A Form-Critical Rereading Of Hosea

This paper proposes a form-critical rereading of Hoseabased upon synchronic literary criteria. Past scholarship generally argues thatthe book of Hosea articulates a message of judgment against Israel in threebasic parts, Hosea 1–3; Hosea 4–11; and Hosea 12–14. Each component begins withmaterial pertaining to Israel’s judgment, but concludes with material pertainingto restoration. This view is based upon redactional-critical criteria, andposits an original core of judgmental material against Israel that has beensupplement and “softened” by later texts concerned Israel’s restoration. Arereading of the book in relation to its formal syntactical and semanticfeatures indicates a very different structure in which an anonymous narratorpresents Hosea’s prophecy are parenetic appeal to Israel to return to YHWH byabandoning its alliances with foreign powers, specifically Assyria and Egypt.Although Hosea’s oracles were originally delivered in the north, the presentform of the book is directed to a Judean audience, and may be read in relationto the reigns of either Hezekiah or Josiah.