The Final Strand of Smoke

Hosea 13:11

Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him)

Jan 23, 2024

In his final chapters Hosea Son of Be’eri lives through the bitter end, sees the last bit of smoke blowing through the chimneys of the homes of Samaria, from the altars of its temples, before the forced exile expels them all.

This chapter is no consolation. This is an angry dirge - disappointed, disillusioned, dire.

And he does not hide his rage against Samarian society and how its smug greed and narrow politics overcame justice and common sense and brought it on itself.

He’s likely speaking these words as Samaria is two or so years into the Assyrian siege, the king already prisoner, and the end is near.

He blames the people for their folly but he points an accusing finger at the failing leadership - not just the failure of king Hosea ben Ella, the last one to hold the line, but the entire institution. No more monarchy for Israel, and YHWH never liked the idea anyway.

Though it isn’t clear entirely - was it the very institution of monarchy to which YHWH objected, or its misappropriation by these specific kings who brought the kingdom to its final humiliating chapter?

Hosea blames both king and elite for their excess and for the fact that by being drunk with power, refusing to pay taxes to Assyria and relying instead on their own strength - they forget both God’s will, the real needs of the people, and the reality of the bigger world:

כְּמַרְעִיתָם֙ וַיִּשְׂבָּ֔עוּ שָׂבְע֖וּ וַיָּ֣רׇם לִבָּ֑ם עַל־כֵּ֖ן שְׁכֵחֽוּנִי׃

“When they grazed, they were sated;

When they were sated, they grew haughty;

And so they forgot Me.”

לָכֵ֗ן יִֽהְיוּ֙ כַּעֲנַן־בֹּ֔קֶר וְכַטַּ֖ל מַשְׁכִּ֣ים הֹלֵ֑ךְ כְּמֹץ֙ יְסֹעֵ֣ר מִגֹּ֔רֶן וּכְעָשָׁ֖ן מֵאֲרֻבָּֽה׃

“Assuredly,

They shall be like morning clouds,

Like dew so early gone;

Like chaff whirled away from the threshing floor.

And like smoke from a chimney.”

It’s impossible to read these woeful words today and not think of the many images of exiles, broken shards, burning buildings, silent altars, shattered lives, evidence of our impermanence and fragility, here today, gone tomorrow.

The chimneys that keep on fueling the planet’s demise, fossil fuels and all types of industrious suicide - are these not also the ones Hosea is still railing against but the kings of industry refuse to hear?

On a collective level, Hosea’s use of dew, chaff, clouds and smoke lands heavy, trauma laden, smokey and dense with despair. We each bring our own context to these images and what of them is seared in our souls.

Who’s to blame, the mad prophet wails, and points at the empty throne where sat the last king of Israel before taken prisoner.

In his last verses the prophet rails on, echoing the divine disappointment at Israel’s bad choices:

אֱהִ֤י מַלְכְּךָ֙ אֵפ֔וֹא וְיוֹשִׁיעֲךָ֖ בְּכׇל־עָרֶ֑יךָ וְשֹׁ֣פְטֶ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֔רְתָּ תְּנָה־לִּ֖י מֶ֥לֶךְ וְשָׂרִֽים׃

Where now is your king?

Let him save you!

Where are the chieftains in all your towns

From whom you demanded:

“Give me a king and officers”?

The prophet points at an empty sky, where the last whiff of smoke from the last chimneys is drifting away, and laments the loss of the life his people knew.

No king, no temple, no land to call home, the only thing left is some sort of hope that the surviving refugees will take these prayers for repair with them on the road -- that this is not the end of the story.

Smoke will once again rise from chimneys to signify return and warmth and home.

But not yet. For now, the prophet says, there is an empty sky, and the last verse of this chapter is an image of a whirling wind, plundering whatever treasures left behind in empty homes by the exiles, “Every lovely object.”

The fate of either Hosea the king or Hosea the prophet is unknown.

All gone. Like smoke.

