Reading for July 12th

Read Hosea 1.2-2.1 Hosea marries the prostitute Gomer.
In chs. 1 and 3 Hosea acts out the message he wishes to convey to Israel: Just as the wife he
marries has been promiscuous, seeking out other lovers, so Israel has been unfaithful to its LORD,
seeking out other gods to worship.
In verse 1.2 whoredom translates the common Hebrew term for prostitution.
In verse 4 Hosea's first son Jezreel is named after the broad valley in northern Israel where
Jehu led a bloody coup (2 Kings 9.14-10.11), establishing a dynasty in which Jeroboam,
Hosea's contemporary, was the fourth king.
The name symbolizes the imminent end of the dynasty, which occurred during Hosea's
career when Jeroboam's son Zechariah was assassinated in 745 BCE.
In verses 6-9 the names of Hosea's daughter, Lo-ruhamah ("Not pitied"), and second son,
Lo-ammi ("No my people"), symbolize God's rejection of Israel for its faithfulness.
In verse 7 scholars disagree whether references to the southern kingdom of Judah here
and elsewhere in Hosea are from Hosea himself or from later Judean editors who wished
to relate Hosea's message to their own time and place.
In verses 1.10-2.1 the marked shift to future salvation here, in which the meanings of Hosea's children's names are reversed to their positive counterparts, may either reflect the tension
between despair and hope in Hosea's own thought, or represent a later editor's positive
resolution to Hosea's words of judgement.
Comments or Questions...