{"id":75991,"date":"2020-06-14T14:57:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T11:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75991"},"modified":"2020-06-14T14:57:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T11:57:11","slug":"hoseas-marriage-literalists-vs-allegorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/hoseas-marriage-literalists-vs-allegorists\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosea\u2019s Marriage: Literalists Vs. Allegorists"},"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":"75991","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"502","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Whether it happened or not - the moral is the same\r\n\r\n","content":"

The question of the actual reality of said marriage intrigued the Talmudic sages and medieval and modern exegetes alike. The Talmudic opinion (Pesachim 87a) took it literally. Accusing Hosea of infidelity to his people, the Talmud had God say, so to speak:<\/span><\/p>\n

What shall I do with this old man? I will order him: “Go and marry a harlot and beget thee children of harlotry”; and then I will order him: “Send her away from thy presence.” If he will be able to send [her] away, so will I too send Israel away. For it is said, \u201cAnd the Lord said unto Hosea: \u2018Go, take unto thee a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry\u2019\u201d; and it is written, \u201cSo he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Not so the medieval rationalists as epitomized by Maimonides, whom we cited in <\/span>our comments on Chapter 1<\/span><\/a>. Ibn Ezra wrote: \u201cForbid the thought that a prophet would take a wife of whoredom. Rather, this appeared to him in a dream\u201d (1:1).* Radak, too, wrote: \u201cThis entire matter transpired in a prophetic vision\u201d (1:2). Most striking, however, was Malbim who disagreed, and, in defense of the Talmudic position and explicitly contrary to Ibn Ezra, wrote: \u201cHosea was not a priest and an [ordinary] Israelite is not prohibited from marrying a whore.\u201d Referring, in fact, to the very same acts mandated of Ezekiel and Elijah whose facticity Maimonides had dismissed, Malbim responded that they were all acts of \u201cemergency legislation\u201d (<\/span>hora\u2019at sha`ah<\/span><\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Abrabanel, too, supported the literal position, albeit taking a different tack:<\/span><\/p>\n

These exegetes [Ibn Ezra and Radak] have no argument by saying that God would be irreverent had He commanded a prophet to take a wife and children of whoredom, since the prophets were not chosen by God in order that their status be enhanced like royalty. Rather, they were His agents to straighten out His people, therefore He could command them to do whatever was necessary to achieve this.<\/span><\/p>\n

The moral of Hosea\u2019s act\u2014or vision, if that was the case\u2014was the Jewish people whose relationship with God was compared to a marriage by both Jeremiah (2:1-3) and Ezekiel (16:8), among others. Neither is the use of marital infidelity original, let alone unique, to Hosea; we find it already in the Torah. In the portion that commands the wearing of tzitzit<\/em>, Israel was warned against \u201cstraying after your hearts and eyes after which you go whoring,\u201d utilizing the same verb, <\/span>zonim<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>*Ibn Ezra wrote two commentaries on Trei Asar. This citation is from the alternate version\u2014the one not found in the standard Mikraot Gedolot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Hosea and Gomer, from the Bible Historiale. Den Haag, MMW, 10 B 23 426r, 1372 \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75993,"id":75993,"title":"hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer","filename":"hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/hoseas-marriage-literalists-vs-allegorists\/hos2-hosea_and_gomer\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"hos2-hosea_and_gomer","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75991,"date":"2020-06-14 11:56:22","modified":"2020-06-14 11:56:33","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":378,"height":471,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","medium_large-width":378,"medium_large-height":471,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","large-width":378,"large-height":471,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":378,"1536x1536-height":471,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":378,"2048x2048-height":471,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":378,"post_full_size-height":471,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-Hosea_and_Gomer-1-337x420.jpg","home_baner-width":337,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Hosea\u2019s Marriage: Literalists Vs. 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