Criswell Theological Review 7.1 (1993) 51-66
[Copyright © 1993 by
digitally prepared for use at
Gordon and
THE USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IN
THE BOOK OF HOSEA
MARK E ROOKER
Introduction
In recent
years there has been an avalanche of studies which have
analyzed the
way the New Testament writers cited and interpreted
the Old
Testament.1 This research has been augmented significantly
by the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, where the sectarian authors
at
fulfillment of
prophetic texts in contemporary events. The methods
employed by
NT writers and other Jewish groups in interpreting and
quoting the
OT perhaps cannot be fully appreciated and understood
apart from
earlier practices. As M. Fishbane has shown in his
work
Biblical
Interpretation In Ancient Israel,2 the practice of citing ear-
lier canonical texts may be observed in the OT
itself. Fishbane has
provided a
comprehensive survey of the possible ways the OT texts
may have
used earlier traditions. This area of investigation has bear-
ing not only for the history and technique of
exegetical methods used
by the
NT writers and other Jewish interpreters, but also has im-
plications pertinent to the acceptance of biblical
books as canonical
1 E.g., see WC. Kaiser, Jr., The Uses of the Old Testament in the New (
Moody, 1985)
1; I. H. Marshall, "An Assessment of Recent Developments," in It
is Writ-
ten:
Scripture Citing Scripture, Essays in Honour of
Barnabas Lindars, SSF; eds. D. A.
Carson and
H. G. M. Williamson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 1-2
and R.
B. Sloan, "The New Testament Use of the Old Testament" in Reclaiming
the Pro-
phetic Mantle, ed. G. L. Klein (Nashville: Broadman,
1992) 129-59.
2
52 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
Scripture.3
In this essay Hosea's use of earlier OT texts will be ana-
lyzed. The arrangement for the textual examination
will proceed
along the
canonical order of the texts used in Hosea. The analysis will
begin with
the narrative texts used in Hosea and then analyze Hosea's
use of
legal passages.4
Hosea's Use of Old Testament Narrative
Texts
It has long been recognized that the prophet Hosea was very
familiar with
the earlier narrative writings of the OT. Indeed, Hosea
is
considered by many as the most historical of all the OT writing
prophets due
to acquaintance with previously written narrative texts.5
Primeval
History
Although the creation account from Genesis is not frequently dis-
cussed in
prophetic literature (in comparison, say, to the Exodus), we
do find
in Hos
account of
Genesis 1. In Hos
make a
covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of
the air
and the creatures that move along the ground." The animals
listed in
this verse occur in the same order as in Gen
cerned with providing sustenance for the
animals. Supplying animals
with food
is also what is under consideration in Hos
erence to the animals from Gen 1:30 in the
restoration passage of Hos
sions He promised to
series of
animals in Hos
turn to
the harmony that existed in creation as the animal kingdom is
to be
maintained.7
3 W C.
Kaiser, Jr., "Inner Biblical Exegesis-as a Model for Bridging the 'Then'
and
'Now' Gap: Hos 12:1-6," JETS 28 (March 1985) 34; and L. M.
Eslinger, "Hosea 12:5a and
Genesis 32:29: A Study in loner Biblical Exegesis," JSOT
18 (1980) 91.
4 This
is not to deny that Hosea was familiar with other portions of the OT. Kauf-
mann, for example, contends that Hosea alludes
to specific texts in OT Wisdom Litera-
ture. See Y. Kaufmann, History of the
Religion of Israel 4 vols. (Jerusalem: Bialik,
1956)
3. 112-113,
122 (in Hebrew).
5
Kaufmann, History, 122-23. Similarly, S. McKenzie, "Exodus Typology
in Hosea,"
Res Q 22 (1979) 100; and D. R Daniels, Hosea
and Salvation History (BZAW 191; Ber-
lin.
6 Wolff states that this text is the first reference to the concept
of the new covenant.
H. W Wolff, Hosea
(Hermeneia: Fortress, 1974) 51. He also states that
the text recalls
Gen 1:30. Ibid.
7 See L
E. McComiskey, "Hosea," in The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and
Expository Commentary, ed. L E. McComiskey (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 1992) 47.
Another
Mark E Rooker: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE BOOK OF HOSEA 53
An additional reference to the animals found in the creation ac-
count in
Gen 1:30 occurs in Hos 4:3. In this passage, in
response to vari-
ous covenant violations by the inhabitants of
the
the
Israelites are described as being in a state of despondency. These
sins
affect not only the human inhabitants of the nation, but also have
an
effect on the animal world. We are told the beasts of the field and
the
birds of the sky waste away as a consequence of
fulness, while the fish of the sea disappear.8
The fact of the animals' de-
struction is further emphasized in the presentation
of the animals in
a
chiastic arrangement when compared with the order of Gen 1:20-24.
These
animals from the three spheres of land, sky, and sea represent
the
entire animal kingdom. Hosea's chiastic arrangement suggests that
the
creation order is being undone or perhaps subject to reversion due
to the
enormity of
God will
establish in the restoration in Hos
Yet this is not the only occasion Hosea indicates that he was fa-
miliar with the narrative content of the Book of
Genesis. The next texts
we will
examine from Genesis are from the Patriarchal Narratives.
