{"id":76206,"date":"2020-06-18T17:45:53","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T14:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76206"},"modified":"2020-06-18T17:45:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T14:45:53","slug":"when-war-crosses-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-war-crosses-the-line\/","title":{"rendered":"When War Crosses the Line"},"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":"76206","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":73524,"related_cahpter":"505","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"

The fifth chapter of Hosea continues the themes developed in the fourth chapter \u2013 a cataloging of the crimes of the people, both in ritual matters (idolatry) and interpersonal crimes (cheating, stealing, murder, adultery, etc.), and the pointing of an accusing finger towards the people’s leadership, who allowed the situation to occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly, in verse 8, Hosea shifts his message. He assumes the role of the tower watchman and shouts out, “Sound a ram\u2019s horn in Gibeah, A trumpet in Ramah; Give the alarm in Beth-aven; After you, Benjamin!” The three cities mentioned are cities belonging to Israel in the north, but are located on the southern border between Israel and Judah. Beth-Aven (literally \u201cthe house of sin\u201d) is likely a clever slight on the northern religious capital Beth-El. While the shofar serves many functions in Tanach, it is clear here that the context is that of Numbers 10 \u2013 the blasts warned the people of an impending invasion and war. Hosea’s warning is to both Ephraim and Judah. Both peoples violate a fundamental sense of brotherhood by seeking assistance from traditional enemies in order to weaken the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

The background for Hosea’s accusations is the political turmoil that erupted upon Pekah’s assassination of Menachem’s son Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:22-29 \u2013 likely 736 BCE). Menachem had adopted a policy of appeasement towards the menacing Assyrian empire, which involved heavily taxing the populace to pay for protection offerings. Having assumed complete control over Israel’s foreign policy, Pekah began an aggressive anti-Assyrian program that would ultimately prove fatal. Though Israel was in no condition to embark on this course, Pekah formed an anti-Assyrian alliance with Rezin of Damascus and tried to recruit others into open warfare against the empire. He appealed to the king of Judah Ahaz, but he refused. As a result, the two monarchs decided to remove Ahaz by force, hoping to replace him with someone more sympathetic to their plans (Is.7:6). Meanwhile, other nations such as Edom and the Philistines took the opportunity to also wage war against Judah to strengthen their borders (2 Kings 16:6, 2 Chr. 28:17-18).<\/span><\/p>\n

The results of Pekah’s maneuverings were devastating to both countries. While 2 Kings says that Pekah could not defeat Ahaz (16:5), Chronicles describes (2 Chr. 28:1-15) a great slaughter of civilians and the looting of Jerusalem. In response, Ahaz appealed to Assyria for assistance in repelling the invading coalition armies. Accordingly, Tiglath-Pileser\u2019s armies destroyed the Philistine city-states along the coast in 734, cut off any potential Egyptian assistance, and then turned back north to deal with Pekah. By 733, the Assyrians had taken most of Israel’s territories. Only the Samarian hill country remained. According to the prophet Hosea, Judah took advantage of Israel’s weakened state to retaliate by conquering areas in Benjamin. Unfortunately, both countries would eventually pay for their betrayal of brotherly ties \u2013 Israel would disappear completely from history in 722 BCE, and Judah barely avoiding a similar fate in 701 BCE.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"When War Crosses the Line","main_caption":"Sound a ram\u2019s horn in Gibeah, A trumpet in Ramah; Give the alarm in Beth-aven; After you, Benjamin! Against the tribes of Israel I proclaim certainties...","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76207,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76206\/revisions\/76207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}