Hosea: 785 B.C. - 14 Chapters and 197 Verses

Hosea  •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 12
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This prophet lived and exercised his ministry during one of the darkest periods of Israel's history—a period extending through the reign of several sovereigns (Hos. 1:11The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. (Hosea 1:1)). He was contemporary, or at least partly so, with the prophets Isaiah, Micah, Joel, and Amos. The kingdom of Israel (or ten tribes) was rapidly drawing to its end. Idolatry, murder, and usurpation were crimes exceedingly prevalent in Israel during the reigns of the kings noted in Hos. 11The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. (Hosea 1:1); and the Assyrians were becoming as troublesome to the ten-tribed kingdom by their repeated invasions, as the Babylonians subsequently to the house of Judah. Hosea, Amos, and Jonah prophesied when Assyria was in the very zenith of its glory. Our prophet anticipates the ruin of Israel by the Assyrian, as later the ruin of Judah by the Babylonian. "He is filled with the afflictions and the guilt of Israel as a whole, and more than any other of the twelve shorter prophets breaks forth into passionate and renewed grief over the people."
For about 60 years Hosea energetically warned of sure and coming judgments upon Israel, upon Judah, and also upon the whole nation as such, but omits all prophetic mention of the Gentiles either for blessing or for judgment. There are many exceedingly bright predictions of Israel's glorious future, such as in Hos. 2:14-2314Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 15And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 16And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. 17For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 19And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. 21And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. 23And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. (Hosea 2:14‑23). Ephraim, or the ten tribes, and Samaria, the capital, are particularly specified as the objects of Divine judgment.
GENERAL DIVISIONS.
1.-The dispensational ways and dealings of God with His earthly people set forth under striking prophetic symbols. Hos. 1.-3.
2.-Moral appeals to the conscience of the nation as a whole, to Israel and to Judah severally, in view of their sins. Hos. 5.-14.