I should have said earlier that with Hosea, we're into the so-called minor prophets. These are the last section of the Christian Old Testament but in the Tanakh, they are grouped with the other prophets, and the last section is called the Ketuvim, or writings. These are Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, which are grouped together and written in a special two column form to emphasize their poetic structure; the so-called Megillot, or scrolls, consisting of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther; and Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles. We have already read all of these.
The main reason the minor prophets are minor is because the books are relatively short, but they're also relatively unimportant theologically. They are quite repetitive in theme -- they're mostly about how the people haven't properly worshiped God so he's going to punish them with atrocities, and then there may be a promise of redemption. By now you know that this tiresome theme runs throughout the Tanakh, and it's getting very stale by now. Accordingly, I will skip through the minor prophets and get us on to the New Testament shortly, because this is all very boring.
Chapter Three of Hosea is quite bizarre. He's required to act out the boring story by buying back his former wife, symbolizing the eventual redemption. Chapter four is the same old same old, God making terroristic threats. As I say, we'll skip past much of this.
3 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek[b] of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Footnotes
- Hosea 3:2 That is, about 6 ounces or about 170 grams
- Hosea 3:2 A homer and a lethek possibly weighed about 430 pounds or about 195 kilograms.
4 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,
because the Lord has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing,[a] lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land dries up,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the fish in the sea are swept away.4 “But let no one bring a charge,
let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.
5 You stumble day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother—
6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.“Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
7 The more priests there were,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their glorious God[b] for something disgraceful.
8 They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.
9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.10 “They will eat but not have enough;
they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,
because they have deserted the Lord
to give themselves 11 to prostitution;
old wine and new wine
take away their understanding.
12 My people consult a wooden idol,
and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
they are unfaithful to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth,
where the shade is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
and your daughters-in-law to adultery.14 “I will not punish your daughters
when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots
and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—
a people without understanding will come to ruin!15 “Though you, Israel, commit adultery,
do not let Judah become guilty.“Do not go to Gilgal;
do not go up to Beth Aven.[c]
And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’
16 The Israelites are stubborn,
like a stubborn heifer.
How then can the Lord pasture them
like lambs in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
leave him alone!
18 Even when their drinks are gone,
they continue their prostitution;
their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
19 A whirlwind will sweep them away,
and their sacrifices will bring them shame.Footnotes
- Hosea 4:2 That is, to pronounce a curse on
- Hosea 4:7 Syriac (see also an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition); Masoretic Text me; / I will exchange their glory
- Hosea 4:15 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).
3 comments:
Well, at least the god of the Jewish bible is an equal-opportunity scolder ... men for consorting with harlots, and women for being them. Sounds like the world hasn't changed much. So many harlots, so little time.
The problem I have with the words "new testament" is that they're an appropriation, like "antisemitism" or "race." The term is a lie ... what other religion has completely appropriated another religion's book as its own, moreover casting aspersions on its validity? Why do they bother with it at all? Mush cause a guilty conscience in Christians; no wonder so many of them are hypocrites and abusers. It should be referred to as what it is: the "Christian bible" and nothing else. It's like if I cloned your child (named Bob, for example) and kept him in my house as "the new Bob." A fucked-up religion with mostly fucked-up adherents. All craziness and nonsense.
I'm looking forward to you taking out the Christian garbage.
Well, Christians generally do not cast aspersions on the validity of the Jewish Bible. They do reinterpret it in ways that support their own theology. They bother with it because the premise of Christianity is that the Christian God and the Jewish God are the same entity, and the founder Jesus was a Jew. Obviously the Tanakh is no more historically or scientifically true than the gospels. BTW, in case you didn't know, the Nazis created a new Christian Bible that had no connection to or mention of the Tanakh or Judaism.
I assume most Christians do not cast aspersions on the validity of the Jewish Bible because they either haven't read it, or don't understand it in any sort of critical way.
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