Hosea 2 Research Paper Final Draft

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GEORGE FOX EVANGELICAL SEMINARY
THE UNINTENDED HEROINE:
A DECONSTRUCTIVE REEXAMINATION OF HOSEA 2:1-13
SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR NAM
IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF
BIST 507A OLD TESTAMENT II: LATTER PORPHETS AND WRITIINGS
BY
SHAUN SHORT
MAY, 1, 2014

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Hosea 2:1-13 is undoubtedly one of the most linguistically and theologically challenging
passages of the Hebrew Bible. Woven within a poetical slew of metaphor this text situates
violent and pornographic imagery against a female antagonist, one whose actions do not align
with patriarchal culture and the masculine god that represents it. This paper will firstly examine
the function of the metaphorical language and rhetoric embedded within Hosea 2:1-13 in order to
illumine whom this oracle was originally situated against. Secondly while employing feminist
deconstructionism through a redactional lens greater clarity will be given to the metaphorical
formula and its reactive quality. Leaning on these techniques will ultimately unveil an
unintended heroine within this text, one that emerges amidst the dissonant bias of authorial
intention and comes to represent a self-empowered group of women prostitutes straining against
the violence of patriarchal society.
Dissonant Bias
Before delving into the larger scope of the proposed argument it may be helpful to briefly
define what I intend by the term dissonant bias. I am basing this terminology upon a branching
form of cognitive dissonance. By dissonance I am referring specifically to dissonance in
argument. That is to say a disharmony of terminology or metaphoric application that essentially
becomes undercut by contradiction. For example if someone were to say, “You are like a dog
that deserves beating because you go around beating dogs,” this would indicate (very
simplistically) a dissonant argument. Adding then a congeniality bias, which blindly perpetuates
an argument on certain established norms, to this dissonance, creates what I am in effect calling a
dissonant bias. To further the example, by using a dog as a conduit for metaphor in a negative
sense, because of an accepted cultural devaluation of dogs, to accuse someone of devaluing dogs,
which in greater contextual principle should not be devalued, gives evidence of dissonant bias. It

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is my hope that the way in which the Hosea 2:1-13 oracle employs this dissonant bias will
become clear as the argument unfolds.
Situating the Metaphor of the Oracle: Part I: Function
An exhaustive reproduction of the scholarly history concerning the use of metaphor
within Hosea 1-3 and especially the passage in question is simply far beyond the achievable
scope of this paper.1
Rather what is next presented constitutes the major arguments of
metaphoric allocation within the Hosea oracle throughout the twentieth century and how this
specifically relates to Hosea 2:1-13.
Most early-mid twentieth century scholarly emphasis concerned itself with the
examination of Hosea’s marriage.2
The major point of contention here was the notion that
YHWH could command his prophet to marry a prostitute when Levitcal law expressly forbade
such (Lev 21:7). Consequently methods of interpreting the text to exonerate both prophet and
deity were invented.3
In the process several scholars have labored to provide a case for the real
life punishments of adultery represented in Hosea 2:3-10 and other texts such as Isa 3:17, Jer
13:22-27, Ezek 23:26, and Nah 3:5.4
The fascination with this material was, in part, carried on
into certain scholarly work of the 1980’s.The purpose behind this endeavor has often been to
condone these violent practices as legally justifiable thereby excusing the prophet of his
language and actions and verifying the divine judgment.5
1. For an expanded representation of such see; Brad E. Kelle, “Hosea 1-3 in Twentieth-Century
Scholarship,” Currents in Biblical Research 7.2 (2009): 179-216.
2. Kelle, “Hosea 1-3,” 183.
3. Ibid, 183-184
4. Brad E. Kelle, Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective (Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature Scholars Press, 2005), 62; Peggy L. Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming To Her: Rhetoric and Interpretation
in Ezekiel 16,” Biblical Interpretation 8.3 (2000): 231-254; Anthony Phillips, “Another Look at Adultery,” Journal
for the Study of the Old Testament 20 (1981): 15-16.
5. Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming,” 231-254; Mary E. Shields, “Multiple Exposures: Body Rhetoric and
Gender Characterization in Ezekiel 16,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 14.1 (1998): 5-18.

