The Story of Hosea

I'm now in the thick of Hosea; I decided to spend a term teaching this book, which is all good and well, except the exciting part of the story finishes after only three chapters. And the third chapter is only 5 verses.

It's fairly well known for the story of Hosea, a prophet, who is commanded to marry an adulterous woman, Gomer, as a symbol of God's commitment to the unfaithful Israel. They have three children together: Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi, with all their names having important meanings.

To start off with, there are three important questions to establish:

1. What further use is made of the names after the initial naming?
2. What is the story told in chapters 1-3? Is it one continuous story, or two, or three?
3. How does the rest of the book (4-14) connect to the opening (1-3)?

I'll try to tackle these in order.

What further use is made of the names after the initial naming?

There are five names with meanings:

1. Hosea. From the verb ישע (yasha', to save). Yhwh will save his people.
2. Gomer. From the verb גמר (gamar, to finish). Yhwh is finished with his people.
3. Jezreel. From the verb זרע (zara', to sow). God will sow.
4. Lo-Ruhamah. From the particle לא (lo, not) and the verb רחם (racham, to have compassion). Yhwh will not have compassion.
5. Lo-Ammi. From the particle לא (lo, not) and the noun עם ('am, people). They are not Yhwh's people.

Hosea as a name is only mentioned thrice, and only in the first two verses. Twice in 1:7 the verb 'to save' appears (referring to Judah), but thereafter only three more times in the final two chapters.

Gomer as a name or verb never appears after her single mention in 1:3. She is alluded to as a woman of harlotry, as "she", as a wife, as a mother, but not her name. 

Jezreel turns up three times in the opening verses (1:4a,4b,5), recalling not the verb 'to sow' but the valley of bloodshed known as Jezreel. However at the end of chapter 2 (2:23-23) the verbal meaning is played upon in terms of a reversal. Two further times it occurs, in the famous 'sow the wind, reap the whirlwind' quote (8:7), and then in the exhortation to 'sow righteousness!' (10:12)

Lo-Ruhamah sounds more like a name, but the connection to comfort/mercy/compassion is easily missed. However, while this comes up both as a name and verb and reversal of the name nine times in the first two chapters, thereafter it only returns in the very final chapter (14:3) as the reversal of judgement means the orphans will find compassion.

Lo-Ammi is easily the most prolific of the names, with 'people' being regularly used in the first two chapters (6x) but also thereafter (13x). Of course, in contrast to the other names, it is much harder to avoid saying 'people', especially when this book is about the people of Israel. 

To summarise, with the exception of 'people', the names which are so important in the first chapter more or less disappear, with the least frequent four verbal roots only occurring a combined 7 times in the rest of the book. This could lead someone one of two ways. It could make you think, "oh, there's no way that Hosea 1-3 is written by the same person as Hosea 4-14." But their absence makes them almost more conspicuous. The avoidance of the otherwise common verbs "to save, to have mercy, to sow" seems more noteworthy than their appearance. This makes me think that their occurrences in 8:7; 10:12 (to sow); 13:4, 10; 14:3 (to save) and 14:3 again (to have mercy) are not accidental but deliberate.

What is the story told in chapters 1-3? Is it one continuous story, or two, or three?

My default is to read in a linear fashion:

1. God tells Hosea to marry Gomer.
2. Hosea marries Gomer and has kids
3. Gomer runs off
4. God tells Hosea to win her back
5. God instructs Hosea to purchase her 
6. Hosea marries Gomer and they live together "many days"

But it doesn't have to be that way. In particular, I can't see the plot really advancing any in chapter 2. Rather, it restates much of what was already said in chapter 1, and the positive conclusion in chapter 2 seems like part 2 of the conclusion to chapter 1. That would mean we have chapter 1-2 telling the same story, while chapter 3 gives us the next step.

The third possibility is that there's only one story, told in three different ways, with each chapter supplying information the others omitted. This hinges in part with the fourth word in chapter 3, 'again' (עוד, 'od). This could go with the preceding words, "Yhwh spoke to me again," potentially meaning "God told me yet again to go and marry Gomer". Alternatively it could go with what follows, "Yhwh said to me, 'Again go and marry Gomer'", because she has run off. Either reading works, and in the long run I don't think it matters, but the ambiguity is certainly fascinating.

How does the rest of the book (4-14) connect to the opening (1-3)?

I ask this question because I'd like to know. They really do seem disconnected, but I haven't yet done enough work to determine whether there is one "voice" throughout the book, or whether the distinctive sections betray distinct authors. I haven't really come across anyone who has discussed this in depth. Ultimately it doesn't matter too much, because we have the one book preserved for us and that's what we have to deal with. But it would still be nice to have some ideas about which came first, and what connections we should be seeing. All that is to come!