Who wrote Hosea, and when?
Hosea son of Beeri. About 750–720 BC, the last decades of the northern kingdom.
Hosea son of Beeri was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel, one of the few writing prophets who came from the north. His book dates his ministry to the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel, which places him roughly between 750 and 720 BC, the final decades before Assyria destroyed Samaria in 722 BC. Little is known of him beyond his marriage to Gomer, which the book describes in chapters 1 to 3. Most scholars accept that the oracles come from Hosea himself, perhaps collected and preserved in Judah after the northern kingdom fell. The Hebrew of the book is difficult in places, which can make some verses hard to translate.
Who was Hosea written to?
The northern kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) in its final prosperous, idolatrous years before Assyria.
Hosea preached to the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim after its leading tribe. Under Jeroboam II the nation was wealthy, secure and religious, but its worship had blended the LORD with Baal, the Canaanite god of fertility, and its shrines at Bethel and Dan used golden calves. Politically it wavered between Assyria and Egypt, paying tribute to one and plotting with the other. After Jeroboam died, six kings ruled in about twenty-five years, and four of them were assassinated. Hosea's hearers thought their prosperity proved God's favour. They did not want to hear that they were an unfaithful wife. The book was later kept and read in Judah as a warning.
What was happening at the time?
Under Jeroboam II Israel was rich and religious, but its worship was mixed with Baal and its politics with foreign alliances. God told Hosea to marry Gomer, who would be unfaithful, so that his own marriage would preach: Israel is the adulterous wife, and God is the husband who will not stop loving her. Assyria destroyed Samaria within Hosea’s lifetime.
Why was Hosea written?
To expose Israel’s spiritual adultery and reveal the depth of God’s covenant love.
Hosea exposes Israel's spiritual adultery and reveals how deeply God is hurt by it and how stubbornly he keeps loving. His own marriage to Gomer becomes the sermon: God commands him to love a wife who leaves him, and to buy her back, because that is what God does with Israel. The book wants readers to recognise idolatry for what it is, a betrayal of a relationship, and to return to the LORD, who heals rather than merely punishes (see chapter 14). It teaches that God desires steadfast love and the knowledge of himself more than sacrifice. In the wider story of the Bible, Hosea's picture of God as a faithful husband to an unfaithful people runs through Ezekiel, the Gospels and Ephesians, and Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 twice.
How to read Hosea today
Start with chapters 1 to 3, the story of Hosea and Gomer, and chapter 11, where God speaks as a parent who cannot give up his child. Chapter 14 closes the book with an invitation to return. The middle chapters are a series of short, sharp oracles that can be hard to follow, so read them in a modern translation and do not worry if some lines stay obscure. Watch for the words love, know and return, and for the way the names of Hosea's children are reversed from curse to blessing. Do not force the marriage story into a full doctrine of marriage; it is a living parable. As you read, pray for the knowledge of God that Hosea longed for, and ask whether anything has quietly replaced him in your loyalty.
The key verse in Hosea
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Passages worth knowing in Hosea
- Hosea 1–3
Hosea and Gomer
Go, love a woman loved by another; the parable of the whole book.
- Hosea 4
No knowledge of God in the land
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
- Hosea 6:1-6
Come, let us return to the LORD
I desire mercy and not sacrifice; quoted by Jesus.
- Hosea 11
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
God’s heart turns within him.
- Hosea 14
Return, O Israel
I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely.
The main themes of Hosea
- God’s covenant love
- Spiritual adultery
- Knowledge of God
- Judgment and mercy
- Return
An outline of Hosea
| Section | Chapters |
|---|---|
| Hosea’s marriage | 1–3 |
| Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s love | 4–14 |