Covenant love
The book's key word is ḥesed — covenant loyalty, steadfast love. What Israel owes the LORD and what the LORD will not stop giving her.
Old Testament · Book 28 of 66
Hosea
A prophet commanded to marry an unfaithful wife — his marriage becomes the sermon. Fourteen chapters on covenant unfaithfulness and a love that will not let Israel go.
14
Chapters
8th c. BC
Northern kingdom
Mercy not sacrifice
Cited by Christ
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
- Author
- Hosea son of Beeri (1:1)
- Date
- Ministry c. 755–715 BC — the decades leading up to the 722 BC fall of the northern kingdom
- Audience
- The northern kingdom of Israel, with bearing on Judah
- Position
- Old Testament · Book 28 of 66
Structure
- The marriage and the children1–3
Hosea marries Gomer; their three children are named as sermons — Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, Lo-ammi. The marriage enacted is the marriage preached.
- The LORD's controversy with Israel4–14
Oracles against the northern kingdom's idolatry, political faithlessness, and corruption — closing with the great call ‘O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God’ (14:1).
Section pages
Each section is one focused part of Hosea — purpose, key movements, key verses, Christ-in-this-section. Roughly five minutes each.
Themes
Spiritual adultery
Israel's Baal-worship and alliance-making are adultery against her covenant husband. The marriage is the metaphor; the metaphor is Hosea's life.
The call to return
‘Come, and let us return unto the LORD’ (6:1). The book does not end in judgment; it ends in the appeal.
If you only read a few chapters
- 1The marriage commanded‘Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms.’
- 6The call to return‘I desired mercy, and not sacrifice’ — cited by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and 12:7.
- 11‘When Israel was a child’‘Out of Egypt have I called my son’ — the covenant love of a father for Israel, applied by Matthew to Christ (Matt 2:15).
- 14Return, O Israel‘I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.’ The book closes on restoration.