Our Jewish Heritage
Dr. Lenore C. Kipper, Judaic Studies Director Emerita
After Torah: Time for Tanach, The Books of the Bible
The Book of Hosea
About fifteen years after Amos, a new prophet was heard in the northern kingdom of Israel during the middle 8th century BCE. The kings of Israel were involved in the politics of the era between Assyria and Egypt. The people fell back into idolatry, worshipping the images of the Golden Bull and offering sacrifices to the nature deities. Even the priests were not loyal to their tasks. They did not give the people instruction in the Torah or the knowledge of Adonai. They did not raise their voices against the evils that filled the land with corruption, violence, and injustice. Israel was collapsing from within. Hosea heard God’s message calling him to be a messenger to the people. Hosea’s task was to warn the people of the terrible punishment that would follow if they continued their evil practices. He spoke of the need for Israel’s repentance and God’s love of mercy. He believed that when Israel would mend their ways and return to the paths of righteousness and decency, God would forgive them.
Hosea’s Story
Hosea teaches his message with a story about his personal life. He tells us that God instructs him to marry Gomer, a promiscuous woman. This relationship became the metaphor for his message to the people. The text tells us that Hosea and Gomer had three children, but Gomer was unfaithful and sought other lovers. Because of his great love for her, he found her in a slave market being sold by one of her lovers, and he purchased her and took her back home. He expressed God’s relationship to Israel through this symbolic marriage. As Hosea had loved Gomer, so God loved Israel. As Gomer had forsaken Hosea for other lovers, so Israel had been unfaithful to God and Torah. But as Hosea could not abandon the wife he loved, God would not destroy Israel. They would be sent into exile to redeem themselves, and then God would restore them to the land.
Concluding message
Hosea believed that as he had taken back his unfaithful wife, God would take back Israel, purified through their suffering in exile. God and Israel would be reunited in a renewal of the covenant, a relationship of faithfulness and love. “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. Now my anger has turned away from them…and on that day it shall come to pass, that you shall call Me, My husband, I will betroth you to Myself forever, in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and in mercy. On that day I will make a covenant for Israel…You are My People, and My People shall say, You are our God.”
The Book of Micah
The prophet Micah prophesied during the time of King Hezekiah, 739-693 BCE. This was a time of prosperity and wealth for the kingdom of Judah. It was also a time of greed, dishonesty in the marketplace, corruption in leadership, and false prophets. After writing most of the first three chapters denouncing sin and predicting the fall of Samaria in the north and Jerusalem in the south, Micah then talks about a future vision for Judah. His quotes are very well known and universal, even though he is speaking to the people of the kingdom. “But in the last days, it will come to pass, that the mountain of God’s house will be established…and many nations will come and say: Come, let us go up to God’s mountain…and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths…for out of Zion will go forth the law and the word of God from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many peoples, and will decide among strong nations far off, and they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Each person will sit under his fig tree and vine, and none shall make them afraid.
God has told you what is good and what the Eternal One requires of you…To do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”
All of these quotes are so relevant for our time. In the first one, you will recognize it from the Torah Service. Isaiah and Micah both use the vision of a time of peace when nations shall no longer wage war. These words are also on the UN building in New York. Unfortunately, these ancient words of peaceful times between nations have not yet been achieved. Nevertheless, it is part of our tradition to keep these words alive and continue to have the hope for peace, for Israel, for all nations that continue to threaten each other.
I encourage you to read the full text of the book of Micah!
B ‘Shalom,
Lenore