“From chapter 4 of Hosea onwards, it is clear that the prophet is operating in a divisive and violent political context. The chapters include none of the opulence detested by Amos, rather describing loss of direction and general horror. Hosea’s prophecies are those of a man who lives among his people, and experiences with them the demise of their shared home. When reading these chapters one can’t help but feel the loss of direction. Hosea senses the drastic toppling towards the abyss and tries to stop it until it is too late, and hope is lost.”
Rabbi Benny Lau, Eight Prophets (Amichai Lau-Lavie, translation)
Hosea’s legacy consists of being a tragic witness to the gradual decay of his nation, on the one hand, and as holder of firm faith in the possibility and power of repentance and repair -on the other hand. Some of his ideas on these notions of Teshuva - return to balance despite personal and public ruptures - will become key teachings in Jewish lore. The third unique feature of his legacy is the re-examination of the relationship between the people and God - offering us new and challenging theological concepts, as seen in the first three chapters that are likely reflective of his latter years.
Hosea does not look to piety as an essential step towards social balance - it’s the other way around. Like some of the other prophets we’ve already met he is hurting the greed, corruption, immorality and in justice that dominate Israelite society. Even as the Assyrian war drums are nearing, the people are mired in their own petty vices - and it’s this societal ill that renders their religiosity deceptive and useless:
שִׁמְע֥וּ דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֖ה בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּ֣י רִ֤יב לַֽיהֹוָה֙ עִם־יוֹשְׁבֵ֣י הָאָ֔רֶץ כִּ֠י אֵין־אֱמֶ֧ת וְֽאֵין־חֶ֛סֶד וְאֵֽין־דַּ֥עַת אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּאָֽרֶץ׃
אָלֹ֣ה וְכַחֵ֔שׁ וְרָצֹ֥חַ וְגָנֹ֖ב וְנָאֹ֑ף פָּרָ֕צוּ וְדָמִ֥ים בְּדָמִ֖ים נָגָֽעוּ׃
Hear the word of YHWH,
O people of Israel!
For YHWH has a case
Against the inhabitants of this land,
Because there is no honesty and no goodness
And no devotion to YHWH in the land.
False swearing, dishonesty, and murder,
And theft and adultery are rife;
Blood touches blood.
Hosea 4 1:2
Even the word blood here may refer to money. Violence is easily led to from greed.
The prophet’s warnings are not directed at anyone specific in this chapter - he’s lamenting publicly, for priests and people alike. There will be no pursuit of God if human abuse is rife, he warns. Perhaps he means that little love of what unites us truly can emerge when people are busy pursuing power and making profits rather than making life better, and kinder, to each other.
Rabbi Lau writes:
“Already in the first verses of his prophecy he can see the yawning abyss that will engulf the kingdom and hear the cries of grief emerging from the land upon which the people dwell in ignorant confidence.”
It’s impossible, and painful, to hear Hosea’s 2,800 year old words without their current echoes of ‘ignorant confidence.”
How does this immoral state of collective mind impact the wellbeing of the nation and its harmony with its religious core? Badly. Hosea returns to this theme in the following chapter, getting more specific about his target audience - and whose hands are truly guilty of blood upon blood. Again, the echoes are painful and the responsibility of questions remains:
How can we be better at being a society not driven by the greed and guilt of blood-money and power privilege to return to the balance so sought by so many, towards justice and peace, and love?
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