Hosea 1-3 Q&A

Last night, there were some questions I wasn’t sure what to say.  Well I had a think and read, and this is what I’ve come up with…

Q. Why is Jezreel suddenly positive in 1:11?

The answer to this one is a little tricky.  In 1:11, there isn’t enough data to say, for sure.  There’s a clear reversal to ALL THREE of the children’s names, but how the Jezreel one works doesn’t actually get explained until 2:21-22.

In 2:22, we meet Jezreel again, but there, we’re given more info.  The trouble is that there’s a Hebrew pun going on!!

Jezreel in Hebrew means “God will sow”, and so the idea is that on the day of Jezreel, God will do the sowing, not the so-called fertility baals.  Have a read of the sections and see if you can spot it.  Whereas the reversal for the other two kids is fairly straightforward, the reversal for Jezreel is subtler, because it involves the Hebrew etymology.

So there you go.  I wish I’d known that on Sunday, but it was one of those things I’d meant to look up and hadn’t.

Q. Is there any particular significance to the ‘betrothed’ language in 2:19-20?

I’m not sure that there’s much to say here except that this is the only place in Hosea that the language of “marry” is actually used.  In other places, it’s things like “go and take a wife” and so on.  I don’t think there’s necessarily anything significant about that…but there might be.  That the ‘betrothal’ language only appears in this very positive context may not be an accident, but it’s hard to make a strong point from it.

Hope that helps…