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Below the Bible Belt

The Final Strand of Smoke

Hosea 13:11

In his final chapters Hosea Son of Be’eri lives through the bitter end, sees the last bit of smoke blowing through the chimneys of the homes of Samaria, from the altars of its temples, before the forced exile expels them all.

This chapter is no consolation. This is an angry dirge - disappointed, disillusioned, dire.

And he does not hide his rage against Samarian society and how its smug greed and narrow politics overcame justice and common sense and brought it on itself.

He’s likely speaking these words as Samaria is two or so years into the Assyrian siege, the king already prisoner, and the end is near.

He blames the people for their folly but he points an accusing finger at the failing leadership - not just the failure of king Hosea ben Ella, the last one to hold the line, but the entire institution. No more monarchy for Israel, and YHWH never liked the idea anyway.

Though it isn’t clear entirely - was it the very institution of monarchy to which YHWH objected, or its misappropriation by these specific kings who brought the kingdom to its final humiliating chapter?

Hosea blames both king and elite for their excess and for the fact that by being drunk with power, refusing to pay taxes to Assyria and relying instead on their own strength - they forget both God’s will, the real needs of the people, and the reality of the bigger world:

כְּמַרְעִיתָם֙ וַיִּשְׂבָּ֔עוּ שָׂבְע֖וּ וַיָּ֣רׇם לִבָּ֑ם עַל־כֵּ֖ן שְׁכֵחֽוּנִי׃

“When they grazed, they were sated;

When they were sated, they grew haughty;

And so they forgot Me.”

Hosea 13:6

The result of King Hosea’s politics would be disastrous. Hosea the prophet paints the future horror picture of a people exiled from their familiar settings, gone as if they were not there at all:

לָכֵ֗ן יִֽהְיוּ֙ כַּעֲנַן־בֹּ֔קֶר וְכַטַּ֖ל מַשְׁכִּ֣ים הֹלֵ֑ךְ כְּמֹץ֙ יְסֹעֵ֣ר מִגֹּ֔רֶן וּכְעָשָׁ֖ן מֵאֲרֻבָּֽה׃

“Assuredly,

They shall be like morning clouds,

Like dew so early gone;

Like chaff whirled away from the threshing floor.

And like smoke from a chimney.”

Hosea 13:11

It’s impossible to read these woeful words today and not think of the many images of exiles, broken shards, burning buildings, silent altars, shattered lives, evidence of our impermanence and fragility, here today, gone tomorrow.

The chimneys that keep on fueling the planet’s demise, fossil fuels and all types of industrious suicide - are these not also the ones Hosea is still railing against but the kings of industry refuse to hear?

On a collective level, Hosea’s use of dew, chaff, clouds and smoke lands heavy, trauma laden, smokey and dense with despair. We each bring our own context to these images and what of them is seared in our souls.

Who’s to blame, the mad prophet wails, and points at the empty throne where sat the last king of Israel before taken prisoner.

In his last verses the prophet rails on, echoing the divine disappointment at Israel’s bad choices:

אֱהִ֤י מַלְכְּךָ֙ אֵפ֔וֹא וְיוֹשִׁיעֲךָ֖ בְּכׇל־עָרֶ֑יךָ וְשֹׁ֣פְטֶ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֔רְתָּ תְּנָה־לִּ֖י מֶ֥לֶךְ וְשָׂרִֽים׃

Where now is your king?

Let him save you!

Where are the chieftains in all your towns

From whom you demanded:

“Give me a king and officers”?

Hosea 13:10

The prophet points at an empty sky, where the last whiff of smoke from the last chimneys is drifting away, and laments the loss of the life his people knew.

No king, no temple, no land to call home, the only thing left is some sort of hope that the surviving refugees will take these prayers for repair with them on the road -- that this is not the end of the story.

Smoke will once again rise from chimneys to signify return and warmth and home.

But not yet. For now, the prophet says, there is an empty sky, and the last verse of this chapter is an image of a whirling wind, plundering whatever treasures left behind in empty homes by the exiles, “Every lovely object.”

The fate of either Hosea the king or Hosea the prophet is unknown.

All gone. Like smoke.