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Hosea

 
Dictionary: Ho·se·a2   (hō-zē'ə, -zā'ə) pronunciation
n. (Abbr. Hos. or Ho)
A book of the Bible.

[After HOSEA1.]


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(flourished 8th century BC) First of the 12 Minor Prophets in the Hebrew scriptures, traditional author of the book of Hosea. (His prophecy is part of a larger book, The Twelve, in the Jewish canon.) He began to prophesy during the reign of Jeroboam II and continued until near the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC. The book is an allegory in which the prophet is presented as a man married to a harlot or an adulterous wife. This troubled relationship stands for the betrayal of God by Israel, which has "played the harlot" by dallying with Canaanite religion.

For more information on Hosea, visit Britannica.com.

Biography: Hosea
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Hosea (active 750-722 B.C.) was a prophet of the kingdom of Israel. He called on Israel to repent its sins of apostasy and warned of the judgment to come from God. His writings form the first of the Old Testament books of the Minor Prophets.

Hosea was the son of Beeri and apparently belonged to the upper classes. Judging from his elegant style, he was highly cultured. Hosea married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, who bore him two sons, the older of whom he called Yezreel, meaning "God sows." This name may have been intended to signify the replanting of Israel back on its own soil after it had been dispersed in exile. The second son was called Lo Ami, meaning "not my people, " to indicate God's rejection of Israel as His people because of its faithlessness. Hosea's daughter by Gomer was metaphorically named Lo-ruhamah, meaning "the unpitied one." Since Gomer after her marriage became an unfaithful "wife of harlotry, " it is possible that Lo-ruhamah and perhaps her brothers were illegitimate children. Scholars have speculated whether the prophet's tragic marital experience was real or merely an allegory to stress the infidelity of Israel.

The prophet recalled God's affection for Israel, from the days of its infancy, when He taught it how to walk and led it through the perils of the desert to the Promised Land. But Israel's goodness is as evanescent "as a morning cloud and the dew that early passeth away"; it must therefore suffer dire punishment and divine wrath. Because it "sows the wind, it shall reap the whirlwind." Hosea, however, does not leave his people without hope; he conceives the God of Israel in the loftiest terms as a God of Love. Israel will yet repent and return to its God.

Hosea's times were confused. Economically a great change had taken place in the reign of Jeroboam II (785-745 B.C.). The cities had grown in wealth and fostered a small class of rich landowners, merchants, and creditors. However, the vast majority of the urban population was made up of poor artisans, craftsmen, and laborers who were frequently exploited or even enslaved by the rich. In the country indigent farmers were often compelled to sell their holdings to the rich and migrate to the cities. The upper classes were favored by the rulers and judges; they readily adopted the ways of their neighbors and worshiped their heathen gods in place of the God of Israel, who "demanded mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." For this reason Hosea denounced idolatry as the "spirit of harlotry, " which leads to moral degeneration, sin, and corruption.

Politically, too, the times were turbulent. Tiglathpileser III threatened the Northern kingdom as well as other nations. Internally, vast dynastic changes were taking place, despite the external danger. In 2 decades, six kings - four of them regicides - ascended the throne of Israel. In this state of political chaos the rulers of Israel and Judea made alliances, at times with Assyria and at other times with its powerful rival, Egypt. Hosea ridicules the diplomacy of princes who do not know which way to turn and describes Ephraim "as a silly dove, without understanding." He saw the alliances as useless, for Ephraim must be punished for his vices and moral degeneracy; his sins shall be purged in exile. In 722 B.C. the Northern Kingdom of Israel came to an end and passed out of history.

The Book of Hosea consists of two sections. The first 3 chapters may be autobiographical. The subsequent 11 chapters deal with the religious and social collapse that called for God's punishment of His people. The book concludes with a plea to the people to return to God, who in His abiding love will be reconciled with them. The people that were "not loved" (Lo-ruhamah) would be loved once again, and "not my people" (Lo-ami) would be reunited with their God again, in a new spiritual betrothal.

Further Reading

The Book of Hosea has been annotated and commented upon in such works as Abraham Cohen, ed., The Twelve Prophets: Hebrew Text, English Translation and Commentary (1948), and George A. Buttrick, ed., The Interpreter's Bible (12 vols., 1951-1957). The chapter on Hosea in Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets (1962), provides an understanding of the prophet and his times.


First of the 12 Minor Prophets, whose book is included in the Prophets section of the Bible. According to the Book of Hosea, he experienced his revelations during the reigns of Uzziah (769-733 BCE), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (727-698 BCE), kings of Judah, and during the reigns of Jeroboam II and Menahem, kings of israel (784-737 BCE). The only information on his personal life is contained at the beginning of the book, where he is commanded in a vision to marry a harlot and thereby symbolize Israel's disloyalty to God. He thereupon marries Gomer, who bears him three children. It is not clear, however, whether these details are historical or symbolic.