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The evidence scholars have used to authenticate their findings stems from an
amalgamation of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) texts that supposedly chronicle legal divorce
practices, and specifically adulterous punishment, and so validate the perspective of the biblical
texts in question.6
One of the most influential of these is a Sumerian text (IM 28051) which
scholars such as Samuel Greengus have used to support the above mentioned claims.7
Another is
an Akkadian text which J. Huehnergard cites as specifically dealing with divorce.8
Again, the
purpose here has primarily been to scapegoat the woman in question and thus verifiably
condemn her role as an adulteress and authenticate the violent punishment exacted against her.9
In response to these androcentric readings Peggy Day has constructed a thorough critique
of the punishment imagery in the texts of Hosea 2 and Ezekiel 16.10
The thrust of her argument is
to draw attention to the rhetorical dynamics of these passages and the admonition specifically
directed against the cities in question and their breaching of covenantal agreement with YHWH.
The dominant scholarly view, as Day sees it, to literally interpret this embedded imagery
ultimately conforms to the rhetoric of these texts by maintaining their “unified, male-identified
subject position, while focusing attention and placing blame solely on the woman”.11
As Brad E. Kelle furthers, all the ANE texts commonly cited in support of the
interpretation of the public disrobing as punishment for adultery do not, in all actuality, do so. He
suggests that Greengus alone cites the Sumerian text as connecting stripping with adultery.12
Along with Day and others, Kelle proposes that all the remaining ANE texts mention the wife’s
6. See Kelle, Hosea 2, 61-62 for a detailed assessment of these texts.
7. Samuel Greengus, “A Textbook Case of Adultery in Mesopotamia,” Hebrew Union College Annual 40-
41 (1969-1970): 33-44.
8. Kelle, Hosea 2, 61.
9. Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming,” 243-254; Linda Day, “Rhetoric and Domestic Violence in Ezekiel 16,”
Biblical Interpretation 8.3 (200): 224-227; Shields, “Multiple Exposures,” 5-18.
10. Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming,” 231-254; Peggy L. Day, “Adulterous Jerusalem’s Imagined Demise:
Death of a Metaphor in Ezekiel XVI,” Vetus Testamentum 50.3 (2000): 297-299.
11. Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming,” 252.

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nakedness in connection with initiating divorce, remarrying after her husband’s death, and
property offenses, but that there is no mention of adultery.13
As for the prophetic Biblical texts in
question Kelle stresses that in Isaiah 3:17 there is no adulterous implication whatsoever and the
remaining texts all use metaphor to symbolize a personified female figure.14
Ultimately many will argue that this oracle is constructed of pure metaphor. Its allusive
quality may be seen to represent some imagined punishment for adulterous behavior or perhaps
even the elaborate enticement of a professional prostitute.15
However by excusing this language
as metaphoric and laced with rhetorical dynamism does not make it go away. Simply put, the
metaphor does not soften the gender-specific violence of this oracle. Indeed the clearly over-
embellished description of this punishment within Hosea 2:1-13 only makes the inception of this
imagery more disturbing. As readers we are obliged to acknowledge the authorial dissonance
evident within this oracle. The horrific violence and communal shame the woman is subjected to
and how, after this supposedly righteous punishment, the author expects her to submissively
wander back into the arms of her ‘loving’ partner attest to this dissonant perception.16
However,
by understanding this dissonant bias as the product of an immersive patriarchal culture the first
gleanings of an unintended heroine may be uncovered.
Situating the Metaphor of the Oracle: Part II: Application
Wolff’s proposition for metaphorical origin suggests that the text was set against the
backdrop of a Baal fertility cult. His specific proposal sought to identify Gomer as representative
of all Israelite women who participated in the defloration ritual connected to the Baal cult. The
13. Day “Adulterous Jerusalem’s Imagined Demise,” 285-309; Kelle, Hosea 2, 62; Phillips, “Another Look
at Adultery,” 3-25.
14. Day “Adulterous Jerusalem’s Imagined Demise,” 300; Kelle, Hosea 2, 62.
15. Teresa J. Hornsby, “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing: Re-reading Gomer in Hosea 1-3,” Journal
for the Study of the Old Testament 82 (1999): 115-128; Joan G. Westenholz, “Tamar, Qĕdēsā, Qadistu, and Sacred
Prostitution in Mesopotamia,” Harvard Theological Review 82.3 (1989): 245-265.
16. Linda Day, “Rhetoric and Domestic Violence in Ezekiel 16,” 218-224.

