The Literary Structure Of Hosea 9–14

By Charles H. Silva

[Charles H. Silva is Pastor, Horizon Christian Church, Branson, Missouri.

This is the final article in a four-part series, “A Literary Analysis of the Book of Hosea.”]

As noted in previous articles in this series, the Book of Hosea consists of six cycles of prophetic speeches. Cycle A is 1:2–2:1; cycle B is 2:2–23; cycle C is chapter 3; cycle D is 4:1–6:3; cycle E is 6:4–11:11; and cycle F is 11:12–14:8. Most of these oracles are messages of God’s judgment against sinful Israel. They demonstrate repeatedly that sin (both national and personal) results in divine judgment. Yet several of the speeches also include God’s promise to restore His people. A portion of cycle E was discussed in the previous article in this series.[1] This article continues the discussion of cycle E and includes cycle F.

Cycle E (6:4-11:11) [Continued]: The Lord's Denunciation Of Israel's Apostate Religious Profession And Harlotrous Practices

Contents of Cycle E [Continued]

The prophetic judgment speeches in 9:1–11:7 include three oracles: 9:1–9; 9:10–10:15; and 11:1–7. In the first and third oracles Yahweh announced His judgment on faithless Israel (Ephraim)[2] who had routinely spurned His covenant love to play the harlot with the Baals of Canaan. The central oracle (9:10–10:15)[3] drew attention to three examples of Israel’s long history of idolatrous and harlotrous covenant violations against God. This series of judgment speeches concludes with a prophetic announcement of devastating judgment and return to Egypt (11:5–6).[4]

C. The Lord’s announcement of judgment on Israel for idolatrous Canaanite worship (9:1–9).[5] This initial oracle commences with a twofold judgment speech in the form of a direct address to the nation (vv. 1–6 and 7–9). The direct address (“O Israel”), the prohibition “do not,” and the mention of the addressee “Israel” in verse 1 mark the beginning of a new literary unit.[6] Scholars have noted that verses 1–6 introduce a prophetic judgment speech that may have been delivered during the autumn festival of Tabernacles.[7] Hosea commanded that the “liturgy of harlotry” cease.[8] Israel would find themselves in Assyria (v. 3). Their sacrifices would cease (vv. 4–5), and destruction and death would overtake them (v. 6). The reference to “death” serves as a thematic closing device.

The vocative phrase “Let Israel know. .. !” signals a new prophetic oracle in verses 7–9. In those verses Hosea shifted from denoucing Israel’s perversions to focusing on the peoples’ apparent denunciation of his prophetic authority (v. 7). The unit starts with a complex poetic structure in which Hosea informed Israel that the “days of punishment” and “retribution” for their gross spiritual depravity had come. Hosea compared the nation’s immorality and depravity to the past “days of Gibeah,” a reference to one of the most notorious outrages in Israel’s history. The rape and murder of a traveling Levite’s concubine by the homosexual rapists of Gibeah of Benjamin resulted in a civil war that nearly annihilated the tribe of Benjamin (Judg. 19–21).[9] Israel’s current immorality and apostasy would likewise be punished by a devastating war and dispersion (the Exile).

D. The Lord’s review of Israel/Ephraim’s long history of idolatry and evil (9:10–10:15).[10] The first prophetic oracle in this series of judgment speeches has two parts (vv. 10–14 and vv. 15–17) knit together by style and theme.[11] The name “Israel” in verse 10 opens this unit, and the note of finality associated with the threatening words of judgment in verse 17 concludes the speech. Yahweh reflected on Israel’s beginnings as a nation.[12] The initial motif of Israel’s fertility and blessing (v. 10a), associated with the name Ephraim (“fruitful”), was reversed by infertility and the death of children (vv. 11–14). Israel’s combined sins of sensuous Baal worship and the desire for human kings rather than Yahweh destined the nation to experience the curses of the Mosaic Covenant.

These two speeches parallel each other, as seen in the following outline:

Sin of Baal Peor (9:10–14)

A. Yahweh’s speech (vv. 10–13)

B. Hosea’s interjection (v. 14)

Sin of Gilgal (vv. 15–17)

A. Yahweh’s speech (vv. 15–16)

B. Hosea’s interjection (v. 17)

After Yahweh reflected on the nation’s beginnings in the wilderness, He expressed His dismay over the nation’s propensity for idolatrous immorality, first embraced at Baal Peor.[13] Ephraim’s despicable devotion to Baalism, the fertility cult of Canaan, would ironically lead to barrenness of crops, livestock, and wombs (vv. 11–13).[14] The fertility and blessings that Israel attributed to Baal would be brought to an end by Yahweh, the true Lord of fertility, blessings, and life.[15] Yahweh’s judgment would put an end to the birth, pregnancy, and conception of children in Israel, and bring about the death of children until not a person was left (vv. 11b–12, 13b). The unit concludes on a solemn note with Hosea’s prayer asking God to punish Ephraim (the “fruitful” people) with infertility or barrenness (v. 14).[16]

In the second oracle (9:15–17) Yahweh announced that He hated Ephraim’s rebellious and evil acts practiced at Gilgal. Garrett suggests that Gilgal symbolized “the quintessential city of Israel—it contained every evil that the book of Hosea condemns.”[17] The reference to Gilgal along with the verb “drive out” in conjunction with an announcement of exile (v. 15) is quite ironic. Gilgal, Israel’s first campsite following their entrance into the promised land (Josh. 4:19), had become loathsome to Yahweh.

