Israel Unrepentant (6:1–7:16)

On the third day he will restore us (6:2). Contrary to the implication of the NIV, the Hebrew text conveys actual restoration from death–i.e., resurrection.49 Some scholars consider this passage to convey a pre-Christian belief in the idea of resurrection from the dead after three days.50 Evidence for this belief is limited, but the notion is intriguing in light of Jesus’ resurrection and his own allusions to Jonah, three days in the belly of a big fish, as an ancient “sign” of his (Jesus’) resurrection on the third day (Matt. 12:38–42). One bit of evidence is a stone bowl about seven inches high, with four distinct sides, allegedly found in the area of Sidon and dated to the fifth-fourth centuries B.C.51 On each side is a scene which, when taken together, appears to convey the funeral pyre, burial, mourning, and resurrection of a god–perhaps Eshmun, but more likely Melqart (or a fusion of the two). The crescent moon on the first panel and the morning star on the fourth panel suggest a time frame of two or three days.52

Further in support of resurrection, the god Melqart–whom we should recall is a strong candidate as “the Baal” against whom Hosea prophesies–has recently been confirmed as a god thought capable of dying and rising. On this understanding, then, Hosea intends a polemic by attributing to Yahweh power normally attributed to “the Baal.” In Yahweh’s case the power is no longer directed toward himself (for, as Hosea knows, he is no traditional dying and rising god), but toward his people, whom he will raise from the dead on the third day (cf. Col. 2:2; 3:1).

Other scholars attribute no more significance to “on the third day” than to see it as a poetic alternative to the “after two days” of the previous line.53 On this understanding, the mention of resurrection is without allusion either to time or notions relating to “the Baal.” On this view, it is possible to see continuity with the notion of resurrection attested earlier in Israel through such figures as Elijah and Elisha.54 On either interpretation, Yahweh’s power to raise the dead is real, despite the fickle lips from which the affirmation here comes.

He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth (6:3). Whether continuing from verse 2 or not, Hosea attributes to Yahweh actions that his hearers associate with a Baal-type weather god.55 Recall for example Aḥikar’s description of the Assyrian king Sennacherib as if he were Baal-Shamem, which, like 6:2–3, describes the god in question as controlling both the sun and the rain: “When he willeth he weaveth the rain…. He thunders … and he maketh dawn break and he smiteth the shoots of the green grass.”56 (See sidebar on “To Whom Do Hosea’s ‘The Baal’ and ‘The Baals’ Refer?” at 2:8.)

Like Adam (6:7). Rather than being a reference to the first man, here “Adam” is best understood as a place. This provides a better match with the word “there” later in the verse and also with “Gilead” in the next verse. Adam is generally identified with Tell ed-Damiyeh in modern-day Jordan and referred in the Jerusalem Talmud (y. Meg. 1.77a) as Adimi–Damin. Pharaoh Shishak’s inscription, recorded in the temple of Amon in Karnak, mentions Adam; it was the first place he captured on his way across the Jordan to overpower Jeroboam of Israel in the tenth century B.C.57 Mentioned also in Joshua 3:16, it is located on the east side of the Jordan river a short distance south of the point where the river Jabbok meets the Jordan.

Adam, Tell ed-Damiyeh

Todd Bolen/www.BiblePlaces.com

Burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir (7:4). Hosea uses the imagery of baking to describe Israel’s fickleness and passion for illicit political and sexual relations. Although usually women baked in the context of the home, Hosea envisages a royal festive setting with a male baker here. The oven (tannûr) is likely a large version of the sort of oven found in the courtyard of most homes. It was beehive-shaped with clay walls and a lid on top that could be removed. A wood fire was lit on the dirt or stone floor. Once the dough was kneaded, the cake (which was like a pancake or pizza crust) was tossed into a round, flat shape five to six inches in diameter and then put against the inside wall of the oven.58

Egyptian model of a bakery with oven in top left corner

Kim Walton, courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum

The imagery of a hot, well-stoked oven allows for more than one interpretation, including the heat of treachery, the heated pursuit of vain political alliances, and immoral sexual passions flamed within a context of idolatry. The same applies to the unturned cake of 7:8. Presumably there the metaphor means left to burn or, more likely (given the reference to mixing with the nations here and in the following verse), Israel’s flip-flop political tactics are futile in that they do not produce the desired results (cf. the present-day expression “half-baked idea”).