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metaphor subsequently condemns these women of apostate practice.17
Thus for Wolff the violent
language resident within Hosea 2:1-13 becomes a valid expression of righteous punishment.
Although there have been variant interpretations of the significance and purpose of the Baal
fertility cult many scholars latched onto this metaphorical association and carried it on into the
late 1980s.18
From the late 1980s to the early 1990s there arose the perception that the source of
marital imagery within the Hosea oracle stemmed primarily from the preexisting covenant
language between YHWH and Israel.19
As Adler argues there are many similarities between
covenant and marriage. Indeed this covenant imagery seems to have become a popular
understanding for metaphor within certain scholarly circles and indeed within the non-academic
ecclesial setting of post-modernity.20
There are, however, significant issues with such a reading.
Covenant language does not usually occur in tandem with the enactment of marriage and
generally has broader application. Furthermore there is a well-established argument that
covenantal language did not exist prior to the seventh century which would render the initial
inception of this oracle upon these grounds as moot.21
While this metaphorical association has produced a less accusative latching to the
punitive, gender-specific language of Hosea 2:1-13 it still provides no redemptive outcome for
the abused woman. Covenant language has however opened the door to some of the more
contemporary rhetorical interpretation evident within recent feminist scholarship. Gale Yee has
produced an extremely relevant commentary with regard to the function of rhetorical device
17. Hans W. Wolff, Hosea, trans. G. Stansell, Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the
Bible, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974).
18. Kelle, “Hosea 1-3,” 185.
19. Elaine J. Adler, The Background for the Metaphor of Covenant as Marriage in the Hebrew Bible
(Berkley: University of California Berkley Press, 1990).
21. Ibid.

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within Hosea 1-3 as that which signifies the conflict between orthodox and non-orthodox forms
of Yahwism.22
Before attending to Yee’s arguments a look at what Kelle ultimately concludes,
along with others, about the use of metaphor in his reading of Hosea 1-3 and specifically 2:1-13
will prove useful.
John J. Schmitt proposes that the Hosea oracle was directed against the city of Samaria as
opposed to the nation of Israel.23
He draws first upon an impressive array of biblical evidence
which expressly refers to Israel as masculine. Secondly then he reveals a biblical tradition which
situates marital imagery between YHWH and the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem.24
This is
something that both Mary Shields and Peggy Day echo in their rhetorical investigations of
Ezekiel 16.25
Kelle expands this assertion by concluding that there existed a long standing
metaphorical tradition both within and outside the biblical text which personified cities as female
figures.26
For Kelle, though, this is not specific enough and he further suggests that when such
feminine designation occurred it did so within oracles that envisioned violent destruction of the
city in question.
Concerning the Hosea prophecy then the original author draws upon this metaphorical
tradition in order to level his oracle against Samaria and her imminent destruction.27
His reason
for employing these metaphors of fornication and adultery, as Kelle proposes, was to incite
accusation against the ruling elite of Samaria specifically, due to the improper political alliances
they pursued.28
An important point here is that the personification of Samaria as a feminine
22. Gale A. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea: A Redaction Critical Investigation
(Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Scholars Press, 1987); Kelle, “Hosea 1-3,” 185.
23. John J. Schmitt, “The Wife of God in Hosea 2,” Biblical Review 34 (1989): 5-18.
24. Ibid, 5-6.
25. Day “The Bitch Had It Coming,” 231-254; Shields, “Multiple Exposures,” 5-18.
27. Ibid., 94.
28. Ibid., 109.