Gilgal is where Israel confirmed Saul’s kingship (1 Sam. 11:15), and Gilgal later became a leading center of the Baal cult (Hos. 4:15; 12:11). The idolatrous practices conducted by the people of Israel at Gilgal would result in the Lord’s expelling them from this site.[18]

In verse 16 Ephraim’s coming judgment is depicted metaphorically as a dried-up and fruitless condition that would lead to barrenness and to the slaying of Israel’s children. Then in verse 17 Hosea concurred with the Lord’s announced judgment on Ephraim’s sin: He was about to make them “wanderers among the nations” (cf. Deut. 28:65).[19]

The historical retrospect forming the second judgment oracle (10:1–8) in this threefold series focuses on Israel’s guilt in establishing idolatrous worship at Samaria and Beth-aven. The oracle opens, as did the previous one, with a review of Israel’s initial fertility (10:1; cf. 9:10). Hosea accused Israel of permitting her abundance to promote idolatrous corruption among the people. Because of Israel’s faithlessness and idolatry (10:2), they would be judged in three ways. First, Israel’s kings would be powerless to oppose the Lord’s judgment (vv. 3–4). Second, Assyria would carry away Samaria’s idolatrous golden calf as tribute to the great king (vv. 5–6). Third, Samaria’s king and false worship would all be cut off and destroyed (vv. 7–8).[20]

Reference to the “days of Gibeah” in verse 9 recalls Israel’s rebellion and gross immorality since the time of the judges (cf. Judg. 19–21; 1 Sam. 8–10). The use of a military motif in Hosea 10:9–10 and 10:13–15 forms an inclusio, which in turn frames an agricultural motif in verses 11–13a. Verses 9–15 have a threefold structural arrangement, as well as repetitive interplay between accusations of sin and announcements of judgment:

Military Motif (10:9–10)

Accusation: From the days of Gibeah you [Israel] have sinned.

Rhetorical question: Will not the battle against the sons of iniquity overtake them in Gibeah?

Announced judgment: I will chastise them. .. for their double guilt.

Agricultural Motif (10:11–13a)

Accusation: Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh.

Announced judgment: But I will come over her fair neck with a yoke; I will harness Ephraim.

Exhortation to repent: Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.

Accusation: You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Military Motif (10:13b–15)

Accusation: Because you have trusted. .. in your numerous warriors,

Announced judgment: Therefore a tumult will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

Accusation: Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness.

Announced judgment: The king of Israel will be completely cut off.

Yahweh announced that judgment would come on Israel because of two evils (“double guilt,” v. 10). Garrett suggests these two are placing their trust in an arrogant political and military establishment and participating in pagan worship and religious apostasy.[21] Israel’s rebellion against the Lord led Him to announce the nation’s total devastation militarily.

E. The Lord’s announcement of judgment on His beloved but rebellious son Israel (11:1–7). This subunit provides a closing inclusio to the extended series of judgment speeches in 9:1–11:7. This oracle from Yahweh (11:1–7) is in the form of a first-person divine speech.

In verses 1–4 the Lord reflected on how He had loved and cared for Israel, referring to them as His “son.”[22] Though He had delivered them from bondage in Egypt, they had spurned His covenant love to practice idolatry with the Baals of Canaan (11:1–2; cf. 9:1–7). Yahweh had led them and fed them as a loving Father would His son, but Israel refused to return to Him (vv. 3–4).[23]

Israel’s ingratitude and refusal to return to the Lord would result in her being returned to captivity, not in the land of Egypt, from which they had been previously delivered, but in Assyria (v. 5).[24] Swords would whirl against Israel’s cities, demolishing the nation completely (v. 6). Yet Yahweh’s people continued to be obsessed with turning from Him to serve the Baals.[25]

F. The Lord’s promise of future restoration (11:8–11). This segment makes a sudden and dramatic shift from the repetitive message of judgment to a brief but eloquent promise of divine salvation.[26] This abrupt thematic reversal from judgment to restoration mirrors chapters 1–3. It also reflects a change in Yahweh’s attitude.[27] Reflecting on Israel’s approaching destruction, the Lord revealed the utter agony that His faithless son Israel had brought on Him (v. 8).[28] He resolved not to annihilate Israel, as He hadAdmah and Zeboiim, two lesser cities that were destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). For He is God and not man, the Holy One (Hos. 11:9). Three times God said He would not fully execute His fierce anger nor destroy Ephraim in His wrath. As the sovereign Lord, He can choose to fulfill His purposes through love and compassion, as well as justice.

Though judgment would certainly come on that generation, God promised that He will one day “roar like a lion,” and “His sons will come trembling.” Humbly and willingly they will return to Him from the nations of their captivity (v. 10; cf. Amos 1:2; 3:8). Yahweh will restore them and settle them in their land. This cycle of speech concludes with the standard formula “declares the Lord.”

Summary of cycle E.

This cycle (6:4–11:11) focuses on the Lord’s denunciation of Israel’s apostate religious profession and harlotrous practices. So the primary mode of expression throughout nearly every unit in this cycle is that of divine speech, with God speaking in the first person.

In the first collection of judgment oracles (6:4–8:14), the Lord replied to Ephraim and Judah’s spurious repentance by reaffirming His desire for covenant loyalty and knowledge of God, rather than sacrifices. Yet the nation’s rejection of Him and their dependence on foreign alliances would result in certain destruction. Though Israel continued to profess faith in God, they showed by their idolatrous worship that they had rejected Him. This in turn would result in His rejection of them, and ironically they would be swallowed up by Assyria, the very nation they enlisted to help them.

In the second collection of judgment oracles (9:1–11:7) Yahweh announced judgment on Israel for forsaking His “loyal covenant love” (חֶסֶד) to engage in Canaanite worship. Because Israel attributed their fertility to participation in the Baal cult, God would end their fertility and destroy their precious offspring until not a person was left. The “fruitful” people (“Ephraim”) would be made “fruitless” wanderers among the nations. Ephraim would be judged for plowing wickedness, reaping injustice, and eating the fruit of lies.

