Date of Prophet’s Activity: 750-725 BC
Audience: Northern Israel

The book of Hosea was likely written in Judah after the fall of the northern capital, Samaria (722–721 BCE). It is unknown if it was Hosea himself who authored the book.

The text has a thematic unity to it, given its repeated pattern of disaster and salvation dispersed throughout. Structurally, the book can be divided into two units that reflect this thematic unity: Hosea’s marriage parable (chapters 1–3) and uncontextualized statements (chapters 4–11).

Perhaps most well-known from the book is its usage of a marriage parable. This parable presents Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, a prostitute, which functions as a parable of Yahweh’s relationship to Israel.

The Prophet

Hosea (whose name means either “salvation,” “He saves,” or “He helps”) was the son of Beeri and a prophet to the north. Unlike most of the other prophets, he was also a native of the north (1:1).

He was active just after the prophet Amos and probably from the years 750 to 725 BCE. Previously, Amos had warned of God’s judgment on Israel by an unnamed enemy, and Hosea identifies that enemy as Assyria (7:11; 8:9; 10:6; 11:11).

Marriage to Gomer

In the first chapter of the book, Hosea’s marriage to Gomer is shown.

“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son” (1:2, NIV).

According to the author, Hosea and the unfaithful Gomer had three children. The first child’s name was Jezreel (in Hebrew, Yizreel). When the text says “the blood of Jezreel,” it refers to Jehu’s bloody slaughter of the house of Ahab, for which the monarchy would be punished.

The second child’s name was Lo-ruhamah. His name means “without mercy,” and some have made a connection between Yahweh and the womb, indicating Yahweh as the merciful God of the Covenant and as the God who loves Israel with parental love.

The third child’s name was Lo-ammi, which means “not my people,” and he has a strong connection to God’s covenant with Israel as his people.

Marriage Metaphor

The marriage metaphor of the relationship between Yahweh and Israel was representative of the covenant Yahweh and Israel had entered into with each other during the wilderness period.

The focus was on the relationship between a man and a woman as a way to mirror Yahweh’s relationship with Israel, and just as Hosea paid a purchase price for an unclean wife, so Yahweh purchased an unclean people with a price to clean them and make them his own.

Both Hosea and Yahweh’s expectation or standard is that after the purchase, the wife or people will be pure. However, the marriage analogy warned that the people had turned away from Yahweh, the one true God, and worshiped other false gods such as those of the Canaanites (13:1–3).

The author also referenced other sins the people had committed, which too made them ripe for judgment unless they turned in repentance (9:3). God’s anger at the unfaithfulness of his people is expressed in graphic detail by the prophet.

“…rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery” (2:2-5, NIV).

This metaphor was originally applied to the Northern Kingdom of Hosea’s day; however, some have suggested that the description of the relationship was reapplied by a later writer to the Southern Kingdom too.

If so, the message was applied to the Southern Kingdom of Judah after the fall of the Northern Kingdom as both a lesson and a warning to them. This is visible in the text speaking to Judah, which symbolized the abstinence of physical intimacy between husband and wife and the abstinence of spiritual intimacy between Yahweh and Judah with the loss of king and temple in Babylonian exile.

God’s Love for His People

Strong throughout the prophet’s teachings and prophecies was God’s love for his people, despite their sinfulness. God’s anger and pain over his people’s betrayal of the Covenant (Exodus 33:19) through them following pagan gods. As the marriage metaphor suggests, just as Gomer had been unfaithful to Hosea by sleeping with another man, Hosea still loved and forgave her. In the same way, God still loves and forgives his people despite their sins and unfaithfulness.

Hosea therefore ends on a more hopeful note concerning Israel’s restoration after repentance.

“O Israel, come back! Return to your GOD! You’re down but you’re not out. Prepare your confession and come back to GOD. Pray to him, “Take away our sin, accept our confession. Receive as restitution our repentant prayers. Assyria won’t save us; horses won’t get us where we want to go. We’ll never again say ‘our god’ to something we’ve made or made up. You’re our last hope. Is it not true that in you the orphan finds mercy?” * * * “I will heal their waywardness. I will love them lavishly. My anger is played out. I will make a fresh start with Israel. He’ll burst into bloom like a crocus in the spring. He’ll put down deep oak tree roots, he’ll become a forest of oaks! He’ll become splendid—like a giant sequoia, his fragrance like a grove of cedars! Those who live near him will be blessed by him, be blessed and prosper like golden grain. Everyone will be talking about them, spreading their fame as the vintage children of God. Ephraim is finished with gods that are no-gods. From now on I’m the one who answers and satisfies him. I am like a luxuriant fruit tree. Everything you need is to be found in me.” * * * If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll learn this inside and out. GOD’s paths get you where you want to go. Right-living people walk them easily; wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling” (14:1-9).