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entity would have undoubtedly been degrading to the male ruling elites. The force of the
metaphor would have placed this most powerful social group within the context of the most
helpless, the sexually violated female.29
The impetus of such metaphoric attribution would certainly have been felt within
patriarchal society. Bolstered by androcentric conditioning, however, this oracle reveals within
itself further authorial dissonance. By leveling such a prophetic accusation against the elite upon
political grounds suggests a motive that would seek to hold accountable the effects such political
alliances might have had upon the resident populace. If there was indeed some sense of
economic disparagement tied up within the ramifications of foreign alliance then we might
rightly expect the marginalized, including prostitutes, widows, and violently abused women, to
suffer the consequences of this disparagement most of all.30
To use such a figure then as a
conduit for metaphorical apostasy, which was in part originally intended to uphold the rights of
the economically disparaged, reveals a dissonant bias well situated within the patriarchal clime.
As the conduit for metaphorical expression and as an actual unhinged member of patriarchal
society the woman antagonist of the Hosea oracle is doubly abused. Understanding such allows
her to emerge as a true symbol of abuse, an identifiable figure of abandonment and battery and
despite all this a heroine of self-empowerment.
Deconstructional Analysis of the Text through a Redaction Critical Lens
Many prominent scholars such as Yee and Kelle see Hosea 2:1 as functioning alongside
vv 1:10-11 (in the Masoretic Text (MT) v 1:10 constitutes the beginning of the second chapter).
This self-contained unit seems to set off the poetic oracle that follows in 2:2 (2:4 MT), and is
29. Ibid., 94.
30. Such as we might see expressed in sections of the only other original northern prophecy, the Book of
Amos.

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most likely a prologue fashioned at this point in the text by a final redactor.31
As Yee sees it,
Hosea 1-3 is a text that displays four different traditions, branching from an original composer to
collector on to a first and then final redactor.32
Both of the redactors, she claims, seem to have an
agenda akin to the Deuteronomistic Historians and the pattern of Hosea 1-3 thereby coincides
with the double redaction of the Deuteronomistic History (DH).
Much of what Yee attributes to the original written oracle and the collector constitutes the
most violent imagery. It is her assumption that the collector was a pupil of the original author
working with much the same intention of his master during the Hezekiah reform.33
The original
section then begins in v 2 continues through v 5 and in finality includes v 10.34
If we follow
Kelle’s suggestion that the woman in these verses represents Samaria then her children might be
taken to depict the cities inhabitants.35
By then latching Hornsby’s observations to this
distinction and realizing that this language has no marital connotation we may see these
‘children’ emerge as the offspring of a self-autonomous prostitute rather than children of an
adulterous wife. 36
The authorial enticement that follows is that which would lure the woman into
an engagement that plucks her from her self-sustaining profession. Thus even though there is an
indictment against the women for covenant inobservance there may be no direct reference to
marital infidelity. This would sit well with covenant formation that does not latch to a metaphor
of marriage as argued above. By engaging further with this language via a deconstructive
approach, as suggested by Yvonne Sherwood, we may begin to realize that some unintended
31. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea, 71-76.
32. Ibid., 127-130.
33. Ibid., 128.
34. Ibid., 127.
35. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea, 127; Kelle, Hosea 2, 231.
36. Hornsby, “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing,” 119.