The more God pursued His son, Israel, the more they rejected Him and embraced the Baals. Because they refused to return to Him, Assyria would take them into captivity. Cycle E concludes (11:8–11) as it began (6:4) with Yahweh travailing over the judgment He would soon release on Israel. Although judgment was imminent for Hosea’s generation, Yahweh promised one day to regather and restore His people to Himself and to their land.

Cycle F (11:12–14:8): Judgment On Ephraim/Israel’s Idolatry And Yahweh’s Promise Of A Future Restoration

Demarcation Of The Cycle

This final cycle is marked by the following criteria. First, the previous cycle (6:4–11:11) terminated with the typical concluding formula “declares the Lord” (11:11). Second, the thematic shift from promised restoration in 11:8–11 to the Lord’s condemnation of Ephraim/Israel’s deceit in 11:12 signals a new cycle of judgment oracles. Third, this cycle, like the previous one, concludes with Yahweh’s promise to someday heal Israel’s apostasy and to love them freely (14:4–8). Fourth, this cycle is followed by an epilogue (14:9) in the form of a “proverbial wisdom saying,” which admonishes listeners and readers of every age to obey the Lord.

Contents Of The Cycle

This cycle consists of two judgment speeches (11:12–12:14 and 13:1–16) and a two-part conclusion featuring Hosea’s admonition for Israel to return to the Lord (14:1–3) and Yahweh’s promise ultimately to restore Israel (vv. 4–8). As in previous cycles both collections of judgment oracles in this cycle include individual judgment speeches that seem to have been arranged according to thematic considerations.[29]

The first collection of judgment speeches (11:12–12:14) has four individual oracles (11:12–12:1; 12:2–6; 12:7–11; 12:12–14).[30]

Four individual judgment oracles (13:1–3; 13:4–8; 13:9–11; 13:12–16) compose the second collection of judgment speeches.[31] An inclusio created by the references to guilt and death in 13:1 and 16 frames the collection.[32] Chapter 14 serves as a two-part conclusion in which Hosea admonished Israel to repent and return to the Lord (vv. 1–3), and Yahweh promised to provide for Israel’s future restoration (vv. 4–8).

A. First collection of judgment oracles (11:12–12:14). The first judgment speech (11:12–12:1) in this collection commences with Yahweh’s[33] condemnation of Ephraim/Israel’s covenant treachery. His denunciation of Israel’s deceptive or feigned obedience (כַּחַשׁ) and treachery (מִרְמָה) to His covenant mandates parallels the opening of the previous cycle in 6:4.

Ephraim/Israel’s forsaking their faithful God in order to pursue alliances with Assyria and Egypt[34] is depicted metaphorically as shepherding the wind and pursuing the east wind.[35] The point is that in forsaking God Israel was trying in vain to control forces that were beyond their control. Israel’s vacillation between Assyria and Egypt would in the end prove futile, for Assyria would turn on them.

In 12:2–6 Yahweh expanded His covenant lawsuit (רִיב, judgment oracle) against Ephraim/Israel to pronounce judgment against Judah for following Jacob/Israel’s deceptive ways.[36] Hosea’s point throughout this section is that Israel had proven to be every bit as deceptive as the nation’s namesake Jacob (Israel). Jacob’s descendants had deceptively supplanted Yahweh for Baal, and while God had revealed Himself to Jacob at Bethel, the people of Israel contended with God by setting up idolatrous calf worship at Bethel. The people were exhorted to return to God and to covenant loyalty (vv. 5–6).

A new oracle (12:7–11) is introduced by a reference to Israel as “merchants” or “traders” (כְּנַעַן, lit., “Canaanite”). This is a divine judgment speech in which God continued His accusations against Ephraim/Israel, whom He called Canaanites.[37] Ephraim/Israel had become so immersed in Canaanite society that deceptive and crooked Canaanite business practices had become commonplace in Israel (v. 7; cf. Amos 8:5–6; Prov. 11:1; 20:23). The Northern Kingdom is referred to as Ephraim (Hos. 12:8), a name recalling the nation’s most famous, dominant, and perverted tribe (cf. 4:17; 5:3, 9, 11, 13). The nation disputed God’s charges against them by denying any injustice on their part. Because they had rejected the Lord who had been their God ever since delivering them from Egypt, He announced that they would once again live in tents, as in the wilderness (12:9).

Yahweh contrasted Ephraim/Israel’s actions with those of His obedient and faithful prophets (v. 10). Though He had continuously warned the people of sin and judgment, they had been too stubborn to receive His warnings.[38] Then in a rhetorical question God denounced the deplorable evil being practiced by Israel at the cultic sites in Gilead and Gilgal. The peoples’ sacrifices were condemned as “worthless” and would result in judgment—their altars would be torn down and scattered like piles of stones[39] in a farmer’s field (v. 11).

Another Jacob tradition (12:12–14) signals a new prophetic saying. Whereas Jacob/Israel served for a wife in Aram and for his wife he kept (שָׁמַר) sheep (v. 12), the Lord had set His wife, Israel, free from Egypt by His prophet Moses, and by His prophet Moses Israel was kept (שָׁמַר, v. 13). Ephraim/Israel’s rejection of Yahweh’s righteous ways would result in devastating judgment (v. 14).

