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258 Proper 13 [18]/Year C
Proper 13 [18]/Year C
Hosea 11:1–11+ (Semicontinuous)
Hosea’s prophecy has to do with the political and military chaos that
reigned between Israel and Judah and between the two of them and
Assyria after the time of the reign of Jeroboam in Israel and Uzziah in
Judah. Today’s reading speaks to a situation in which some citizens of
Israel, the northern kingdom, have been taken into exile. Military conflict
is going on in the cities of Israel: “The sword rages in their cities, it consumes
their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes” (v. 6);
soon they will be taken captive: “They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king” (v. 5). “Egypt” functions symbolically to
point to a place of oppression, much as “exile” or “Babylon” would later
serve as stand-ins for Roman occupation.
Our passage follows a diachronic movement in four parts: (1) deliverance
from Egypt in the exodus (vv. 1–4); (2) return to “Egypt . . . because
they have refused to return to me” (vv. 5–7); (3) YHWH’s “tender compassion”
for the people (vv. 8–9); and (4) the ingathering of scattered Israel
(vv. 10–11).
Verses 1–4 metaphorically refer to YHWH as a tender mother who loves
her child, Israel. The compassionate yearning of a husband for a straying
wife, Hosea’s earlier way of talking about God and Israel, is replaced with
the image of a mother who was “like those who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed [suckled] them” (v. 4). YHWH’s profoundly
personal love for Israel is emphasized: “I loved him . . . I called my son . . .
it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms . . . I led
them with cords of human kindness . . . I bent down to them and fed them”
(vv. 1–4). Hosea sees into the heart of God’s womblike love for Israel (“compassion,”
rachamim, derives from rehem, “womb”). Hence, “out of Egypt I
called my son” (v. 1), a line memorably cited by Matthew in the story of the
return of the Holy Family from Egypt (Matt. 2:15).
Verses 5–7 tell of how the warfare initiated by Israel in alliance with
Assyria against Judah has resulted in the exile of the northern kingdom.
The subjects of the sentences are now the people, not God: “they shall
return to the land of Egypt . . . my people are bent on turning away from
me” (vv. 5, 7). Hosea indicts them for their refusal to be faithful to the Lord
and indicates that return to a land of oppression is the consequence of their
option for war and conflict. Now, in their extremity, they remember God:
“To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all” (v. 7b).