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portrayals of an empowered woman arise which may give us insight into the unfolding of
authorial intention.37
There is certainly an authorial reaction to some form of assertive female conduct within v
2. A conclusive examination of the root ‫זנה‬ will have to be undertaken as well as an assessment
of the verse in situ in order to convincingly assert Hornsby’s claim that the woman referenced
here may be a professionally independent prostitute.38
Hornsby has indeed ventured this task
herself and while conversing with P. Bird’s assessment of the roots ‫זנה‬ and ‫נאף‬ she concludes
that the former is used to designate a self-reliant prostitute and the latter a women guilty of
adultery.39
This assertion, however, does not conclusively specify the identify the woman, as she
is described in v 2, as a self-autonomous prostitute because both these nouns appear in tandem
within this verse. This may seem to confound the argument but I wish to propose that given the
poetical nature of this oracle the authorial intent may have been to formulate the semantic quality
of the second noun as based upon symmetrical parallel with the first. Thus instead of reading v
2b: “that she put away her whoring form her face, and her adultery from between her breasts,”
(NRSV) as most translations do I would suggest instead: “that she put aside her markings of
prostitution from upon her face, and her unfaithful luring from between her breasts.” The
unfaithfulness here ascribed would thus fit with a possessive client wishing to coerce the object
of his infatuation from her profession into singular attachment.
To further this it would seem congruent then to attach the non-familial semantic
attribution to ‫אשה‬ and ‫איש‬ as they appear in v 2a, reading thus: “plead with your mother, plead.
37. Yvonne Sherwood, The Prostitute and the Prophet: Hosea's Marriage in Literary-Theoretical
Perspective (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996).
38. Westenholz, “Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia,” 245-265.
39. Hornsby, “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing,” 118-125.

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For she is not my woman and I am not her man.” The jealous pining of the male protagonist is
furthered in v 2b via the expression of self-righteous anger by which he condemns the
identification of the woman’s harlotry upon her face and breasts. As Sherwood suggests, this
chastising language is ultimately self-defeating in its attempts to exonerate the male-accuser
because of its fascination with the alluring visage and breasts of the woman.40
It is important to
note here the tinges of dissonant bias that are evident in the author’s denunciation of harlotry
issued upon the language of sexual objectification.
We can certainly follow the momentum of this dissonance into v 3 where the act of
stripping takes place. The sexual quality of these punitive acts seems to readily embody the
dissonant bias inherent in the retributive justice that would have ‘the punishment fit the crime’.
In fact the punishment goes beyond the ‘crime’ as all of vv 3 and 4 may be seen as a very real
and conclusive threat of destruction. It seems apt that we might follow the possible metaphoric
attribution of this section of the original and collected oracle as that which is situated against the
city of Samaria.41
Here is the common cultural metaphor of stripping a city and laying ‘her’
waste, as well as the abandonment of her inhabitants i.e. children. At the same time however we
may be obliged to see an implicit reaction inherent in this language that speaks out against an
independently active woman straining against patriarchal society. We can further see the vitriol
of this oracle expressed in the complete lack of pity offered to the ‘children of whoredom’ in v 4.
If we consider that this conduit of metaphor subversively chastises autonomous women then we
might realize the brutal finality of such inclemency.
40. Sherwood, The Prostitute and the Prophet, 316.

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In v 5 we may see this female autonomy further expressed through a distorted
lampooning of the rebellious woman.42
She is the subject of all her own verbs and, moreover,
acting as the subject allows for her to pursue her lovers who essentially become objectified. We
should realize a misogynistic parody at work within such language, a potential overreach to
vilify a woman whose insatiable lust compels her to desperately chase after her lovers. This
undesirability of the womanly pursuit, as it would surely have been perceived of in patriarchal
society, potentially undoes the imagery of metaphor.43
If a woman has no ability to seduce or
entice her lovers but rather shamefully chases after them how then is she ultimately able to be
successful in her promiscuity? The oracular intention to display Samaria as an undesirable and
desperate harlot is surely meant to illicit shock and induce reaction from the ruling elite. At the
same time it is fashioned as a rib against a self-sufficient collective of successful women carving
out their autonomous position within patriarchal society.
If verse 10 is the only other remnant of the original oracle then it certainly rounds out the
heavy weight of violent abuse issued upon the vein of androcentircity.44
Here is the climax, a
very explicit uncovering of the female genitalia of the rebellious woman in the sight of her
lovers. To subdue this intentional imagery with innuendo, as most translations do, would seem to
rob it of its potency and eccentrically abusive nature. And if we associate this allusion with the
destruction of Samaria, as Kelle argues, then a violent end is implied. Furthermore the
declaration that none of her political allies will be able to rescue ‘her’ from such destruction
situates the finality of YHWH’s control.45
While appreciating the metaphor I will suggest again
that this language serves to simultaneously function as a subversive authorial desire to fulfill
42. Sherwood, The Prostitute and the Prophet, 312.
43. Ibid.
44. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea, 127.
45. Kelle, Hosea 2, 256-257.

