Reading for September 1st

 Read Hosea 1.2-2.1. In 2.1-2.1: 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 1.2; Whoredom translates the common Hebrew word 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 that 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 ("Not my people"), symbolize God's rejection of Israel for its faithlessness. In verse 7: Scholars disagree whether references to the southern kingdom of Judah 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 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 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..