B. Second collection of judgment oracles (chap. 13).[40] This collection commences with a review of Ephraim’s glorious past (v. 1), idolatrous present (v. 2), and future destruction (v. 3). Ephraim’s glorious past, when she was the leader among the northern tribes (v. 1), stands in contrast to her present condition, which was marked by idolatry and death. Ephraim’s idolatrous devotion to Baal caused the people to multiply images and led them to “kiss the calves” during their sacrifices to Baal. Ephraim’s supposed loyalty to God was actually transitory like the cloud and dew (6:4), and so God would cause the tribe to disappear like a cloud and dew and like chaff and smoke (13:3).[41]

Yahweh’s historical retrospect in verses 4–8 introduces a new judgment oracle.[42] The Lord reviewed His election and deliverance of Ephraim/Israel from Egypt, for which they were expected to love and serve Him only. He had also cared for them in the wilderness, but His abundant provision had resulted in their proud rejection of Him. So He announced the ferocious judgment He would release on Israel for their covenant violation. He said that in His wrath He would be like a lion (cf. 5:14), leopard, bear, and lioness.[43]

While the divine speech form in 13:4–8 continues in verses 9–11, a new oracle of judgment is indicated by Yahweh’s direct address to Israel. It features three taunts—against their king, judges, and princes—that highlight the fact that no one would be able to deliver Israel from Yahweh’s judgment.[44] The nation’s rejection of the Lord, her only source of help and blessing, would result in their “destruction” (v. 9).

The final unit in chapter 13 (vv. 12–16) includes four individual judgment oracles (vv. 12–13, v. 14, v. 15, and v. 16). These have been laced together in typical Hosea fashion to create this final judgment speech. The main section is marked by the change to third-person references to Ephraim, which continue through verse 15.[45] The introduction of Samaria in verse 16, which represents the nation Israel, indicates another new but dependent oracle.

In verses 12–13 God declared that He had “bound up” and “stored up” all of Ephraim/Israel’s deplorable iniquities and sins.[46] Stuart points out that the covenant curses in Leviticus 26 predicted frightful punishments for precisely these two offenses of iniquities (Lev. 26:39–43) and sins (26:18, 21, 24, 28).[47] The reference to Yahweh’s inescapable judgment (Hos. 13:12) reinforces the previous oracle in verses 9–11.

In the first of three metaphors depicting Ephraim/Israel’s approaching death, the nation’s demise is pictured as an agonizing childbirth gone wrong (v. 13). Rather than submit to Yahweh and live, Ephraim was like a fetus that refuses to cooperate with the contractions of childbirth. The implied result of such a complicated breach birth is death.

Some scholars translate the first four clauses in verse 14 as declarative statements that extend a promise of deliverance rather than death. They propose that in spite of Israel’s sin Yahweh promised to remove His threat of judgment and death.[48] Other scholars say that God not only promised to redeem His people from death but also announced a national and personal resurrection from death.[49]

Most scholars, however, translate these clauses as rhetorical questions that affirm that God will not ransom or redeem Israel from the sentence of death imposed on them.[50] In light of the fifth clause in the verse, in which Yahweh said that He would not show compassion to Israel, and the fact that the entire context is one of judgment, this third view seems preferable.

The pronoun “he” in the first line of verse 15 points back to “iniquitous Ephraim,” which was last mentioned by name in verse 12. The reference to the fact that Ephraim “flourishes” (יַפְרִיא) sets up an ironic wordplay on the name “Ephraim” (אֶפְרָיִם); prosperous Ephraim/Israel was about to be decimated by the Lord’s scorching judgment.[51]

Yahweh said He would summon the devastating “east wind” or deadly sirocco (cf. 8:7; 12:1) as His instrument of Ephraim/Israel’s demise and death.[52] Judgment by literal drought, although devastating, is not the point here. The “east wind” is metaphorically the earth-scorching, life-destroying invasion of Israel by Shalmaneser V of Assyria (2 Kings 17:1–6; 18:9–12). Shalmaneser’s invasion would plunder every precious article from Israel’s “flourishing” treasury (Hos. 13:15).

The final verse in this judgment oracle (v. 16) focuses on God’s impending judgment on Israel’s capital, the royal city of Samaria. The reason for judgment was rebellion against God. The punishment for covenant infidelity is described by a concluding triplet of unimaginable brutality. Samaria and her residents would fall to the brutal sword of Shalmaneser V of Assyria, their little children would be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women would be ripped open. According to 2 Kings 17:15 the siege of Samaria lasted three years. Following the city’s decimation its people were carried away into exile.

C. Hosea’s call to Israel to repent and God’s promised restoration (14:1–8). In this concluding cycle Hosea’s prophetic summons for Israel to repent and return to the Lord (vv. 1–3) is followed by God’s promise to restore and bless Israel.[53] The familiar vocative “O Israel” (v. 1) and the dramatic reversal in theme from approaching judgment to Hosea’s call for repentance introduce a new prophetic speech.

Hosea’s call for repentance begins with an admonition for Israel to “return” (שׁוּב)[54] to the Lord because their iniquity had caused them to stumble (כָּשַׁל, cf. 5:5).[55] Israel’s repentance of sin was the prerequisite to restoration with her covenant God (v. 2). Then in verse 3 Hosea exhorted the people to renounce dependence on foreign nations (Assyria), military powers (horses), or idols (the “work of our hands”). When he wrote, “For in You the orphan finds mercy,” he was declaring that Israel, soon to become a nation of deported orphans, could find mercy and grace only by returning to the God of mercy and grace.

In verses 4–8 a new oracle is marked by Yahweh’s first-person speech to His people and by the cluster of botanical images in verses 5–7 that describe the manifold prosperity, stability, and life Israel will experience when they are restored. The speech in verse 8 concludes with Yahweh’s highly ironic and polemical denunciation of Ephraim/Israel’s idolatry.

The oracle of salvation (in vv. 4–8) is comparable to the earlier oracles in 1:10–2:1; 2:14–23; and 11:8–11. God promised to heal Israel’s apostasy, love them freely, and withdraw His anger from them (14:4). In verses 5–7 God used highly poetic language to describe Israel’s future prosperity (cf. 2:14–23; 3:5; 11:8–11; Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:22–30).[56] The cluster of plant similes in these verses depicts Israel’s future beauty, fragrance, and fame.[57] The three references to Lebanon at the end of Hosea 14:5, 6, and 7 symbolize the unfailing productivity, stability, life, and salvation that Israel will experience when God is once again favorably disposed toward them.

