24 Nov. Introduction to Hosea’s prophesy
“The LORD spoke his word to Hosea son of Beeri during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.”
“When the LORD began speaking through Hosea, the LORD said to him, ‘Go and marry an unfaithful woman and have unfaithful children, because the people in this country have been completely unfaithful to the LORD.’ So Hosea married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Hosea’s son.”
“The LORD said to Hosea, ‘Name him Jezreel [meaning ‘God plants’] because soon I will punish the family of Jehu for the people they killed at Jezreel. In the future I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel and break the power of Israel’s army in the Valley of Jezreel.’”
“Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. The LORD said to Hosea, ‘Name her Lo-Ruhamah [meaning ‘not pitied’] because I will not pity Israel any more, nor will I forgive them. But I will show pity to the people of Judah. I will save them, but not by using bows or swords, horses or horsemen or weapons of war. I, the LORD their God, will save them.’”
“After Gomer had stopped nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. The LORD said, ‘Name him Lo-Amni [meaning ‘not my people’], because you are not my people, and I am not your God.’”
“’But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called “You are not my people”, but later they will be called “children of the living God”. The people of Judah and Israel will join together again and will choose one leader for themselves. They will come up from the land, because the day of Jezreel will be truly great.’”
(Hosea 1:1-11)
The Book of Hosea contains prophetic messages spoken by Hosea between c.750 and c.725BC - shortly after Amos's prophesy and before the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. Hosea likens the unfaithfulness of God’s people to his own disastrous marriage to an unfaithful wife.
Hosea prophesied a short time after Amos, during the reigns of Uzziah (Azariah) (767-737BC), Jotham (747-731BC), Ahaz (731-716) and Hezekiah (727-699) in Judah, and Jeroboam II (782-741) in Israel (see 2 Kings 14:21-15:7, 15:32-16:20, 18:1-20:21).
In his prophesy, Hosea decried the way in which the people of Israel had deserted the LORD like an unfaithful wife, and had followed foreign gods: “When the LORD began speaking through Hosea, the LORD said to him, ‘Go and marry an unfaithful woman and have unfaithful children, because the people in this country have been completely unfaithful to the LORD.’” (Hosea 1:2)
In the following chapter, Hosea continued his plea for Israel to stop chasing foreign gods: “Plead with your mother." [i.e. with Israel] "Accuse her, because she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute, to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.” (Hosea 2:2)
In particular, Hosea decried the Israelites for worshipping the Baals: “I will punish her for all the times she burned incense to the Baals. She put on her rings and jewellery and went chasing after her lovers, but she forgot me!” (Hosea 2:13)
The photo (by Marie-Lan Nguyen) shows a stele of Baal with a thunderbolt (in the Louvre Museum in Paris).
You can read more of Hosea’s prophesy @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/38-amos-hosea-amp-micah-pan-israel-amp-judah/hosea-laments-the-unfaithfulness-of-israel/