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such enactment against self-empowered women or prostitutes within contextual patriarchal
society.46
Having discussed the verses which constituted the original and collected oracles a brief
examination of the redactional material in this passage will now follow. By turning first to the 1st
redactor, whose additions Yee identifies in 2:8, 9 and 11-13, we may note the shifting of oracular
intention.47
One of the major internationalities perpetuated by the original authors of the DH was
to condemn the crimes of Jeroboam and his northern successors. The impetus of this
condemnation found origin in Jeroboam’s cultic apostasy. His turning away from Yahwism is
labeled his greatest crime. Given to the purpose of Josiah’s reform the original authors of the DH
constructed most of their history around Judean propaganda. There are significant similarities
between the intentions of the original authors of the DH and the 1st
redactor of Hosea.48
Both
attribute the downfall of the north, not only to political policy or territorial expansion, as the
original Hosea oracle and the collector did, but most importantly to religious apostasy. We see
emphasis of this in vv 8, 11 and 13 especially.
There still seems to be a focus on Samaria as the primary antagonist which may become
clear in the retrieval of the wool and flax that were meant to cover her nakedness.49
However if
we follow the arc of apostate accusation of the Northern kingdom under Josiah’s reform then it
may certainly be plausible that all of Israel is here implicated.50
This reconstruction of the
prophetic purpose here certainly draws back from some of the more aggressive and violent
language of the original oracle. It focuses instead on the transactional nature of the proposed
46. Hornsby “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing,” 115-128.
47. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea, 127.
48. Ibid, 121-122.
49. Again specifically designating the city as feminine as opposed to all of Israel.
50. This would have to be the case as Jeroboam erected sites of Baal worship at Bethel and Dan along with
other ‘high places’ (1 Kings 12:25-33).

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covenant. Picking up on the manner in which v 5 of the original oracle displays the woman as
procuring her own payment (bread, water, flax, wool, oil, and drink) from her respective clients,
vv 8 and 9 within the redactional material attempt to confirm how this payment was originally
proffered by YHWH. As Hornsby argues this payment may not be intended as a bridal price but
rather payment issued unto a prostitute in an attempt to buy her.51
While steering away from the
more graphic indictment within the original oracle the redacted material still continues the
metaphor by way of attempted control. And the language used may more readily signify the
refusal of a self-autonomous prostitute to acknowledge that the proffered goods were given as
conclusive payment of purchase.
The extent of the prophetic desire to control becomes most evident in the additions of the
final redactor. As Yee sees it vv 6 and 7 are attributed to this author whose idealistic intention of
the covenant renewal of both kingdoms with YHWH leads him into the language of containment
in these verses. The lodging of these verses between v 5 and v 8 respectively certainly seem to
fashion an appropriate segue to afford such end. To continue the purpose of the metaphor the
stark imagery of animalistic corralling we see expressed in v 6 truly serves to thwart the
woman’s autonomy. And even though she still undesirably pursues her lovers in v 7 she finds her
way barred and concedes to the idea that her lot would be better with her ‘first man’. The
derisive inflection patterned into the woman’s imagined annunciation of her predicament should
not go unnoticed. This is a fabricated capitulation, an imagined response of a caged beast, tamed
of her wildness, her freedom denuded.52
While it may seem succinct to argue that there is no marriage imagery in Hosea 1-3 at all,
as Hornsby has, it may be plausible to acknowledge that covenant language may have molded
51. Hornsby “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing,” 121-125.
52. Sherwood, The Prophet and the Prostitute,

