Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Yahweh accuses Israel of corruption, murder, licentiousness, and idolatry.

II. Photo
God laments Israel’s debauchery: “Wine and new wine destroy the mind of my people!” (vv. 11b-12a)

III. Important Verses
1-2: Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel! For the LORD has a case Against the inhabitants of this land, Because there is no honesty and no goodness And no obedience to God in the land. [False] swearing, dishonesty, and murder, And theft and adultery are rife; Crime follows upon crime!
3: For that, the earth is withered: Everything that dwells on it languishes — Beasts of the field and birds of the sky — Even the fish of the sea perish.
13-14: They sacrifice on the mountaintops And offer on the hills, Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths Whose shade is so pleasant. That is why their daughters fornicate And their daughters-in-law commit adultery! I will not punish their daughters for fornicating Nor their daughters-in-law for committing adultery; For they themselves turn aside with whores And sacrifice with prostitutes, And a people that is without sense must stumble.
15: If you are a lecher, Israel — Let not Judah incur guilt — Do not come to Gilgal, Do not make pilgrimages to Beth-aven, And do not swear by the LORD!
17: Ephraim is addicted to images — Let him be. Ephraim is addicted to images — Let him be.

IV. Outline
1a. Introduction: God’s lawsuit against Israel
1b-2. Israel’s sins
3. Consequences: drought
4-6. God rejects Israel as his “priest”
7-10a. The people’s feasts
10b-14. Intoxication, idolatry, fornication
15-19. A warning for Judah to not be influenced by Ephraim

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://www.thecarltonrestaurant.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Wine-Toast.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary

Hosea pays a prostitute to abstain from sex in order to convey the message that the Israelites will return to Yahweh.

II. Photo
Hosea hires a prostitute: “Then I hired her for fifteen [shekels of] silver, a homer of barley, and a lethech of barley” (v. 2)

III. Important Verses
(the entire chapter)
vv. 1-5: The LORD said to me further, “Go, befriend a woman who, while befriended by a companion, consorts with others, just as the LORD befriends the Israelites, but they turn to other gods and love the cups of the grape.”  Then I hired her for fifteen [shekels of] silver, a homer of barley, and a lethech of barley; and I stipulated with her, “In return, you are to go a long time without either fornicating or marrying; even I [shall not cohabit] with you.” For the Israelites shall go a long time without king and without officials, without sacrifice and without cult pillars, and without ephod and teraphim. Afterward, the Israelites will turn back and will seek the LORD their God and David their king — and they will thrill over the LORD and over His bounty in the days to come.

IV. Outline
1. God tells Hosea to find a promiscuous woman
2-3. Metaphor: Hosea tells the woman to abstain from sex
4. Lesson: Israel will be without civil and religious infrastructure
5. The people will return to God

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mfIXg7TGqPw/TC4-Lf1vIEI/AAAAAAAAGpM/Xvm8oj3B2UQ/s1600/Barley+Salad+005.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Yahweh testifies against Israel, promises to punish it, and vows to renew his marriage to it.

II. Photo
God testifies against his wife: “And she did not consider this: It was I who bestowed on her the new grain and wine and oil!” (v. 10a)

III. Important Verses
4-7: Rebuke your mother, rebuke her — For she is not My wife And I am not her husband — And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts. Else will I strip her naked And leave her as on the day she was born: And I will make her like a wilderness, Render her like desert land, And let her die of thirst. I will also disown her children; For they are now a harlot’s brood, In that their mother has played the harlot, She that conceived them has acted shamelessly — Because she thought, “I will go after my lovers, Who supply my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.”
10-11: And she did not consider this: It was I who bestowed on her The new grain and wine and oil; I who lavished silver on her And gold — which they used for Baal. Assuredly, I will take back My new grain in its time And My new wine in its season, And I will snatch away My wool and My linen That serve to cover her nakedness.
14-15: I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, Which she thinks are a fee She received from her lovers; I will turn them into brushwood, And beasts of the field shall devour them. Thus will I punish her For the days of the Baalim, On which she brought them offerings; When, decked with earrings and jewels, She would go after her lovers, Forgetting Me — declares the LORD.
18-19: And in that day — declares the LORD — ¶ You will call [Me] Ishi, And no more will you call Me Baali. For I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth, And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name.

IV. Outline
1-3. Israel and Judah will one day call each other “my people” and “lovingly accepted”
4-7. Declaration: Israel was adulterous
8-15. God will ruin Israel’s agriculture because they turned to Baal
16-25. Israel will once again become God’s wife

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://en.wikivisual.com/images/a/a6/US_long_grain_rice.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Hosea begets three children with a prostitute named Gomer and names them Jezreel, “not pitied,” and “not my nation” because Samaria will fall in Jezreel, is not pitied by Yahweh, and is not Yahweh’s nation.

II. Photo
God has a message for Hosea: ““Go, get yourself a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom; for the land will stray from following the Lord.”  (v. 2b)

III. Important Verses
1: The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and in the reign of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel.
2-4:  When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, get yourself a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom; for the land will stray from following the LORD.” So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She conceived and bore him a son, and the LORD instructed him, “Name him Jezreel; for, I will soon punish the House of Jehu for the bloody deeds at Jezreel and put an end to the monarchy of the House of Israel.
6-9: She conceived again and bore a daughter; and He said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah; for I will no longer accept the House of Israel or pardon them. (But I will accept the House of Judah. And I will give them victory through the LORD their God; I will not give them victory with bow and sword and battle, by horses and riders.)” After weaning Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then He said, “Name him Lo-ammi; for you are not My people, and I will not be your [God].”

IV. Outline
1. Introduction to the book
2a. Superscription
2b. God tells Hosea to beget children with a prostitute
3. Hosea marries Gomer who gives birth to a son
3-5. God tells Hosea to name him Jezreel, the place where Israel will be defeated
6a. Hosea and Gomer have a daughter
6b. God tells Hosea to name her “not pitied”
7. Judah will be spared
8a. Hosea and Gomer have a son
8b. God tells Hosea to name him “not my nation”

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://www.lifeinitaly.com/files/iStock_000001941981Small.jpg