Hosea 6:4–7:16

6:4–6 Once again in the book of Hosea the heart of the Lord is revealed as the reader is made privy to the inner deliberations of the infinite God. Despite the fact that he is the Creator who knows the end from the beginning, this depiction of God is intended to convey something true about his dealings with his people when they sin against him. God’s feelings toward Israel are analogous to exasperation toward a faithless spouse: “What shall I do with you?” One thing is certain: even when this people express their love toward God (cf. 6:1–3), he will not put any confidence in their words as long as their deeds betray him.

“Your love [Hb. hesed] is like a morning cloud,” the Lord declares (v. 4). Hesed denotes covenant loyalty or fidelity and thus is most often translated as “steadfast love” in the ESV (cf. v. 6). The trait of hesed is the opposite of Israel’s spirit of whoredom; their interest in Yahweh lasts only a short time before they break his heart once again. The indictment of verse 4 is thus juxtaposed with the ending of verse 3: the Lord’s refreshing goodness is like spring rain watering the earth, but their loyalty is like short-lived dew on the ground.

In verse 5, the Lord speaks of the harm he will bring to Israel. He does this either to get their attention or to punish them, perhaps even as a final judgment against them. Sometimes he raises up powerful nations against them, who ravage them materially, and literally kill many. At other times he sends natural disasters, such as drought, to shake them up and break the hold of other gods over them. But he also “hews” and “slays” them through the words of the prophets.

This is more than hyperbole. Jeremiah 1:9–10 claims that, by the word of the prophet, kingdoms rise and fall—they are established or they perish. God pronounces judgment against Israel through his spokesmen, and thus judgment is assured. Note the parallel drawn between the prophets and “the words of my mouth.” True prophets speak the very words of God and carry as much weight and force as he does.

God’s judgment is like the sun, which dries up the morning mist, revealing Ephraim’s true character. There are numerous areas of corruption in Israel. One is, of course, outright idolatry, worship of Baal and the Canaanite pantheon. Another is the perverted worship of Yahweh at the shrines of the golden calf in Bethel. Yet another is the ethical and moral behavior that renders all forms of worship loathsome to a holy God, even those performed in accordance with the instructions of his Word (Hos. 6:6). Without knowledge of God (a covenant term implying love; cf. 2:20) and steadfast love (hesed), their religious activities are rejected. Their religion is empty, even if they think they are serving Yahweh. In their heart of hearts, they do not want a God who confronts them with their sin. This indictment is a theme throughout the prophets (e.g., Isa. 1:11–17; Amos 5:21).

6:7–11 The word “Adam” (v. 7) is sometimes understood as a reference to a person, so that “transgressed the covenant” would refer to the action of Adam in Genesis 3. But the use of the word “there” in the second half of verse 7 suggests that a place is in view. “Like Adam” would thus mean “Like [they did at] Adam.” The town of Adam was on the east bank of the Jordan River in Gilead, about one-third of the way north between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, near the Jabbok tributary. It is mentioned in Joshua 3:16 as the place where the waters stood in a heap when the Jordan parted.

“They transgressed the covenant” is more woodenly translated “they broke covenant,” that is, they were treacherous against covenant faithfulness, which the Lord takes as an act of treachery against him. But what is the treachery to which he refers? Hosea 6:8–9 might provide the answer, if we understand verse 8 as referring to Adam—which was in the region of “Gilead”—as the “city of evildoers” and verse 9 as describing the act of evil committed there: priests murdering Israelites on their way to Shechem.¹ This would indeed be treachery against the covenant under which Israel lived (Ex. 20:13).

“Ephraim’s whoredom” is in the “house of Israel”—defiling it like a brothel (Hos. 6:10). This is called a “horrible thing,” an unthinkable evil, the ultimate revulsion: the house of God’s people has become a bordello of idolatry.

This passage ends where it begins, with a passing reference to Judah. Verse 11 can be understood in two different ways. The declaration that a “harvest is appointed” may signal that a judgment awaits Judah as well. Those understanding the verse this way sometimes argue that the second half of the verse goes with 7:1: “When I restore the fortunes of my people [6:11b], when I would heal Israel [7:1a], . . .”

Alternatively, both halves of 6:11 can be kept together and understood to highlight that, historically, Judah did not suffer the same fate as Israel; rather, a remnant was restored to continue on in covenant with the Lord. Thus the “harvest” would be a blessing, a restoration of fortunes, and the promise of such would be especially meaningful to the people of Judah during the exile.

7:1–2 These verses contain the first of Hosea’s five references to Samaria. Samaria was the capital city of Israel (1 Kings 16:29) and is probably in mind specifically when feminine imagery of God’s people is used (Israel and Ephraim are usually portrayed as masculine).

The picture of Israel here is characterized by unbridled preying on the vulnerable. To “heal” Israel would be to restore some measure of peace and prosperity to the land (Hos. 7:1). If and when God did this, Israel’s alter ego, Ephraim, and their capital, Samaria, would merely use it as an opportunity to run wild. But their injustices perpetrated against one another, their lies and perjuries, their thievery and robbery, have all been committed before the face of God, even though they are not aware of it (v. 2). God “remembers” it, that is, he takes note of their evil acts and will do something about it.

7:3–10 This passage is a parable of a baking oven. It is used here to describe wickedness occurring at a national level (vv. 3–7) and also at an international level (vv. 8–10).