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here in v 7. Conversely Yee’s suggestion of a final redactor allows for this potential molding of
the oracle, the shifting of its intention, and the inclusion of the prevalent themes of covenantal
marriage that are expressed during exile/post-exile.53
There may certainly be room for both
arguments but even if the final redactor of Hosea did include marital language, it would appear
that the original oracle, and the intent by which it was chiefly perpetuated, sought to scapegoat
an autonomous prostitute as the conduit for metaphor.
Conclusion
Hopefully it is now widely accepted that the metaphor of Hosea 2:1-13 fails to reflect
real-life practices of stripping and public humiliation associated with adulterous wives or
incompliant prostitutes. Even if there did exist such practice surely its use as a punitive measure
can in no way be used to validate or, by some absurd design, divinely authenticate such violent
and gender-specific enactment. However, the invented forensic scenes that embellish the
metaphor may certainly reveal a dissonant bias resident in the mind of the original author who
sought to legitimize ‘righteous’ punishment upon the vein of this language while directing it at
those whom, via un-sanctimonious political alliance, sought to exploit the socially ostracized.
Those identifiable within this ostracized populace would have undoubtedly included violently
abused women and women seeking to wrestle social autonomy from the clutches of patriarchy.
While identifying the movement of this prophecy through both the Hezekiah (collector)
and Josiah (1st
redactor) reforms and on into exile or post-exile (final redactor) we should not be
convinced of any overarching metaphorical softening. Realizing that the original authorial
intention was to subversively denigrate a self-empowered sect of women straining against
patriarchy allows us to see how this implicit condemnation was carried forth through subsequent
eras. Surely the pious inclination of both mentioned reforms would have felt the self-sufficiency
53. Yee, Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea 127.

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of a group of women prostitutes to be a threat. Thus the continuance of the language of this
prophecy was maintained, and may even take on new emphasis for vilification through Baal cult
association. Here the arguments of Wolff may have some weight even if only realized within the
agenda of the Judean reformists and not necessarily in reality.54
If we consider the final redactor to have written from an exilic period then we may see
how current Babylonian culture, which possibly more readily exonerated such groups of
autonomous prostitutes, contributed to his acceptance of this metaphorical usage.55
We need only
look to Ezekiel 16 and 23 to see evidence of the most explicit gender-specific violence stemming
from exile. Could part of Ezekiel’s reaction have been inspired by the partaking of certain
diaspora Judeans in acts of autonomous prostitution? If a post exilic or Persian period date is
latched to the final redactor instead, as some such as Hornsby have done, then we might see how,
along lines of social reform within Yehud, the attribution of this metaphor would have neatly
adhered to the condemnation of potentially self-empowered prostitutes who might have found
greater autonomy while embracing foreign culture.56
It has been the intent of this paper to reveal how the Hosea 2:1-13 oracle functioned and
against whom it was situated in order to unveil the subsistent assignment of metaphor as that
which may have been leveled against a self-empowered group of women straining against
patriarchal society. Indeed, the powerful constrains of patriarchy left a woman little option when
her husband died or if she was divorced. Men did not necessarily live long lives in the ancient
world, especially due to continuous warfare, and the Hebrew Bible supplies prodigious example
of the plight of widowhood. It is my opinion that many widows thrust into economic and social
turmoil at the loss of a husband often found some means of support through prostitution.
54. Wolff, Hosea.
55. Westenholz, “Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia,” 262-264.
56. Hornsby, “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing,” 125-126.

