Israel Is a Rebellious Child; YHWH is a Parent but Not a Person

The book of Hosea is set in the political context of the 8^th century B.C.E., when the Northern Kingdom of Israel experienced increasing military pressure from Assyria.^[1] Some scholars have attributed the odd words and phrases in the book to a northern (“Israelian”) dialect of Hebrew, still spoken in the second half of the 8^th century B.C.E.^[2] Others have disputed the existence of a specifically “northern” dialect, attributing the non-standard usages to other causes, such as poetic stylistics^[3] or Aramaic influence during the Judahite exile.^[4]

However, careful attention to historical linguistics, willingness to employ textual criticism, and a literary appreciation of Hosea’s use of metaphor can help to explain some of the more obscure passages in the book.

YHWH’s Parental Love for Israel

The metaphor of Israel as a child and God as his parent deeply informs the imagery throughout chapter 11. Hosea claims that just as Israel did not heed his divine parent’s wishes after leaving Egypt, so too had the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom rebelled against YHWH since the time of the early settlement period. Particularly galling to YHWH is the Israelite monarchs’ trust in foreign nations rather than on the God who had cared for Israel from the beginning.

Hosea begins with describing Israel as a youth:

^{הושע יא:א} כִּי נַעַר יִשְׂרָאֵל וָאֹהֲבֵהוּ וּמִמִּצְרַיִם קָרָאתִי לִבְנִי.

^{Hos 11:1} When Israel was a boy, I loved him; And I called (לְ, to?) my son out of Egypt.^[5]

The preposition ל (l) generally means “to,” which would seem to mean that YHWH is calling to his son from Egypt. This is unlikely, because it is Israel who is in Egypt and whom YHWH calls. In this case, then, לְ might be serving to mark the direct object, much as does the definite direct object marker את (et). This use of לְ is also found in some later stages of Aramaic.^[6] Thus, this part of the verse should be translated “And I called my son out of Egypt.”

The following verse is also somewhat unclear:

^{הושע יא:ב} קָרְאוּ לָהֶם כֵּן הָלְכוּ מִפְּנֵיהֶם לַבְּעָלִים יְזַבֵּחוּ וְלַפְּסִלִים יְקַטֵּרוּן.

^{Hos 11:2} They called to them; thus they went from before them (?); To the Baals they sacrificed and to the idols they burnt incense.

Who is “they” referring to? Is it the Egyptians, who would be here a (plural) people rather than a (singular) country (v. 1)? Is it an anticipatory reference to the Baals, even if we might not want to attribute agency to these deities?

The Septuagint, a second century B.C.E. Greek translation, preserves an alternate text.^[7] The reconstructed Hebrew reads (places where the Greek translation diverges from the MT are in bold):

^{תה"ש הושע יא:ב} כקראי להם כן הלכו מפני הם לבעלים יזבחו ולפסלים יקטרו

^{LXX Hos 11:2} Just as I called them, thus they would depart from my face; They themselves sacrificed to the Baals and to the idols they burned incense^[8]

According to this reading, YHWH is accusing Israel of leaving as soon as he called. The MT likely became corrupted for the following reasons:

1. The preposition כְּ (k) dropped out of the MT, perhaps because it is immediately followed by the similar sound of ק (קָרְאִי, qor’i, “my calling”).^[9]

2. The graphic difference between the waw (ו) and yod (י) in this word is minimal, and they were often confused with one another in certain periods of Hebrew writing.^[10]

3. Whereas the LXX has two separate words, מִפָּנַי הֵם (mipnay hem), the MT read them as one word, מִפְּנֵיהֶם (mipenehem).^[11]

YHWH Cares for Ephraim the Infant

Hosea continues:

^{הושע יא:ג} וְאָנֹכִי תִרְגַּלְתִּי לְאֶפְרַיִם

^{Hos 11:3a} But I tirgalti for (?) Ephraim,

It is clear here that Ephraim refers to the northern kingdom of Israel, as opposed to the southern kingdom of Judah. The name “Ephraim” comes from one of the tribes whose territory was central to this kingdom (the other was Manasseh). Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph. Jacob (Israel) blessed the two of them, and although Ephraim was the younger, Jacob apparently gave him the more effective blessing, using his right hand (Gen 48:5–20).

But what does תִרְגַּלְתִּי (tirgalti) mean? It seems to have something to do with feet (sg. רֶגֶל, regel). The predominant verbal usage of the stem ר.ג.ל. is “to go about as a spy” (in the piel; see, e.g., Gen 42:9, 11, 14, 16). But what about the conjugated verbal form ending in תִּי with a ת prefix? Is that even a valid form in Biblical Hebrew?

