Old Testament
Hosea
14 chapters
Start reading: Hosea 1About this book
Hosea is the first of the twelve Minor Prophets, and it is built around a painful picture: God tells the prophet to marry a woman named Gomer, and their family becomes a living parable of Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord. The children's names carry messages of coming judgment, and later Hosea is told to take back a wife who has gone elsewhere, showing a love that will not let go. The rest of the book alternates between charges and tenderness. Israel's worship of Baal, its shaky alliances with foreign powers, its corrupt priests and its empty rituals are all exposed, and disaster is announced. Yet in the middle of the judgment God speaks like a parent who taught a child to walk and cannot bring himself to abandon him. The final chapter is an invitation to return, with the promise that God will heal and love freely. Christians have long read Hosea as a window into God's steady, covenant love, and the New Testament echoes its words in several places.
- Author
- The prophet Hosea, son of Beeri, who ministered in the northern kingdom of Israel.
- Date
- Eighth century BC, roughly 750 to 722 BC, before the fall of Samaria; the book may have been gathered a little later.
- Audience
- The people of the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim, in years of prosperity, political chaos and idolatry.
Themes
Outline
- 1:1–1:11Hosea's marriage and the children's names
- 2:1–2:23The Lord pleads with his unfaithful people
- 3:1–3:5Hosea takes back his wife
- 4:1–7:16The charges against Israel
- 8:1–10:15Idols, kings and coming judgment
- 11:1–11:11God the loving parent
- 12:1–14:9Call to return and promise of healing
Key verses
Chapters of Hosea
- 1Hosea 1God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman of unfaithfulness, as a living picture of how Israel has been unfaithful to the Lord.
- 2Hosea 2God brings a case against Israel, portrayed as an unfaithful wife who says her lovers give her grain, wine and wool, forgetting that the Lord provides them.
- 3Hosea 3God tells Hosea to love again a woman loved by another and an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes offered in idol worship.
- 4Hosea 4The Lord brings a charge against Israel: there is no faithfulness, love or knowledge of God in the land, but cursing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery, so that even the wildlife suffers.
- 5Hosea 5God calls priests, the royal house and all Israel to listen, because judgment is coming: they have been a snare at Mizpah and a net on Tabor.
- 6Hosea 6The chapter opens with a hopeful call: come, let us return to the Lord, who has torn but will heal, who will revive us after two days and raise us on the third day.
- 7Hosea 7When God wants to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria are exposed: they practice deceit, thieves break in and bandits raid outside.
- 8Hosea 8A trumpet is put to the lips as an enemy swoops over the house of the Lord, because Israel has broken the covenant and rebelled against the law.
- 9Hosea 9Israel is told not to celebrate like the nations, for it has been unfaithful to God, loving a prostitute's wages on every threshing floor.
- 10Hosea 10Israel is a spreading vine that produces fruit for itself; the more its fruit, the more altars it built, and the more prosperous its land, the finer its sacred pillars.
- 11Hosea 11God speaks like a father recalling his child: when Israel was a boy he loved him and called his son out of Egypt, but the more he called, the more they went away, offering to Baals.
- 12Hosea 12God has a charge against Ephraim, who feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind, multiplying lies and violence and making treaties with Assyria and oil deals with Egypt.
- 13Hosea 13When Ephraim spoke, people trembled, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
- 14Hosea 14The book closes with a plea and a promise.