At the national level, the wickedness appears to center around assassination plots. To understand how the parable applies, it is helpful to note that, in ancient Israel, the type of oven described here would have had a fire inside of it, stoked until the oven was roaring hot. The oven would then have been sealed and its heat would have lasted for hours, with bread baking inside. This is a fitting parable from the perspective of what was going on in Hosea’s day, as the faithless and wicked activities of the assassins burned continually and strongly, like the heat of an oven, “baking” their plots until they came to murderous fruition. Stated differently, a hot oven is a fitting image for aroused emotions of “regicidal fury.”² It is also a fitting parable from a linguistic perspective, since the Hebrew word for “baker” (v. 4) sounds like the words for “adulterer” (v. 4) and “anger” (v. 6).

The word “adulterers” (v. 4) picks up the idea of being faithless to the covenant; the word is used elsewhere in Hosea in the context of idolatry (2:4; 4:13, 14) but perhaps here is used more generally to describe the wickedness of those plotting evil (cf. Jer. 9:2–3). The heat of their wickedness is strong, like the heat of an oven heated so hot that the baker no longer needs to fan the flame; it is hot enough to bake bread, just as the heat of those plotting evil is hot enough to fulfill their murderous plots.

There is much debate concerning Hosea 7:5. The phrase “heat of wine” continues the metaphor of a baking oven, in this context applied figuratively to the heated drunkenness that results from drinking too much. It is less clear what the “day of our king” refers to, who it is that has “stretched out his hand with mockers,” and what exactly that phrase means (it occurs only here in the Bible).

There is also debate surrounding verses 6–7, although here the overall sense is perhaps clearer. With hearts stoked hot, the plotters draw near to their “intrigue” (or “ambush”) (v. 6). They lie in wait, their passion burning blisteringly hot (v. 7). Their political leaders are consumed like fuel in the oven’s fire (v. 7).

Although one particular assassination may have been in mind originally, assassination in general had become the order of the day, encompassing the deaths of most kings of that era. King Zechariah did not call on the Lord. He ruled six months—it took that long for the “bread” (murderous plots) to “rise” against him. Shallum killed him and seized the throne (2 Kings 15:10). Shallum did not call on the Lord. It took only one month for the bread to rise against him. Menahem struck down Shallum in order to rule instead (2 Kings 15:14). Menahem did not call on the Lord. His son Pekahiah ruled after him (2 Kings 15:23). Pekahiah did not call on the Lord. It took two years for the bread to rise against him. Pekahiah’s general, Pekah, assassinated him in a power grab (2 Kings 15:25). Thus, at a national level, red-hot wickedness led again and again to kings and rulers being consumed by violent men; during the entire time, no one called on the Lord for help.

The parable of the oven is then applied to wickedness at an international level (Hos. 7:8–10). Here, Ephraim is “mixed” or “kneaded” among the nations (v. 8). As a baker kneads dough, Ephraim is blended (ethnically or spiritually) with various peoples so as never again to be distinguishable as the people of God. This is not even a judgment God imposed forcibly; they did it to themselves.

They have made themselves an unpalatable mess, like an unturned cake in the oven, one side burned and the other doughy. Despite this failure of cookery, strangers (Assyria) devour any edible morsel (v. 9). It seems that Israel has made foreign alliances but is unaware of how destructive these alliances will be. This lack of awareness is emphasized by the next metaphor: “Gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not,” completely unaware of how weak he has become.

Such weakness and judgment should have led Israel to return to the Lord and seek him, but pride prevented their doing so (v. 10). As in 5:5, such pride will lead to their downfall.

7:11–16 These verses continue to describe the Lord’s people foolishly looking to the nations for help instead of to the Lord, but the metaphor switches from that of a baking oven to that of a silly dove. Birdbrained Ephraim turns to Egypt instead of the Lord and thus is taken to Assyria (v. 11). The image is of a dove that comes foolishly to the ground for food, unaware of its surroundings, and is captured by a net. Historically, Assyria was the net with which God ensnared Israel—just as he said he would (v. 12; cf. 2 Kings 17:6).³

God and his spouse suffer from an estranged relationship. Not only have his people wandered from the truth and rebelled; they also perpetrate lies about him (Hos. 7:13). These falsehoods in particular hold God’s redemption at bay. Perhaps “lies” is a reference to the golden calves that were supposed to represent God, or to some other corrupted act of worship or wrongheaded belief. Perhaps they flow from the simple and common misunderstanding that God would save them if they followed some religious ritual and outwardly honored him without inwardly conforming to his ethical and moral requirements. Whatever it is, they have slandered their covenant partner and King.

What is more, they refuse to call out to him in sincerity and truth (v. 14). Desperate for grain and wine, “they gash themselves,” imitating the Canaanite method of praying (1 Kings 18:28), and thus rebel against the Lord. He had loved them and taught them as a parent does a child (“trained and strengthened their arms”; cf. Hos. 11:1), but they were utterly disloyal and rebellious (7:15).

All along, Hosea has been declaring that the Israelites should “return” (shub) to the Lord. Here they do “return” (v. 16), but not to their God. They are like an unreliable bow, an image used elsewhere in the context of treachery, describing those who fail to do as they are supposed to (Ps. 78:57). Destruction will result, and their allies in Egypt will despise them for it. Yahweh, and Yahweh alone, could have saved them, but he is the one person on whom they refused to call.