The medieval scholar Jonah ibn-Janaḥ (early 11^th century c.e.) understood תִרְגַּלְתִּי as a kind of causative (like a hiphil form, but with a tav prefix instead, making it a tiphel stem).^[12] He translated it, “I made them accustomed (to being taken up on my arm).”^[13]

Rashi (Troyes, 1040/1–1105) also understands the verb as causative, but translates it differently:

^{רש"י הושע יא:ג} תִרְגַּלְתִּי. כְּמוֹ ׳הִרְגַּלְתִּי׳, וְאֵין לוֹ דִּמְיוֹן:

^{Rashi Hos 11:3} Tirgalti: Like hirgalti (“I taught to walk”), and there is no similar form (in Scripture).^[14]

The problem is, as Rashi notes, that the form תִרְגַּלְתִּי is anomalous. Moreover, this rendering is not normal for a causative form, which would be hirgalti.^[15] Here again, the LXX is instructive.

^{LXX Hos 11:3} And I (myself) bound Ephraim’s feet (sunepodisa)

The Greek sunepodisa comes from the words sun-, “together,” and pod-, foot.” This describes an image of swaddling the baby, which is done by laying the child on a blanket, and snugly wrapping its legs to prevent them from kicking free. This snug wrapping helps to keep the infant calm, keeping it warm and helping it to feel secure.

The Hebrew root .ח.ת.ל (ch.t.l) refers to swaddling an infant (Ezek 16:4; see also the noun חֲתֻלָּה (chatulah), “swaddling clothes,” in Job 38:9). But the use of the verb .ר.ג.ל (r.g.l.) in an uncommon verbal stem here, rather than using an expected form from .ח.ת.ל, draws our attention specifically to Ephraim’s feet—his means of walking, both away from and back towards YHWH.^[16]

The LXX also resolves another issue in the MT:

^{הושע יא:ג} וְאָנֹכִי תִרְגַּלְתִּי לְאֶפְרַיִם קָחָם עַל־זְרוֹעֹתָיו וְלֹא יָדְעוּ כִּי רְפָאתִים.

^{Hos 11:3} But I tirgalti for (?) Ephraim, took (or taking) them (qacham) by his arms, but they did not know that I healed (=cared for?) them.

The word קָחָם (qacham) is an odd form of the verb .ל.ק.ח (l-q-ch), “to take, receive,” but there is a grammatical inconsistency between the plural object in “taking them” (קָחָם, qacham) and the singular “by his arms.”

The LXX, however, has the equivalent of עַל־זְרוֹעֹתַי, “upon my arms”:

^{LXX Hos 11:3} And I (myself) bound Ephraim’s feet (sunepodisa); I lifted him upon my arms, and they did not know that I healed them.^[17]

The metaphor of Israel as a child and YHWH as his parent governs this whole passage. Ephraim toddles around rebelliously in verses 1–2, but verses 3–4 seem to hark even further back in time—to a time when he was unable even to walk under his own power.

Indeed, the swaddling imagery continues in the next verse:

^{הושע יא:ד} בְּחַבְלֵי אָדָם אֶמְשְׁכֵם בַּעֲבֹתוֹת אַהֲבָה

^{Hos 11:4a} With cords of humanity I will draw/drew them, with strings of love;

The materials used to secure the baby are the cords of humanity and strings of love, giving Ephraim the feeling of security under YHWH’s parental care.^[18] YHWH’s parental nurturing continues in the second part of the verse:

^{הושע יא:ד} וָאֶהְיֶה לָהֶם כִּמְרִימֵי עֹל עַל לְחֵיהֶם וְאַט אֵלָיו אוֹכִיל.

^{Hos 11:4b} And I was for them like ones lifting up a yoke (?) upon their cheek, so that I might stretch out to him; I will cause/caused (him) to eat.

Why would YHWH lift a yoke (עֹל, ol) to Israel’s cheek? Many commentators have recognized that the word עֹל (“yoke”) should be repointed as עֻל (ul, cf. עוּל, “infant, suckling”; Isa 49:15; 65:20).^[19] This would make good sense, because it continues the parental image: YHWH likens himself to doting parents who “lift an infant to their cheek.”^[20]

There’s a brutal irony, then, in YHWH’s parental lament (v. 1-4) that every parent—biological, adoptive, or foster—has experienced to some degree or another: YHWH had raised up Ephraim from the time of his birth, swaddling him with baby’s cords, wrapping him up with strings of love, and turning to feed him. As Ephraim grew, though, he figured out how to walk under his own power. And when it came time for YHWH to call him out of Egypt (v. 1), he used his newfound freedom to get himself into trouble: the more God called to him, the more he walked in the other direction—a rebellious attitude symbolizing the Northern Kingdom’s performance of religious practices to other deities and idols (v. 2).

