Hosea

Hosea is the twenty-eighth book of the Bible and the first of the twelve minor prophets, called minor because the books are short, not because the prophets were less important. The book is traditionally attributed to the prophet Hosea, who prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BC, in the decades before its destruction by Assyria in 722 BC.

The book opens with one of the most striking commands in the Bible. God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer, who will be unfaithful to him. The marriage is intended as a living parable. Hosea's unfaithful wife stands for Israel, and Hosea's persistent love for her stands for God's love for an unfaithful people. Hosea and Gomer have three children whose names are also prophetic messages.

Gomer leaves Hosea and ends up enslaved. God tells Hosea to buy her back, an act of public love and humiliation that parallels what God will do for Israel.

The remaining chapters are mostly poetry, alternating warnings of coming judgment with passages of grieving love. Israel is described as a faithless wife, a foolish dove, a stubborn calf, a vine planted in good soil but yielding bad fruit. The judgment will come; the exile will happen; but the love will not end. The book closes with an invitation to return, and a promise that God will heal Israel's faithlessness.