The oracle concludes with a highly ironic and polemic simile in which the Lord compared Himself to an evergreen cypress (v. 8). The Canaanites associated green with fertility, but Israel’s fertility, prosperity, and blessing come from Him alone; He is the true God of fertility.[58] Yahweh—not Baal, as Israel had supposed (cf. 2:2–13; 3:1–3)—is the true source of Israel’s life.

Summary Of Cycle F

Like the previous cycles this last cycle centers on Yahweh’s denunciation of Israel for covenant violation. The nation’s sin and rejection of the Lord would result in His rejection and ferocious judgment of Israel. The first collection of judgment speeches (11:12–12:14) commences with Yahweh’s condemnation of Ephraim/Israel for faithless covenant violations, and for entering into covenants with Assyria and Egypt. Yahweh’s initial dispute with Ephraim/Israel is expanded to include Judah in the following covenant lawsuit (רִיב, judgment oracle). The Lord compared Judah and Ephraim/Israel’s deceptive and treacherous covenant violations with the nation’s deceptive forefather Jacob. Israel’s entrance into Canaan had resulted in the people embracing deceptive Canaanite practices and rejecting repeated prophetic warnings of judgment. Ephraim/Israel’s rejection of Yahweh’s covenant mandates as delivered by Moses and the nation’s pursuit of the wicked and deceptive ways of Jacob would result in certain terrifying judgment.

The second collection of judgment oracles (chap. 13) points out that Ephraim/Israel’s idolatrous devotion to Baal led to the peoples’ spiritual death and would result in the nation’s destruction and deportation. Because the people proudly rejected the Lord’s protection and provision He would come against them in ferocious judgment. Israel’s demise began when they exchanged His theocratic rule for that of corrupt human kings and princes who had led the nation to certain destruction. Ephraim/Israel’s iniquity and sins had been stored up by the Lord, and as a consequence they would suffer terrible atrocities to be perpetuated by the Assyrians in the upcoming invasion.

In the third collection (14:1–8) Hosea called for Israel to repent and return to Yahweh. Only by genuine repentance could Israel be restored to the Lord. Yahweh promised that when Israel truly repents and returns to Him, He will heal Israel’s apostasy, love them freely, and withdraw His anger from them.[59] The three references to Lebanon in verses 5–7 symbolize the apex of productivity and stability that Israel will experience when the Lord is once again favorably disposed toward them. This final divine declaration highlights the fact that Yahweh and not Baal is the true source of Israel’s fertility, prosperity, and life.

Concluding Epilogue (14:9): Proverbial Wisdom Saying

Demarcation Of The Epilogue

The concluding epilogue in 14:9, in the form of a wisdom saying,[60] constitutes the final structural element of the book.

Content Of The Epilogue

Hosea’s epilogue stands as a self-contained, individually composed poem, that provides a fitting conclusion to the entire book.[61] The first two lines of this saying include a dual question and a dual challenge (cf. Ps. 107:43; Jer. 9:12). The second part of the saying consists of a triplet, which details two differing responses to the “ways of the Lord.” The righteous are those who walk in obedience to the Lord, but transgressors or the rebellious are those who routinely disobey.[62]

Summary Of The Epilogue

Hosea’s concluding epilogue challenges readers to exercise wisdom by living in accord with the Lord’s commands. The message of this wisdom saying and the entire Book of Hosea hinges on the categorical assertion that “the ways of the Lord are right.” The person who lives in obedience to God’s ways is a wise and righteous person. The unrighteous are “rebels” who “stumble” or are constantly “tripped up” by the words of the Lord. In discussing the interpretation of the Book of Hosea, Garrett proposes the following.

In the final analysis, the key to interpretation [in Hosea] is not intelligence but submission [to the word and will of God]. The enigmas of Hosea, like those of Jesus, are stumbling blocks that only anger and finally destroy those who rebel against God’s rule. The righteous, however, find life in these same words. The strange metaphors, the passing allusions to earlier stories in the Old Testament, the paradoxical rhetorical strategy, and the confounding half-told tale of Gomer and Hosea become like choice fruits to those who rejoice in God and in the truth. To those who do not submit, they are like rocks that give offense. Hosea’s final message to us is this: “How do you read the words of this book? Do they enlighten or confound? Are they life or death? Your response describes not so much the state of my book as the state of your soul.”[63]

