prophet writes, “I will woo her...” The images are now for restoration after the punishment.
The Vale of trouble referred to in 2:14 is the place where Achan was put to death because of disobedience and treason. But this will be transformed into a Gate of Hope. The renewal is pictured as a spiritual return to the early days of the Israelite journey. This image is interesting when considering those early days after the Exodus. The people were not paragons of faithfulness. When Moses lingered too long on the mountain, they tried to make a god like ones they’d seen in Egypt. They also complained bitterly and tended test the patience of both Moses and God. Hosea could not have been ignorant of this aspect of his people’s history. It could be that, as in many ages of humanity, the past always seems better than the future. That is, nostalgia may have been as big then as ever. Certainly it was a time when the worship of other gods may not have been entrenched and there was a sense of new beginnings. And this could have been the emphasis Hosea was intending.
The reference to the fact that God would no longer be called ‘My Ba’al” may be confusing. Originally, however, ba’al had several possible meanings. It could mean master, owner, lord or husband. It was also a divine title that could be applied to any god. Eventually it was applied in a narrow sense to the Canaanite god almost as a proper name. In the same way in English we use ‘god’ to refer not only to the God of our faith, but also to deities that others worship, and symbolically to anything that gains strong loyalty from people. In Hosea’s time Ba’al would have gained a negative feeling and he foresaw a time when it would not be used of Yahweh at all.
(Our English word of God comes from the word “good.” It was, by legend, first used by an early Christian missionary seeking to communicate the good news.)
In verse eighteen, Hosea’s prophecy extends to a covenant with the creatures of the world. Bow and sword and all weapons of war wold be swept from the earth. (A similar prophecy was made in Micah 4:1-4). Hosea’s comment that all living creatures would lie down without fear is reminiscent also of Isaiah’s image of the wolf and the kid lying down together (Isaiah 11:6-9). (At least one scholar believes verse 18 was a later addition by an editor, yet Isaiah was roughly a contemporary of Hosea and he also wrote of peace in these meaningful terms.)
The reference to betrothal in lawful wedlock may remind some of the situation of Mary and Joseph in the Christmas story. Mary is alternately referred to as Joseph’s betrothed and as his wife. If he was to put her aside, it would have required divorce. Betrothal was in first century Judaism like it was in Hosea’s day. The legal betrothal was as binding as marriage. The contrast here is with the more casual liaisons of ba’alism. Though some scholars question whether ritual prostitution took place in ba’alism, the biblical stance is that it did. Whether or not it did, the covenant was with God, not Ba’al. The “marriage” contract between God and the people would be renewed.
The restoration pictured will be complete. The names of Hosea’s three children are brought into play here. The earth, corn (the general word for grain), the new wine and oil will answer for Jezreel. Love will be showed to Loruhama. Lo-ammi (not my people) will be told ‘You are my people’ and the answer back will be ‘you are my God.’
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