Hosea and Amos

Hosea and Amos

1. Two Parts

   • chs 1-3
     • Description of Hosea's marriage
       • Hos 1:2 was Gomer a prostitute? Sexual and marital metaphors- God:husband Israel:wife Adultory:Idolatry
         • Gomer- a victim of violence or victim of a metaphor? Is violence within a marriage acceptable (cf Exek 16,23) Must women identify themselves with either the male Hosea or the female prostitute? How do these metaphors influence our views of marriage?
   • chs 4-14
     • Divine oracles
       • Hosea's message of judgement
         • There are glimmers of hope: God's honeymoon with Israel in the wilderness (9:10) Israel's corruptness goes a long way back. God's ambivalent feelings; compassion and wrath (11:8-9) The people have sinned and must suffer the consequences but God's love for her makes it hard for him to punish thiem. God is willing to change his mind in the face of repentance (6:11, 7:13)
           • BUT as the situation gets steadily worse, in the end there is no turning back; Judgement is coming regardless of the people's action (13:14)

2. Born: Tekoa in Judah Prophecied: in Bethel

   • Focuses on the internal politics- never mentions Assyria
     • Davidic Royalist-was he critical of the cult in Bethel?
       • probably not, no textual support

3. Outline of the book

   • 1:3-2:16 Oracles against the nations of Damascus, Gaza, Tyrus, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and Israel
     • chs 3-6 General judgement over Samaria
       • chs 7:1- 8:3 four visions and Amos' meeting with the high priest of Amaziah in Bethel
         • chs 8:4- 8:13 Judgement of social oppression and exertion
           • ch 9 universal vision, final judgement and redemption
       • Election= responsibility, no excuses for misconduct
         • glimmer of hope in 6:15
     • God is universal, the people are condemned for crimes against humanity

4. Themes of Amos

   • Social Justice
     • The leaders and their wives are condemned for living in luxury and for their copious drinking
   • Condemnation of the cult in Bethel
     • The day of the Lord is no reason for celebration: foreboding of judgement rather than confidence in salvation, God prefers righteous living to sacrifices

5. Amos the visionary and intercessor

   • God shows Amos 5 visions (7:1, 7:4, 7:7, 8:1, 9:1)
     • Visions
       • 1st- locusts
         • Plea: forgive, Jacob is so small Response: God changes his mind
           • BUT had the locusts finished their destruction before Amos' intervention (7:2)
       • 2nd- fire
         • Plea: Please stop, Jacob is so small Response: God changes his mind
       • 3rd- plumb line
         • Hebrew=lead or tin
           • Suggestion, tin is a reference to the Assyrian military power- Sennacherib boasts of having increased the amount of tin in his weapons to make it stronger
             • No plea but a divine declaration "I will no more pass them by"
       • 4th- basket of summer fruit
         • word play: 'summer' and 'end' cf Jer 1:11-12
           • No plea but a divine declaration "I will no more pass them by"
       • 5th- God's punishment
         • no one will survive
           • an original member of the series, fits well with the military content of the 3rd vision, the final result of God's punishment
     • Amaziah calls him a seer (7:12)
   • The visions create an impression of dread rather than deliver a promise and a timetable of destruction

6. Hosea the man: Nothing known about background or occupation

   • Faithless wife: Gomer (1-3)
     • children with sad names Jezreel (stands for bloodshed and punishment), Unloved and Not my people

7. Criticism of contemporaries

   • Lack of faithfulness, no knowledge of God, attack on the priests, attack on foreign policy, attack on social injustice
     • Attack on the king. 1 Dissolution of the modern monarchy 2. Opposition in principle to any form of human kinship. 3. Divine right of the Davidic dynasty of Judah