Notes

1. For a discussion of the first portion of Hosea’s cycle E see Charles H. Silva, “The Literary Structure of Hosea 4–8, ” Bibliotheca Sacra 164 (July–September 2007): 291–306. For a complete outline of the book see idem, “The Literary Structure of Hosea 1–3, ” Bibliotheca Sacra 164 (April–June 2007): 181.
2. Hans Walter Wolff has noted that the predominant references to “Ephraim” rather than “Israel” in this section serve the rhetorical purpose of providing a powerful wordplay on the name “Ephraim,” which means “fruitful” (Gen. 41:52). Yahweh’s judgment was to negate Ephraim’s fecundity—“Ephraim, the fruitful land, would become utterly fruitless” (Hosea: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Hosea, trans. Gary Stansell, Hermeneia [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974], 168).
3. The second judgment oracle is a series of three historical retrospects that make up the central portion of this section in which Yahweh reflected on Israel’s long history of idolatrous rebellion and pronounced judgment (9:10–17; 10:1–8; 10:9–15). Cycle E concludes with Yahweh’s promise of restoration in 11:8–11.
4. Robert B. Chisholm Jr. has observed that this section (9:1–11:7), like the preceding one (6:4–8:14), begins with a direct address to the nation, “O Israel” (9:1; cf. 6:4) and ends with a reference to Israel’s return to Egypt (11:5; cf. 8:13) (Interpreting the Minor Prophets [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990], 38). The several historical reviews of Israel’s depravity in 9:1–11:11 provide another indication of the probable integration of originally independent prophetic oracles that Hosea knit together to form this rather lengthy complex. Martin J. Buss proposes that numerous internal repetitions may be observed in these various discourses. For example Hosea 10:1–8 repeats the words “fruit,” “altars,” “pillars,” “king,” “Aven,” and “shame/ashamed” (The Prophetic Word of Hosea: A Morphological Study, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft [Berlin: Töpelmann, 1969], 30).
5. As noted in Silva, “The Literary Structure of Hosea 4–8, ” Bibliotheca Sacra 164 (July–September 2007): 303–6, points A and B in cycle E are these: “A. The Lord’s announcement of judgment against Ephraim, Israel, and Judah (6:4–7:16),” and “B. The Lord’s announcement of judgment on Israel for covenant violations (chap 8).”
6. Wolff, Hosea, 151.
7. Ibid., 151–52; and James L. Mays, Hosea, Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), 125.
8. Wolff, Hosea, 152.
9. A. A. Macintosh, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Hosea, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: Clark, 1997), 357–58; Mays, Hosea, 131; and Wolff, Hosea, 158.
10. This second judgment oracle in this collection consists of a series of three historical retrospects (9:10–17; 10:1–8; 10:9–15) in which Yahweh reflected on Israel’s long history of idolatrous rebellion against Him and pronounced judgment on them.
11. Wolff describes 9:10–17 as a “transmission unit” with a two-part parallel structure (Hosea, 162).
12. Mays has observed that “this oracle opens a new section of the book characterized by the repeated use of [Israel’s] history to establish the perspective in which the present is to be understood” (Hosea, 132). He describes the structural form of the oracle as commencing “in the style of the divine saying; Yahweh tells first of his pleasure in Israel during the wilderness epoch and how that epoch ended as soon as Israel reached the first outpost of Canaan’s cult. This contrast between the Israel of the wilderness and the one at Baal-Peor is the reproach, and the oracle proceeds directly to the announcement of the punishment for the contemporary Israel. Because Israel fell to the fertility god and still worships him (that is the obvious presumption), the women shall become barren (v. 11) and the children already alive will perish (v. 12)” (ibid.). See also Claus Westermann, Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech, trans. Hugh Clayton White (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967; reprint, Louisville: Westminster/Knox, 1991), 181–83.
13. The incident at Baal Peor is recorded in Numbers 25. It seems likely from that account that the Israelites’ participation in the licentious worship of Baal resulted in Israel’s “binding” themselves to the deity of shame (Macintosh, Commentary on Hosea, 361).
14. David A. Hubbard observes in this regard that it was not Baal but “Yahweh’s vital presence that makes possible the cycles of life” (Hosea: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1989], 166).
15. The themes presented here are reminiscent of those first introduced in 2:2–13.
16. For a discussion on Hosea’s prayer of cursing see D. Krause, “A Blessing Cursed: The Prophet’s Prayer for Barren Womb and Dry Breasts in Hosea 9, ” in Reading between the Texts: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible, ed. Danna Nolan Fewell (Louisville: Westminster/Knox, 1992), 199–202.
17. Duane A. Garrett, Hosea, Joel, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1997), 202.
18. Wolff suggests that the rejection motif would have reminded Israel of Saul’s rejection in Gilgal (1 Sam. 15:23), especially since he too was rejected for disobedience to the word of Yahweh that Samuel had proclaimed to him (Hosea, 168).
19. The phrase “wanderers among the nations” may have reminded the Israelites of God’s words to Cain that because he strayed from Yahweh’s prescribed will God would make him “a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:12).
20. The expression “thorn and thistle” in verse 8 (used only here and in Gen. 3:18) would have called forth fearful images of the devastating judgment that God had inflicted on humanity’s first parents, Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:17–19).
21. Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 213.
22. While Hosea referred to the nation of Israel as a “son” or “male child,” Ezekiel depicted the young nation as a “female child” that had been discarded, but loved and adopted by the Lord (Ezek. 16:1–6). The reference to the Lord’s calling His son out of Egypt is applied typologically to Christ in Matthew 2:15. Whereas Israel proved to be a disobedient and unfaithful son, Christ, the Son of God, by way of contrast, always did what pleased and glorified His Father. Garrett gives a detailed discussion of Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1 (Hosea, Joel, 220–22).
23. Wolff proposes the following emended reading for verse 4, “With humane cords I drew them, with ropes of love. I was to them as those who lift a small child to their cheek, and I bent down to him, to feed him” (Hosea, 191).
