provides an explanation for Hosea’s actions with respect to Gomer. Such a separation would be for the purpose of effecting a change in their relationship, and furthermore, the deprivation would be succeeded by restoration.
“For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim.” The sexual abstinence of Hosea and Gomer is interpreted in v.4. Just like in the case of Gomer, Israel must wait for Yahweh for many days before being restored to Him v.5 and as Gomer was deprived of intercourse during her period of waiting, Israel too will be deprived of six items during her waiting, the six items are King, Prince, Sacrifice, Standing stone, Ephod and Teraphim. These six items can be…show more content… God loves, and the love is not in vain. God is satisfied with nothing but a full response in conversion. Secondly, this verse adds the fact that there is a place in the grace of God for both punishment and deprivation. People are not necessarily demeaned by intended suffering and discipline. Sometimes they are lifted out of the trough of human bitterness and vindictiveness when mercy and love are used to reform the lost and save the abandoned.
Thirdly, the conversion is shown to be total. As in Hos. 1:11“The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel” one must assume that all the children of Israel are here included. God is thus determined to restore the relationship with the children of Israel just as Hosea is determined in his relationship with Gomer.
3. Hosea 3 as a Literary…show more content… His prophetic style is so elevated that it is often difficult to distinguish between his prose and poetry. The theme of marriage is a paramount literary feature not only in Hosea 3, but also in various places in Hosea’s prophecy (Cf. Hos. 2:2-13).
The theme of marriage is intertwined with that of covenant (Hos. 2:18-23, 3:1-5). Due to infidelity, there is need for repentance. Therefore, repentance too becomes a prominent theme in Hosea 3, as well as the need to practice righteousness. This therefore underscores the fact that although Hosea’s prophecies display a wealth of images and literary features (Cf. Hosea 6:4, 9:5, 11:8, 12:11, 13:10), his most characteristic trait is the frequent employment of metaphors and similes.
Anything without significance remains unspoken. This means that the account of Hosea’s marriage is full of riddles. Baffling questions abound in this fiasco: does the third-person account (Hosea 1) refer to a different woman from the one in the first-person account (Hosea 3) narrative, or are they one and the same? If two women are involved, did the first one die or run away before the marriage with the second? Did Hosea marry the second woman at all, or was she only hired as a prostitute? If the two accounts refer to the same woman, is Hosea describing two different experiences? Isa 3 describing a remarriage, perhaps, after a temporary separation? Or is the divine command bound up with the first and only