Patriarchal
Narratives
In an announcement regarding the future restoration of
Hosea states
that the quantity of the reinstated nation is comparable to
the sand
on the seashore: "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the
seashore,"
MyAha lOHK; lxerAW;yi-yineB;
rPas;mi (mispar bene yisra'el kehol hayyam
Hos
dependency on
God's promise to Abraham in Gen 15:5 and 22:17.10
The
expression provides a clear example of the borrowing of a prom-
inent phrase drawn from the promise to the
nation via the Patriarch
which is
now applied to the future reinstalling of Israel Hosea is also
familiar with
other passages from the patriarchal narratives. The next
reference to
the early chapters of Genesis may occur in Hos 10:8
where in judgment
upon the
high places of Aven "thorns and thistles"
will grow. This is possibly an allusion
to the
specific effects of sin mentioned in the curse in Gen 3:18. McComiskey,
"Hosea",
and R C.
Chisholm, Jr., Interpreting the Minor Prophets (
8
Because the fish are also destroyed, Ehrlich maintains that this judgment is
more
severe than the judgment the world experienced in the global flood when only
land
creatures were destroyed. A B. Ehrlich, Mikra
Ki-Peshuto 3 vols. (
1969) 3. 367 (in Hebrew).
9 M. Deroche, "The Reversal of
Creation in Hosea," VT 31 (1981) 403.
10
day,
1980) 202; and C. H. Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic
Books
(Chicago: Moody, 1986) 99.
11 The
new covenant blessing is harmonious with the Abrahamic
promise as Paul
notes in
Galatians 3.
54 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
discussion
moves from the citing of a phrase in the Patriarchal narra-
tive to an allusion to a larger narrative
context, Gen 25:11-35:22.
In Hosea 12 the prophet discusses disobedience and the threat of
divine
punishment for the
propensity to
rebel against God, Hosea suggests that
is
characteristic behavior. Even Jacob, their forefather, displayed un-
faithfulness. In Hos 12:2-4, 12 [MT=3-5, 13] we
read:
The Lord has a charge to bring against
cording to his ways and repay him according to
his deeds. (v 2)
In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled
with
God. (v 3)
He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged
for
his favor. He found him at
Jacob fled to the country of
for her he tended sheep. (v 12)
There is
good reason to suggest that these verses from Hosea 12 are
dependent on
the earlier narrative account recorded in Gen 25:11-
35:22. Hos 12:3a mentions that Jacob grasped his brother by the
heel.
The source
for this information is surely recorded in Gen 25:21-26,
particularly Gen 25:26 where Jacob is described as holding onto the
heel of
Esau as he comes from Rebekah's womb.12
The next half of v 3 mentions another defining event of Jacob's
life, the
account of Jacob wrestling with God (recorded in Gen 32:22-
32). In 12:4 [MT=5] we discover with interest the comment that
the be-
ing with whom Jacob wrestled was in fact an
angel. Kaiser comments
on the
explanation:
Now even though Genesis 32 does not mention an "angel"
but simply re-
fers to a "person" (32:25) who in v
29 is identified as Elohim, there is no
reason to doubt its authenticity in this text.
In fact the glossing of God
with "angel" eliminated the offensive anthropomorphism that
would
otherwise portray the incorporeal God of the
universe wrestling in hand
combat with a mere mortal like Jacob.13
Regardless,
the occurrence of the key verb "prevailed" (lKaUy, yukal
12:4 [MT=5])
borrowed from Gen. 32:29 renders Hosea's dependency
on this
Genesis narrative indisputable.14
The reference to Jacob's weeping and begging favor in Hos 12:4 [5]
is not
as easy to pinpoint in the narrative account of Jacob's life found
in
Genesis. Yet the clear allusion to the narrative of Genesis in the pre-
12 Daniels,
Hosea and Salvation, 42-43.
13
Kaiser, "Inner Biblical Exegesis," 39-40.
14
Andersen and Freedman maintain that the use of this verb in the two passages
is the
strongest verbal link between the two texts. Andersen and Freedman, Hosea,
608.
Mark E Rooker: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE BOOK OF HOSEA 55
vious phrases causes us to suspect that the
Genesis narrative is the
source for
this more problematic phrase.15 It has been suggested that
the
cause is to be found in the occurrence of the two Hebrew roots hkB
(bkh) and gH (hg)
in Genesis 33. That chapter records Jacob's meeting
with Esau
and the occurrence of the same two Hebrew roots found in
Hosea 12. This
explanation has been advocated by
and
Kaiser.16 Eslinger nicely summarizes the
point of Hosea's refer-
ence to the Jacob account:
In 12:3, Hosea makes formal announcement of Yahweh's dispute with
con-
temporary
in a confrontation with Yahweh, just as long before the messenger
had
struggled with Jacob and prevailed. . . . Just as
Jacob had wept and sup-
plicated to Esau (Hos
12:5ab, Gen 33:4, 10) after submitting to God and the
malak, so Hosea suggests,
The analogy
is meaningful only if we assume that the character of the
nation was
consistent with the behavior of its ancestry.18 The audi-
ence would be reminded of the Patriarch's
"character defect"19 which
they
inherited and which they now unmistakably exhibit. We now
move from
discussion of Hosea's use of narrative from the Book of
Genesis to
other narratives from the Torah, specifically the narratives
recording the
Exodus and wanderings from the Books of Exodus and
Numbers.