24. Chisholm discusses several wordplays in verses 4–6. For example “fed them” (v. 4) contrasts with “consume them” (v. 6), both of which translate אָכַל (lit., “eat”) (Interpreting the Minor Prophets, 43).
25. The meaning and syntax of 11:7 is problematic. The translation provided here reflects the reading suggested in the apparatus of Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia, ed. Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolf (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1977).
26. Rather than pronouncing the anticipated announcement of Israel’s judgment following the lengthy accusation section in verses 1–7, God promised quite unexpectedly to provide for Israel’s ultimate restoration (Wolff, Hosea, 194).
27. Chisholm, Interpreting the Minor Prophets, 43.
28. Heschel sees in this emotionally charged verse the cardinal emotional pathos of God that is a fundamental part of His relationship with His people (Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets: An Introduction [New York: Harper & Row, 1962], 1:48). See also J. L. McKenzie, “Divine Passion in Osee,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 17 (1955): 287–99. Page H. Kelley suggests, “If Isaiah 53 is the Calvary of the Old Testament, then Hosea 11 is its Gethsemane. As in Gethsemane, one hears the cry of love in agony: ‘How can I give you up, O Ephraim!’ ” (“The Holy One in the Midst of Israel: Redeeming Love [Hosea 11–14],” Review and Expositor 72 [fall 1975]: 467).
29. For example God’s condemnation of Ephraim/Israel’s treacherous covenant disloyalty dominates both of these collections (11:12–12:14 and 13:1–16). Recognition of the various independent sayings that make up these collections of speeches is facilitated primarily by changes in introductory formulae, addressees, and subject matter. Hosea generally used the name “Ephraim” as a synonym for Israel, the Northern Kingdom (Mays, Hosea, 172). Wolff points out that the name “Ephraim” in this context “refers to both the ‘apostate leaders of the house of Israel’ and the ‘rump-state’ of Israel that encompassed the middle region of the highlands west of the Jordan, known for a long time as ‘Ephraim’ ” (Hosea, 113).
30. Wolff describes chapter 12 as a remarkably unified judgment speech in which the patriarch Jacob’s deceptive character is presented as the prototype of Ephraim/ Israel’s present treachery (ibid., 217). He further demonstrates that an inclusio is created in verses 2–14 by “the statement about retribution at the beginning of the lawsuit (v. 2b: ‘according to his deeds he will requite him,’ which recurs at the end (v. 14b: ‘his Lord will requite him. . .’)” (ibid.). It will be argued below that this entire chapter (including 11:12) presents Yahweh’s רִיב oracle against Israel.
31. Davies divides chapter 13 into three judgment speeches (vv. 1–3, 4–8, and 12–16) and a divine taunt (vv. 9–11). Each judgment speech begins with a historical retrospect designed to establish Ephraim/Israel’s guilt (vv. 1–2, 5–6, 12–13) and continues with an announcement of judgment (vv. 3, 7–8, 15–16) (Graham I. Davies, Hosea, New Century Bible Commentary [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992], 284).
32. In chapter 13 “in three, ever-widening onslaughts, the prophetic sayings each voice the same intention of destruction (vv. 3, 8, 15–16)” (Wolff, Hosea, 229). Wolff views 13:9–11 as a peculiar divine judgment speech or “taunt” that uses scornful expressions to emphasize the irrevocability of Yahweh’s devastating punishment that was about to be unleashed on Israel (ibid., 223).
33. Most commentators say the word “Me” in 11:12 refers to the Lord, primarily because Yahweh’s indictments of Ephraim/Israel for lies and deceit link this verse with 12:1, which details different kinds of deceit (Davies, Hosea, 267–69; Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 229–36; and Mays, Hosea, 159–60). Wolff, on the other hand, proposes that “me” refers to Hosea, with the people’s hostility toward him, similar to 9:7–8 (Hosea, 208). Wolff also assigns the sayings here to Hosea and not Yahweh (ibid.).
34. Ephraim/Israel’s faithless rejection of Yahweh in favor of Assyria and Egypt (12:1) is contrasted with Yahweh’s faithfulness (11:12; 12:6, 9–10, 13). See D. J. McCarthy, “Hosea XII 2: Covenant by Oil,” Vetus Testamentum 14 (1964): 215–21.
35. The east wind is a reference to the blistering and deadly sirocco, a scorching wind that blows in across the land from the eastern Arabian desert (D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible [New York: Harper & Row, 1974], 67–70). This wind metaphorically represents Yahweh’s coming judgment of Israel: invasion, destruction, and deportation by Assyria (cf. 13:15). See Aloysius Fitzgerald, “The Lord of the East Wind,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 34 (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2002).
36. Some scholars excise the name “Judah” and emend the text to read “Israel” (Macintosh, Commentary on Hosea, 473–80; Mays, Hosea, 161; Ward, Hosea, 207; and Wolff, Hosea, 206). But others retain the Masoretic reading of “Judah,” and recognize that Yahweh’s accusations in this unit are against all the descendants of Jacob (Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 230, 234; and Hubbard, Hosea, 202). The references to the “Jacob traditions” in this collection of judgment oracles has elicited much scholarly discussion in recent years. Edwin M. Good is probably correct in asserting that Hosea used the name Jacob as a bitter wordplay on the meaning of Jacob’s name (“deceiver”) and character (“deceptive”), which he applied to Israel (“Hosea and the Jacob Tradition,” Vetus Testamentum 16 [1966]: 139–41; see also Hubbard, Hosea, 202–6). Davies proposes that Hosea’s transformation of the “Jacob traditions” is characteristic of his tendency to transform Israel’s history into a “disaster history” designed to provide a message of doom against the hopes of his sinful contemporaries (Hosea, 273). See also H. L. Ginsberg, “Hosea’s Ephraim, More Fool Than Knave: A New Interpretation of Hosea 12:1–14, ” Journal of Biblical Literature 80 (1961): 339–47; Walter C. Kaiser Jr, “Inner Biblical Exegesis as a Model for Bridging the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ Gap: Hos 12:1–6, ” Journal of Biblical Literature 28 (March 1985): 33–46; and Steven L. McKenzie, “The Jacob Tradition in Hosea XII 4–5, ” Vetus Testamentum 36 (1986): 311–22. For an alternative view that interprets Hosea’s use of the “Jacob traditions” in a positive or complimentary light see Peter R. Ackroyd, “Hosea and Jacob,” Vetus Testamentum 13 (1963): 245–59.