The Book of Hosea is one of the longest books of the Minor Prophets. It is composed of 14 chapters and 197 verses. The first three chapters compare Israel's flirtation with the Phoenician god BAAL to an adulterous wife's flirtation with her paramours. These transgressions are to be punished by the cessation of the land's fertility and the abolition of all joyous festivals. However, this is linked to a prophecy of consolation. Hosea 4-14 (which some modern scholars suggest come from a different hand from the first three chapters) contains oracles addressed to the Northern Kingdom during the reign of King Menahem (746-737 BCE). The prophet regards Israel's alliances with foreign powers as disloyalty to God and condemns Israel for not "knowing the Lord." He stresses that immoral acts are not mitigated by the culprits' performance of religious rituals; on the contrary, their immorality makes such religiosity an abomination. He is the first prophet to declare that the worship of God at a number of altars is an abomination (Hos. 4:13; 8:11). Hosea prophesied to the Kingdom of Israel, although some of his prophecy was directed toward the Kingdom of Judah as well. The Talmud (Pes. 87a) states that Hosea, isaiah, amos, and micah all prophesied at the same time, and that the greatest of the four was Hosea.


Bible Guide: Hosea (Hoshea)
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("may the Lord save")

(The Hebrew Bible mentions five different persons named Hoshea. The KJV and subsequent English versions call the prophet, Hosea, and the others Hoshea.)

Hosea the prophet was the son of Beeri (Hos 1:1). The information that Hosea experienced his revelation during the reigns of Uzziah (769-733 B.C.), Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah (727-698 B.C.), kings of Judah (Hos 1:1) appears to contradict the continuation of the verse which states that Hosea experienced prophetic revelation during the reign of Jeroboam II son of Joash (784-748 B.C.). The two statements have been explained as a conflation of the dates given to Isaiah in Isaiah 1:1 and to Amos in Amos 1:1. According to Hosea 1:2, the prophet's inaugural vision commanded him to marry a harlot and thereby symbolize Israel's disloyalty to the Lord. Hosea thereupon married Gomer, who bore him three children, given the symbolic names Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi (Hos 1:3-9). In a later vision, Hosea was commanded to befriend a woman who, while befriended by a companion (i.e., the prophet), consorts with others, just as the Lord befriended the Israelites; "who look to other gods" (Hos 3:1). Hosea then contracted with an unnamed woman that she should "not play the harlot" nor "have a man" for a long time (Hos 3:2). This arrangement is said to symbolize a period during which Israel would be without a king or any cultic installations (Hos 3:4). Thereafter Israel will repent and be duly rewarded (Hos 3:5). No further biographical information about Hosea is contained in the Bible.

Concordance
Hos 1:1-2


 
Hosea (hōzē'ə, -zā'ə), prophetic book of the Bible. It relates something of the career of the prophet Hosea who preached against the sins of the northern kingdom of Israel in the third quarter of the 8th cent. B.C. The collection opens with an account of Hosea's marriage to the prostitute Gomer and his apparent remarriage to her after she has deserted him, to show God's love for Israel, a wayward and adulterous nation. Then come oracles against the apostasy and moral decadence of the people. These are followed by oracles of judgment tempered with the promise of restoration. Though the nation has proven itself ungrateful and undeserving, God will not let his people go. However, the new beginning foreseen by the prophet presupposes a return to the desert.

Bibliography

See D. Stuart, Hosea-Jonah (1987); J. Limburg, Hosea-Micah (1988).


Wikipedia: Hosea
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Russian icon of the prophet Hosea, 18th century (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia).

Hosea (Hebrew: הוֹשֵׁעַ, Modern Hošeaʿ Tiberian Hôšēăʿ ; "Salvation of/is the Lord", Greek Ὠσηέ = Ōsēe) was the son of Beeri and a prophet in Israel in the 8th century BC. He is one of the Twelve Prophets of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, also known as the Minor Prophets of the Christian Old Testament.

We know practically nothing about the life or social status of Hosea but According to the Book of Hosea, he married the prostitute Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, at God's command. He lived in the Northern Kingdom in the period 780–725 BC. In Hosea 5:8 ff., there is a reference to the wars which led to the capture of the kingdom by the Assyrians (ca. 734–732 BC). It is not certain if he has also experienced the destruction of Samaria, which is foreseen in Hosea 14:1.

Hosea's family life reflected the "adulterous" relationship which Israel had built with polytheistic gods. His children's names made them like walking prophecies of the fall of the ruling dynasty and the severed covenant with God — much like the prophet Isaiah a generation later. Hosea is often seen as a "prophet of doom", but underneath his message of destruction is a promise of restoration. The Talmud (Pesachim 87a) claims that he was the greatest prophet of his generation, which included the more famous Isaiah.

Christian thought

One of the early writing prophets, Hosea used his own marital experience as a symbolic representation of God and Israel: God the husband, Israel the wife. Hosea's wife left him to go with other men; Israel left the Lord to go with other gods. Hosea searched for his wife, found her and brought her back; God would not abandon Israel and brought them back even though they had forsaken him.

The book of Hosea was a severe warning to the northern kingdom against the growing idolatry being practiced there; the book was a dramatic call to repentance. Christians extend the analogy of Hosea to Christ and the church: Christ the husband, his church the bride. Christians see in this book a comparable call to the church not to forsake the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians also take the buying back of Gomer as the redemptive qualities of Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross.


Observances

He is commemorated with the other Minor prophets in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31. He is commemorated on the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, with a feast day on October 17 (for those churches which follow the Julian Calendar, October 17 currently falls on October 30 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). He is also commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (the Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord).

External links


Best of the Web: Hosea
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Some good "Hosea" pages on the web:


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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Encyclopedia of Judaism. The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more
Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hosea" Read more

 

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