Judgment against Israel (5:1–15)

In Gibeah … in Ramah … in Beth Aven; lead on, O Benjamin (5:8). The places mentioned here track from south to north, implying that Israel’s enemy is Judah. An alternative rendering to the NIV here, “behind [or after] you, Benjamin,” supports this idea, as does the mention in verse 10 of leaders from Judah. The historical setting is likely Judah’s chasing at the heels of Israel in the wake of the failure of Israel’s anti-Assyrian coalition (see the sidebar “Historical Background to Hosea 5:8–7:16”). (The NIV’s “lead on, O Benjamin” is intelligible as a possible war cry; cf. “take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam!” and “march on, my soul, be strong!” in Judg. 5:12, 21 respectively.)

Historical Background to Hosea 5:8–7:16

Hosea 5:8–7:16 seem to describe a unique time when Israel and Judah were feuding over an issue about which God was displeased (5:8–11), and Assyria was not the usual threat but rather, along with Egypt, a source of solace (5:13; 7:11). The majority of scholars is likely right in assigning this period to the so-called Syro-Ephraimite war recounted in 2 Kings 16:1–9 (cf. 2 Chron. 28:5–7); this war also forms the background to Isaiah 7:1–8:22 (possibly Mic. 7:7–20).

Scholars differ on details, such as the motive for the involvement of various nations, but a basic outline of events is fairly clear.A-37 Menahem’s embittering payment of tribute to Tiglath-pileser in 738 B.C., followed by a four-year lull in Assyria’s involvement in the area, likely motivated King Pekah of Israel (who assassinated Menahem’s son) to implicitly rebel against Assyrian overlordship. With Rezin of Syria to the north on board with the proposed coup (along with Hiram of Tyre to the northwest) and, plausibly also, with Egypt to the south poised to help,A-38 the key partner that remained in order to form an effective chain of alliances was King Ahaz of Judah to the immediate south.

At least in part because of Isaiah’s admonition to him, King Ahaz refused to join the coalition, despite being a virtual vassal state to Israel and despite widespread support from within the Judean population as a whole. When Israel and Syria tried to force Judah’s hand by deposing King Ahaz in favor of a puppet king (likely of Phoenician origin) who would endorse the coalition, Ahaz secured the help of Assyria by sending tribute to her, thus voluntarily submitting to the same first-level of vassalage to Assyria that Israel had undergone some five years earlier (2 Kings 16:7–8). Assyria responded in 733 B.C. by subduing most of Israel to the third stage of vassalageA-39 and by deporting her key citizens to Assyria (15:30, 39; 17:1–3). The following year, Assyrian forces killed Rezin of Syria/Damascus and deported her key citizens to Kir (16:9; cf. Amos 1:5; 9:7).

Major Parties and Cities in the Syro-Ephraimite War

Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones (5:10). Capitalizing on Judah’s enlistment of Assyria to help repel Israel, disrespectful Judeans may have tampered with boundary stones (see Deut. 19:14; 27:17; Job 24:2; Prov. 23:10). This was not so much an affront to the government as it was to families whose land was understood to be an inheritance from Yahweh.46 The Egyptian proverbial Teachings of Amenemope (ca. 1200 B.C.) echoes a similar concern:

Do not topple the markers on the boundaries of a field,

Or your conscience will destroy you.

To please the pharaoh, our divine ruler,

Observe the borders of your neighbors’ fields.47

Yahweh as the One Who Afflicts and Heals

The metaphor of Yahweh as the one who both heals and afflicts occurs many times in Hosea (5:12–13; 6:1, 11b–7:1; 11:1–3; 14:5). Although there were professional physicians in Mesopotamia and especially good ones in Egypt, in Israel the role of healer appears to have fallen to a recognized leader within a social unit, such as the father of a family (as in 11:3) or the leader of a clan (as suggested by the early Amorite personal name ʿAmmu-rapi, “the paternal uncle has healed”). In the case of a nation, the one who did the healing was often the king,A-40 whose title “shepherd” was frequently tied to his healing role.A-41

This helps to account for the reference in 5:13 to Israel’s seeking out an Assyrian king for healing. It helps also to account for how the same person can both afflict and heal (as in 6:1), which a doctor does not but which a father (whose role includes chastisement as well as healing),A-42 a king, or a caring God does.A-43

Boundary stone being set up

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com

Great king (5:13). The NIV differs from the Hebrew text, which reads “king (of) Yareb” (Heb. melek yārēb). It differs because there is no known king or place with this name and because the word order is backwards for a king’s name. The NIV option, differing only with the traditional vocalization of the Hebrew letters and not the letters themselves, arises because the expression occurs in parallelism with “the king of Assyria.” Moreover “great king” finds warrant from the Assyrian language itself, which has an expression šarru rabû, meaning “great king,” which, when translated into the Hebrew language, would have consonants similar to what we have in the Hebrew text (mlk[y] rb) (except for the word division and previously mentioned vocalization tradition). The interpretation of the NIV finds support from an Aramaic text that similarly transfers this common Assyrian expression into its own language.48