37. The portrayal of Ephraim/Israel as Jacob-like “deceivers” in 12:2–4 is followed by this negative picture of contemporary Ephraim/Israel as “Canaanite traders,” a people filled with a “deceptive” and “crooked” Canaanite spirit of harlotry and commerce (Wolff, Hosea, 214).
38. Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 243.
39. The words “stone heaps” translates גַלִּים, whose first two consonants also are in “Gilead” and “Gilgal.” This “draws attention to Yahweh’s poetic judgment” (Chisholm, Interpreting the Minor Prophets, 45).
40. As noted above, this chapter presents a series of four short but powerful judgment oracles that complement those presented in chapter 12, “each of which is reinforced by literary devices that intensify the indictments or sharpen the threats” (Hubbard, Hosea, 212).
41. Chisholm, Interpreting the Minor Prophets, 45.
42. Chisholm suggests that this judgment speech includes all of verses 3–16 (ibid., 44). He proposes the following threefold arrangement of Yahweh’s announcement of judgment: (1) it commences with an introductory announcement of judgment in verse 3; (2) Yahweh’s divine announcement (note “I”) of judgment is presented in verses 4–14; and (3) it ends with a concluding announcement of judgment in verses 15–16 (ibid.).
43. Mays, Hosea, 175. Delbert R. Hillers demonstrates that these metaphors depicting attacks by wild animals were a common curse motif. In the ancient Near East, treaty violators were threatened with the attack of wild animals (Treaty-Curses and the Old Testament Prophets, Biblica et Orientalia [Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1964], 54–56).
44. Wolff, Hosea, 223.
45. The pronouns “his,” “him,” “he,” and “them” in the oracles in verses 13–15 all refer to Ephraim in the initial oracle in verse 12.
46. The reference to Ephraim/Israel’s iniquities and sins relates to the previous accusations against Israel’s idolatry recorded in verses 2 and 6.
47. Douglas K. Stuart, “Hosea,” in Hosea–Jonah, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), 206.
48. Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, Hosea: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980), 639; and Thomas Edward McComiskey, “Hosea,” in The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary, ed. Thomas Edward McComisky (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 1:223–24.
49. For example Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 265.
50. Scholars who interpret these four Hebrew clauses as negative statements emphasizing Israel’s inescapable judgment include Chisholm, Handbook on the Prophets, 366; Davies, Hosea, 295; Mays, Hosea, 181–88; Gary V. Smith, Hosea, Amos, Micah, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 187; Stuart, Hosea, 207; and Wolff, Hosea, 228.
51. Hubbard, Hosea, 223.
52. Wolff, Hosea, 211, 228–29; see also Fitzgerald, “The Lord of the East Wind,” 24–27.
53. See Claus Westermann, Prophetic Oracles of Salvation in the Old Testament, trans. Keith Crim (Louisville: Westminster/Knox, 1991), 115–16, 130–36.
54. As Garrett points out, the root שׁוּב (“return,” “repent”) occurs twenty-five times in Hosea, and serves as an essential term in Hosea’s theology (Hosea, Joel, 270). It plays a significant role here in chapter 14. Whereas Israel’s sins prevented them from returning (שׁוּב) to Yahweh (5:4), and they refused to repent (7:10), Yahweh promised here that His anger will turn away (שׁוּב) from them (14:4), and that His people will come again (שׁוּב) to dwell under His divine protection (v. 7) (ibid.).
55. In 4:4–5 Hosea had written that Israel’s apostate priesthood had caused the people to “stumble” (כָּשַׁל).
56. Hubbard, Hosea, 229. In his development of this passage R. B. Coote proposes that these verses provide a strong polemic against the Baals (“They Who Are Filled with Grain Shall Live,” Journal of Biblical Literature 93 [1974]: 161–73). The book concludes with one final contrast between Yahweh and Baal, the god of Canaan. Yahweh, not Baal, is the One who produces the earth’s fertility and fruitfulness. Israel had wrongly said that grain, wine, and oil were gifts from the idolatrous fertility gods of Canaan. By contrast God promised that in the future He will provide “dew” for Israel, which will cause them to “blossom like the lily”—a picture of agricultural blessing.
57. For a detailed development of Hosea’s use of images from the plant world see Emmanuel O. Nwaoru, Imagery in the Prophecy of Hosea (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999), 169–78; and Michael Zohary, Plants of the Bible (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
58. Nwaoru, Imagery in the Prophecy of Hosea. 173. Harry Mowvley suggests that Hosea directed this polemic against the well-known myth of the sacred tree and the fertility cult worship of the goddesses Anath and Asherah as a typical warning against idolatry and as a call for Israel to rely on Yahweh alone, who provides His people with prosperity (The Books of Amos and Hosea [London: Epworth, 1991], 167). See also Mays, Hosea, 189; and Wolff, Hosea, 237.
59. In light of the death sentence repeatedly pronounced on Israel (throughout Hosea’s oracles), the nation’s future restoration rests entirely on God’s sovereignty and holiness (cf. 11:9b; 3:1b) (Wolff, Hosea, 237). He alone will set in motion a completely new history for the people of God, a salvation provided by God’s love (ibid., 237–38).
60. McComiskey identifies this concluding prophecy as a “wisdom saying,” which, he says, “rounds off the book nicely” (“Hosea,” 236–37), and Stuart calls this closing verse “wisdom” (Hosea, 219–20).
61. There is no reason to dismiss the poem, as Mays does, as a non-Hosea addition that was added in the exilic or postexilic period (Hosea, 190). Wolff, who treats this verse as secondary, nevertheless points out that the vocabulary is distinctly Hosea’s (Hosea, 239). C. L. Seow suggests that in light of Hosea’s concluding foolish people motif, “the presence of a sapiential exhortation at the end of Hosea may not be as out of place as it has been supposed” (“Hosea 14:10 and the Foolish People Motif,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 44 [1982]: 223). Scholars who assign this verse to Hosea include Chisholm, Interpreting the Minor Prophets, 47–48; Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 281; McComiskey, “Hosea,” 236–37; and Stuart, Hosea, 219.
62. “The contrasting of the fates of the righteous (צַדִּקִים) and the disobedient (וֹפּשְׁעִים) has many parallels in the antitheses of the Proverbs (e.g. 10:24, 29, 30; 11:3; 12:3, 5, 7, etc.)” (Stuart, Hosea, 219).
63. Garrett, Hosea, Joel, 282.