The book of Hosea consists of Hosea’s sermons, and anonymous visions of Israel’s future. The author is referred to as Hosea throughout, for simplicity.

1. God instructs Hosea to marry an unfaithful wife because the 'land is guilty of adultery' (a reference to the people worshipping other gods). So Hosea marries Gomer and has a son with her. God instructs Hosea to name him Jezeel because He will soon punish the house of Jehu for a massacre at Jezeel. When Gomer gives birth to a daughter God instructs Hosea to name her ‘Lo-Ruhamah’, which means ‘not loved’ as God no longer loves Israel. When Gomer gives birth to a second son God instructs Hosea to call him ‘Lo-Ammi’, which means ‘not my people’ as the Israelites are no longer God’s people. One of the most idiotic parts of the Bible: God telling his prophet to marry an unfaithful woman on purpose because of the peoples' ‘spiritual adultery’, then naming the first child after a massacre, the next the repulsive name ‘not loved’, and the next ‘not my people’. Either God is the most selfish being in the cosmos, Hosea is an imbecile for listening to the voices in his head, or the author thinks this fiction is necessary to make the point that we should obey God even when his instructions are stupid, vain, and to the detriment of our children. The most likely explanation, however, is that Hosea constructed this fiction because he saw a corollary between his wife’s adultery and his pain, and the sins of Israel and the pain of his imagined God.

2-3. God instructs Hosea to reconcile with his wife and love her, just as He plans to love Israel. In the previous section God says they are ‘not his people’, now he loves them. Any moment now He’ll want to put them all to the death.

4-5. Hosea charges the people of Israel with unfaithfulness. They have ignored the law of God, the priests feed on the peoples' sins (a reference to sin or guilt offerings presumably), and the people worship other Gods. Hosea accuses them of prostitution, pursuing idols, and giving birth to illegitimate children, and says that God will ‘tear them to pieces’. Different metaphor, but my prophesy just came true.

6-14. Hosea pleads for the people to return to God, and lists the additional sins of theft, lust, deceit, and rebellion. Hosea says that the day of reckoning is at hand. Because of their wickedness, God will give the women ‘wombs that miscarry, and breasts that are dry’. Hosea refers to wickedness as a lack of wisdom and understanding of Jehovah. Hosea pleads for a return to love and justice, then says that for their sins God will ‘attack them and rip them open’, and, ‘They will fall by the sword’; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open’. Despicable.

If this is love and justice, it’s a very sick idea of love and justice. The love of the God of the Old Testament is a very conditional love. It’s conditional on blind obedience and faithfulness. And to what? … A jealous, passive-aggressive, vengeful, hateful, and bloodthirsty deity. More idiocy and sick revenge fantasies.

Back to Daniel. Forward to Joel.