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mother [Israel], plead. The word plead (riv)is often used as a technical term for a legal

trial. But this is no legal trial. This pleading—not with the judge, but with the

mother!—is entirely conversant with covenant law, which by the motive clause addresses

the heart (Exod. 22:21; 23:9); it fits well the concept of the law and the prophets.

The reason for pleading is the unfaithfulness of mother Israel: she is not my wife;

I am not her husband (Hos. 2:2). The intent of the pleading is that mother Israel put away

her whoring, her adultery, her violation of covenant relationship with Yahweh by

worshiping Baal gods (cf. Exod. 20:2-6). At stake in the pleading is the life of mother

Israel; the technique law of retribution for adultery demands that Yahweh kill her(Hos.

2:3; cf. Deut. 22:22), and have no pity on her children (2:4). This first paragraph ends

with mother Israel’s confession: her action, going after her lovers, is caused by her

confused theological thinking: I will go after my lovers; they give me my bread and my

water, my wool ... my flax, my oil ... my drink (2:5).

But pleading in itself is not sufficient. The three therefore’s of this soliloquy

introduce three paragraphs which indicate the further procedures that Yahweh will take to

achieve the goal of Israel’s repentance, or change of character (Hos. 2:6, 9, 14). The first

of these paragraphs presents disciplinary action: Yahweh will block Israel’s paths to her

lovers by “thorn-hedges” and “walls,”so that she is not able to overtake or find her

lovers (2:6-8). Hopefully, this discipline plus the pleading might cause her to get her

theology straight and to repent: I will go and returnto my first husband, for it was better

with me then than now. But remember that this is a soliloquy; knowing God is not

achieved by prophetic pleading and Yahweh’s disciplinary action.

The second therefore introduces more stringent measures (Hos. 2:9-13). Perhaps

it marks the change of the message of the eighth century prophets. Instead of

proclaiming this or that passing judgment, these prophets warn: The end has come upon

my people Israel (Amos 8:2). The paragraph includes seven first person pronouns of

God’s activity: Yahweh will take back, take away gifts; expose Israel (in military

defeat?), put an end to festivals, etc. This sketch ends by naming the essence of Israel’s

sin: Israel went after her lovers, and forgot me, says Yahweh. Worship of the storm gods

of the ancient NE, whose kingship law undergirds their way of communal life, is to turn

one’s back upon Israel’s personal, covenant God, covenant between God and people

(Exod. 24:3-8).

But this soliloquy ends with a third therefore. (Hos. 2:14-20). A forgiving God

cannot forget Israel. In this and following paragraphs, only the language of love is used.

Yahweh allures Israel into the wilderness for a new beginning. There Yahweh will speak

tenderly to her. Out of this relationship, Yahweh will again give gifts. And Israel will

respond as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. This time, beyond

judgment, the relationship will be different. Yahweh will take Israel as a wife forever, in

righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy and faithfulness.

This third therefore defies human logic. It is divine logic. Specifically how

Yahweh will accomplish this turnaround, Hosea does not say. But Hosea knows that to

effect this change in relationship will not be easy, even for Yahweh. In his analogy of

Israel as a wayward son, he exposes Yahweh’s conflicting emotions:

How can I give you up, Ephraim? . . . .
My heart recoils withi my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
For I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath (Hos. 11:8-9).

God’s grace is not cheap—at least not for God!

Yahweh’s Covenant Forgiveness as Paradigm for Hosea’s Family Experience

Hosea 3, written autobiographically, returns to the theme of chapter 1:2-9, the

prophet’s individual experience with Yahweh. With that chapter, it forms an envelope

around chapter 1:10-2:23 (Hebrew, 2:1-25), Israel’s communal experience with Yahweh.

This experience is symbolized by the reversal of names. By his own broken family

experience, Hosea identifies with Yahweh’s broken relationship with Israel (1:2-9; 2:1-

14). Now, Yahweh’s healing of that broken relationship forms the pattern for Hosea’s

renewed attempt at reconciliation with Gomer (2:15-23). Yahweh says, Go love a

woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just asYahweh loves the people of Israel,

though they turn to other gods ... (3:1; cf. Exod. 22:21; 23:9).

It is not my intention here to deal with such legitimate questions as ancient

Israel’s inequalities in the marriage relationship (cf. Gen. 3 for a narrative of the fall of

the family, espec. v. 16). My only point is that Israel’s experience ofGod’s love at the

center (Hos. 2:14-23) motivates and models Hosea’s attempt to change his family

relationship: from retribution and punishment to forgiveness and rehabilitation. We saw

this transforming effect of the Sinai motive-model clause upon law as applied to the

alien: You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were

aliens in the land of Egypt (Exod. 23:9; cf. 20:2). Instead of death and retribution, the

word is Nachfolge Jahwe, to imitate Yahweh’s redemptive act for Israel.

Hosea bought Gomer back for what may have been the price of a slave

(Wolff:61). If so, this surely must have prompted Israelite readers to remember their

redemption from Egypt (cf. Hos. 2:15). The mixed payment—shekels, barley, and

wine—may suggest that he gathers up all his resources to make this transaction. Grace is

not cheap even on the human side, the side of Hosea, man of faith.

But grace is not cheap for Gomer either. Just as Yahweh lures Israel into the

wilderness for a new bonding, so Hosea says to his wife, You must remain as mine for