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If we take into account the case of Judah and Tamar (Gen 28) we might uncover how
even Levirate law, which while securing the patriarchal line also provided protection for widows,
was at times abandoned. Within this narrative we see Tamar take up the guise of a professionally
autonomous prostitute in order to secure her familial right. This is a onetime path she decides to
follow in order to avoid social and economic disparagement. The narrative intention ultimately
exonerates her actions as the most faithful in the story. This absolution is reflective of her
commitment to the sustenance of the genealogical line, but we cannot ignore the attention given
to her ‘unconventional’ method.57
This text then may stand in tension with Hosea 2 and other
such oracles. Indeed it must be realized that patriarchal society easily forced such women, and
more commonly widows or divorcees, into these positions while then condemning, and of course
hypocritically engaging in, the only profession left to them which might secure their survival.
Here is the obvious flow of dissonant bias across generations, across the apexes and
deepest valleys of such patriarchal societies; always is this discordant androcentricity sustained.
And yet courageous women fighting desperately against such defunct social clime are forever a
part of the story. Perhaps one of the most profound ways such a violent and pornographic text as
Hosea 2:1-13 may speak to us today is if we realize the struggle of these unsung heroines. That
an autonomous group of women inspired the issuance of this metaphorical device should inspire
us to realize the courage in their cause. By such we may see this text as standing, not only as an
unintentionally self-imposed critique of heavy patriarchy, but as an attempted silencing of
women who still manage to voice their empowerment through the violence and social
chastisement they were forced to endured. Their fight is salvific, they are heroines indeed.
57. Short, Shaun H. “The Unconventional Heroine,” The CBE Scroll, March 18, 2014, accessed April 27,
2014, http://blog.cbeinternational.org/2014/03/the-unconventional-heroine/.

18
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, Elaine J. The Background for the Metaphor of Covenant as Marriage in the Hebrew
Bible. Berkley: University of California Berkley Press, 1990.
Day, Linda. “Rhetoric and Domestic Violence in Ezekiel 16.” Biblical Interpretation 8.3 (200):
205-230.
Day, Peggy L. “Adulterous Jerusalem’s Imagined Demise: Death of a Metaphor in Ezekiel
XVI.” Vetus Testamentum 50.3 (2000): 285-309.
––––. “The Bitch Had It Coming To Her: Rhetoric and Interpretation in Ezekiel 16.” Biblical
Interpretation 8.3 (200): 231-254.
Greengus, Samuel. “A Textbook Case of Adultery in Mesopotamia.” Hebrew Union College
Annual 40-41 (1969-1970): 33-44.
Hornsby, Teresa J. “Israel Has Become a Worthless Thing: Re-reading Gomer in Hosea 1-3.”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 82 (1999): 115-128.
Kelle, Brad E. “Hosea 1-3 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship.” Currents in Biblical Research 7.2
(2009): 179-216.
––––. Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective. Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature Scholars Press, 2005.
Phillips, Anthony. “Another Look at Adultery.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 20
(1981): 3-25.
Schmitt, John J. “The Wife of God in Hosea 2.” Biblical Review 34 (1989): 5-18.
Sherwood, Yvonne. The Prostitute and the Prophet: Hosea's Marriage in Literary-Theoretical
Perspective. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996.
Shields, Mary E. “Multiple Exposures: Body Rhetoric and Gender Characterization in Ezekiel
16.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 14.1 (1998): 5-18.

19
Short, Shaun H. “The Unconventional Heroine.” The CBE Scroll, March 18, 2014. Accessed
April 27, 2014. http://blog.cbeinternational.org/2014/03/the-unconventional-heroine/.
Westenholz, Joan G. “Tamar, Qĕdēsā, Qadistu, and Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia.”
Harvard Theological Review 82.3 (1989): 245-265.
Yee, Gale A. Composition and Tradition in the Book of Hosea: A Redaction Critical
Investigation. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Scholars Press, 1987.
Wolff, Hans W. Hosea. Translated by G. Stansell. Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical
Commentary on the Bible. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974.

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