Table Of ContentH O S E A
Readings: A New Biblical Commentary
General Editor
John Jarick
H O S E A
Second Edition
Francis Landy
S P P
HEFFIELD HOENIX RESS
2011
Copyright © Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011
First published by Sheffield Academic Press, 1995
Published by Sheffield Phoenix Press
Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield
Sheffield S3 7QB England
www.sheffieldphoenix.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or any information storage
or retrieval system, without the publisher’s permission in
writing.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Typeset by Vikatan Publishing Solutions, Chennai, India
Printed by
Lightning Source Inc.
ISBN 978-1-905048-98-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-905048-99-1 (paperback)
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition and Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
Hosea 1.1–2.3 13
Hosea 2.4–25 25
Hosea 3 47
Hosea 4 53
Hosea 5 71
Hosea 6 86
Hosea 7 97
Hosea 8 113
Hosea 9 126
Hosea 10 142
Hosea 11 157
Hosea 12 168
Hosea 13.1–14.1 181
Hosea 14.2–10 197
Select Bibliography 207
Index of Authors 213
Index of References 215
Preface to the Second Edition
and Acknowledgments
This is a revised edition of my original commentary on Hosea,
published in 1995. It differs from the first edition in a number of
ways. I have provided a translation for each chapter. Translation
of Hosea is an impossible task, since the meaning is dependent
on multiple ambiguities, and much is totally obscure. I have
avoided, insofar as is possible, representing the ambiguities in
the translation, for instance by putting alternatives in brackets,
and I have not attempted to communicate the power of the poetry.
The translation is simply to enable the reader to follow how I am
interpreting the text, without resorting to translations like the
NRSV or the NJPS, which are very different.
Secondly, I have redivided the chapters so as to coincide with
those of the Hebrew text. There was no literary justification for
my original decision to make chs. 4-7 into three units, with
demarcations at 5.7 and 6.6. The text can be read in many ways,
and conventional chapter divisions are as good as any.
Thirdly, I have updated the commentary, so as to take into
account recent scholarship. Since the commentary was originally
published, several important literary studies have appeared,
notably those by Sherwood, Keefe and Morris. Of recent commen-
taries, I have been most indebted to Ben Zvi and Macintosh. Ben
Zvi’s commentary in the Forms of Old Testament Literature
(FOTL) series is unique for its very close attention to wordplays
and allusions and its assumption of a sophisticated original
readership. Ben Zvi also ascribes the entire composition to literati
in 5th century Jerusalem, for whom the fate of the northern
kingdom was a distant if instructive memory. This is not a view
I have adopted in this commentary, in which I try to maintain
both an 8th and a 5th century perspective. However, fundamen-
tally I am not interested in original readerships. For me, the
book is the work of a poet, trying to make sense of a world on the
eve of destruction, in brilliant, jarring, and recondite language.
This is not a work that could ever be understood, since its subject
viii Preface to the Second Edition and Acknowledgments
is both mysterious and mystical, the fateful encounter of God
and humanity. Equally, like much of the greatest poetry, it is
written in the face of death, a skirmish in the struggle between
language and silence, meaning and non-meaning. To quote
Hélène Cixous, “to begin (writing, living) we must have death…
the writers I love above all are of the dying-clairvoyant kind”
(Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing pp. 7, 63).
The Readings series is intended to liberate contributors from
the constraints of conventional commentaries, such as engage-
ment with the history of scholarship and from institutional
interests. It encourages free interpretive play, acknowledging
that all interpretations are partial and ideologically motivated.
It thus has a certain postmodern aura, in that it is less interested
in historical veracity and original meaning than in the imagina-
tive possibilities the text opens up. I am not convinced, though,
that this is the whole story. For as readers, we have a responsi-
bility to the poet and the world for which the poet speaks. I am
not sure I have been successful; recent studies have shown me
many other possibilities. However, throughout I have tried to
avoid the temptation of paraphrase. It is not my job to translate
the poetry into language accessible to the modern reader and
into simple and acceptable messages. Instead I wish to convey
how problematic it is; its aesthetic power, its beauty and horror;
how metaphors and other figures of speech complicate meaning,
and how they become instruments for the subversion of one’s
implicit understandings of the world. And I have tried to write
as well as I can.
Some of my assistants have departed this life. In particular,
Frances is pursuing her literary career in a different feline
world. Zilpah is still with us, but resting on her royalties. Our
family has grown with the addition of our son, Joseph, and
several pets, but, apart from Joseph, none shows any literary
propensities. I remain grateful to the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada, who helped to fund
some of the work; to the Phoenix Press and to the series editor,
John Jarick, for offering to republish this work and for assist-
ance and advice; to my research assistant, Timothy Langille; to
Linda Bridges, for retyping missing material; and, as ever, to my
wife, Bennett Matthews, for making life worthwhile.
February 19th, 2008
List of Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
AV Authorised Version
BN Biblische Notizen
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
ETL Ephemerides theologicae lovanienses
ETR Etudes théologiques et Religieuses
FOTL Forms of the Old Testament Literature
HAR Hebrew Annual Review
HB Hebrew Bible
HR History of Religions
JANES Journal of the Near Eastern Society of Columbia
University
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JNWSL Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages
JSJ Journal of Jewish Studies
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
NJPS Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. The New JPS Translation
according to the Traditional Hebrew Text
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
OTWSA Die Ou Testamentiese Werkgemeenskap in Suid-Afrika
PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly
RevExp Review and Expositor
RevScRel Revue des sciences religieuses
SBL Society of Biblical Literature
SEA Svensk exegetisk arsbok
SJOT Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
TQ Theologische Quartalschrift
VT Vetus Testamentum
ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