Exodus-Wanderings Narrative
The records of the Exodus from
Israelites
in the desert were clearly accounts known to Hosea as evi-
denced by his frequent reference to these
salient events.
In the first chapter of Hosea, where God directs the prophet to
marry a
wife of harlotry (1:2), the children born to the union are given
names
which forecast the impending punishment which God is about
15 Thus
reasons McKenzie. See S. L. McKenzie, "The Jacob Tradition in Hosea xii
4-5," VT 36 (1986) 314-16. For the amazing number of verbal
correlations between Ho-
sea 12
and the Genesis account, see Fishbane, Biblical
Interpretation, 378.
16 W.
L. Holladay, "Chiasmus, The Key to Hosea XII
3-6," VT 16 (1956) 56; S. L.
McKenzie,
"The Jacob Tradition in Hosea xii 4-5," VT 36 (1986) 314-16;
and Kaiser,
"Inner Biblical Exegesis; 40. See Kaiser's helpful charts on 40-41 for
a comparison of
the
Hosea and Genesis accounts.
17 Eslinger, "Hosea 12:5a and Genesis 32:29," 94-95.
18 D. Kimchi, Miqra'ot
Gedalot, 5 vols. (Jerusalem: Eshkol,
1976) 4. 300a (in
He-
brew);
Kaiser, "Inner Biblical Exegesis," 44-45; McKenzie, "The Jacob
Tradition; 317;
and Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation 376-377, 422-23,
426.
19
56 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
to
bring upon the nation. God tells the prophet the reason he is to name
the
third child Lo-Ammi is because "you are not my
people, and I am
not your
god," Mk,lA hy,h;x, xlo
ykinoxAv; (we'anoki lo' 'ehyeh, 1:9). The state-
ment is clearly a reversal of God's
declaration of what was to com-
mence in a special way at the Exodus: "I
will take you as my own
people, and
I will be your God," Myhiloxle Mk,lA ytyyihAv; (wehayiti lakem
le'lohim, Exod 6:7).20 More precisely, the last phrase in Hos 1:9,
Mk,lA hy,h;x, xlo, "I am not your people," is a
wordplay21 on Exod 3:14
where God
discloses his name to Moses in commissioning Moses to be
his
emissary before Pharaoh. The negation of the phrase in Hosea in-
dicates that
Stuart
explains the Hosean reference in light of Exod 3:14:
Yahweh himself refers here to the first person form of the name,
harking
back to the ancient original use of the first person from Exod 3:14. Why?
Because the first person form was that associated with the
tradition of
initiation of the covenant. Yahweh was withdrawing
the very covenant he
so dramatically initiated via the revelation of his name and is using
the
same form of the name he used to Moses.22
The meaning
of the name implied that upon his deliverance of the
Israelites
at the Exodus God would henceforth preside with the
ites. Hosea's negating of the name, however,
indicated that the
ites' rebellion against God will bring this
special relationship to an end.
Sanchez-Centina illustrates the significance of the phrase in his
trans-
lation: "I am not I-AM for you."23
Explicit references to the Exodus deliverance include Hos 2:15,
(MT=17);
12:9, (MT=10), 13, (MT=14); 13:4; and possibly 11:1.24 Pas-
sages such
as Hos 12:9 and 13:4 include the phrase "I am
the Lord thy
God from the
Other
passages such as Hos
at
least
20 The
statement expresses the essence of the covenant relationship. G. Von Hans-
Jurgen Zobel,
"Hosea und das Deuteronomium," TLZ
110 (1985) 16.
21
Andersen-Freedman, Hosea, 197-99; F: C. Fensham,
"The Marriage Metaphor in
Hosea," JNSL 12 (1984) 76.
22 D Stuart, Hosea-Jonah (Waco: Word, 1987) 33. Hartom and Cassuto also recog-
nize that many maintain this formula in Hosea
to be a reference to the account of Exo-
dus 3. A
(Jerusalem: Yavneh Publishing House,
1973) 10 (in Hebrew).
23 E.
Sanchez-Centina, "Hermeneutics and Context: The
Exodus," in Conflict and
Context:
Hermeneutics in the
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 170. Similarly, Bullock, Prophetic
Books, 99.
24 See
McKenzie, "Exodus Typology," 100-108.
Mark F Rooker: THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE BOOK OF HOSEA 57
turn to
Egypt.25 Hoffman has noted well the significance of the abun-
dant reference to the Exodus-wanderings theme
in the Book of Hosea
in
reference to the hope motif in Hos
The new eternal covenant (ii 14-15), which is depicted using some escha-
tological motifs, is believed to begin with a
renewal of the exodus events;