{"id":75940,"date":"2020-06-12T16:25:30","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75940"},"modified":"2020-06-12T16:25:30","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:25:30","slug":"welcome-to-hosea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/welcome-to-hosea\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Hosea!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75940","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"501","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Son of a prophet from the north country\r\n\r\n","content":"

The opening verse of the Book of Hosea (called the heading or superscription) identifies Hosea only as \u201cthe son of Be\u2019eri.\u201d A helpful observation is that the name Hosea appears to have been used largely, if not exclusively, by members of the tribe of Ephraim: Joshua\u2019s given name was Hosea (Numbers 13:8), as was an Ephraimite chief under King David (2 Chr. 27:20), and the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 15:30). Additionally, Hosea referred regularly to that kingdom by the name Ephraim (e.g., 5:3,5; 6:10; 7:1), rather than Israel, and the only place names mentioned in the book (e.g., Gilgal, Beit El, Mitzpah, Tabor) belonged to the northern kingdom while there is not a single reference in it to Jerusalem. Therefore, we are entitled to conclude that this prophet lived among the northern tribes and likely was an Ephraimite himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About Be\u2019eri, we know nothing more, save that a rabbinic adage would have it that \u201cevery prophet whose father\u2019s name is mentioned was a prophet and the son of a prophet\u201d (Vayikra Rabbah 6:6), in which case Be\u2019eri, too, was a prophet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four kings of Judah are mentioned in the heading, namely, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the same kings whose names also grace the headings of the Books of Isaiah, Amos, and Micah. The inclusion here of Jeroboam ben Joash, King of Israel, strengthens Hosea\u2019s presumed northern origins, as it does for Amos (1:1). The somewhat awkward usage, \u201cWhen the Lord first spoke to Hosea\u201d (2) led the Talmud to proclaim Hosea the \u201cfirst\u201d of these four contemporaries (Baba Batra 14b); later scholarship declared Amos second, Isaiah third, and Micah last.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pressing problem with Chapter 1 pertains to God\u2019s instruction to Hosea to marry \u201ca wife of whoredom\u201d (2). In <\/span>our comments on Ezekiel 4 <\/span><\/a>(\u201c(In)Appropriate Activities\u201d), we noted:<\/span><\/p>\n

…several instances in Tanakh in which God instructed prophets to do strange things that turn out to be fraught with great symbolism. Jeremiah was instructed: \u201cGo buy yourself a loincloth of linen, and put it around your loins, but do not dip it into water\u201d (13:1) and then to hide it in the cleft of a rock (13:4). Later, he was told to retrieve it, and its deterioration became a symbol of the fate Israel would suffer. Isaiah was told to go about \u201cnaked and barefoot\u201d (20:3); Hosea was instructed to marry a harlot (1:2); and Ezekiel was directed to eat a scroll (3:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

Maimonides (Guide 2:46) regarded all such incidents as occurring only in prophetic visions, following the paradigm of Abraham and the covenant of the pieces (Gen. 15), which is explicitly designated a vision (<\/span>mar\u2019eh<\/span><\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Interested in fictionalized details? Milton Steinberg, noted author of \u201cAs a Driven Leaf,\u201d also produced an unfinished work entitled \u201c<\/span>The Prophet\u2019s Wife<\/span><\/em>,\u201d featuring Hosea and Gomer, that was published posthumously.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75932,"id":75932,"title":"Hos1-2-3-Hosea, Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk, fol. 7v, circa 1340","filename":"Hos1-2-3-Hosea-Klosterneuburger-Evangelienwerk-fol.-7v-circa-1340.jpeg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Hos1-2-3-Hosea-Klosterneuburger-Evangelienwerk-fol.-7v-circa-1340.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/last-chance-hosea\/hos1-2-3-hosea-klosterneuburger-evangelienwerk-fol-7v-circa-1340\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"hos1-2-3-hosea-klosterneuburger-evangelienwerk-fol-7v-circa-1340","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75931,"date":"2020-06-12 12:47:31","modified":"2020-06-12 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