This reading of Hos 11:1–4 corresponds with the overarching message of the remainder of the chapter.^[21] I briefly consider the rest of the chapter in the next section.

YHWH’s Patience is Greater Than That of a Human Parent

The prophet consistently argues against depending on other countries—especially Egypt—for military assistance. He demands instead that the Israelite monarchs place their sole trust in YHWH (e.g., Hos 7:10, 16; 8:9–10). But as both an ironic twist of fate and as an all-too-fitting, self-imposed punishment, Israel will go back into exile, this time in both Egypt and Assyria:

^{הושע יא:ה} יָשׁוּב אֶל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וְאַשּׁוּר הוּא מַלְכּוֹ כִּי מֵאֲנוּ לָשׁוּב.

^{Hos 11:5} He (i.e., Ephraim) will return to Egypt, and Assyria (will be) his king, because they refused to turn back.

Here, Hosea predicts that, given the opportunity to enter international treaties, Ephraim would “return,” יָשׁוּב (yashuv), to Egypt because he/they refused to “turn back,” לָשׁוּב (lashuv), to YHWH. All this ambulatory motion symbolizes religious and political apostasy. But the Ephraimites’ motion is not merely a metaphorical figure of speech—it refers directly to the imminent departure of the people from the land: the people of Israel were conquered by Assyria in 720 B.C.E. and taken into exile (compare 2 Kgs 17:7–23).

But this is not the end of Hosea’s vision for Ephraim: like most parents struggling with rebellious children, YHWH eventually realizes that it will be difficult—even impossible—to simply let Ephraim continue to suffer his self-inflicted punishment, so YHWH promises redemption for these wayward children. They will not experience destruction like the cities Admah and Zeboiim,^[22] because God’s anger has relented:

^{הושע יא:ח} אֵיךְ אֶתֶּנְךָ אֶפְרַיִם אֲמַגֶּנְךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֵיךְ אֶתֶּנְךָ כְאַדְמָה אֲשִׂימְךָ כִּצְבֹאיִם נֶהְפַּךְ עָלַי לִבִּי יַחַד נִכְמְרוּ נִחוּמָי.

^{Hos 11:8} How can I give you up, O Ephraim? (How can I) surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? (How can I) treat you like Zeboiim? My heart has been overturned within me, my singular compassion grows warm.

Whereas Hosea’s oracle had previously drawn connections between YHWH’s care for Ephraim and the doting acts of human parents, the prophet now draws a distinction between YHWH and humans:

^{הושע יא:ט} לֹא אֶעֱשֶׂה חֲרוֹן אַפִּי לֹא אָשׁוּב לְשַׁחֵת אֶפְרָיִם כִּי אֵל אָנֹכִי וְלֹא־אִישׁ בְּקִרְבְּךָ קָדוֹשׁ וְלֹא אָבוֹא בְּעִיר.

^{Hos 11:9} I will not carry out my rageful anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, Because I am God and not a person, (I am) holy in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.^[23]

Hosea’s God is a God of supreme forgiveness, surpassing even the capacities of human parents.

Returning to YHWH

The prophet’s description of this redemptive process is spelled out in the final verses of chapter 11. Here Hosea again picks up on the foot-centered imagery of walking that, as we have seen above, infuses the chapter:

^{הושע יא:י} אַחֲרֵי יְ־הֹוָה יֵלְכוּ כְּאַרְיֵה יִשְׁאָג כִּי־הוּא יִשְׁאַג וְיֶחֶרְדוּ בָנִים מִיָּם. ^יא:יא‎ יֶחֶרְדוּ כְצִפּוֹר מִמִּצְרַיִם וּכְיוֹנָה מֵאֶרֶץ אַשּׁוּר וְהוֹשַׁבְתִּים עַל־בָּתֵּיהֶם נְאֻם־יְ־הֹוָה.

^{Hos 11:10} They will walk following YHWH; He roars like a lion. When it is he who roars, let the children come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, and like a dove from the land of Assyria. And I will settle them in their houses, says YHWH.

In this final, magnificent act of walking, the wayward child Ephraim will realize the error of his ways. Whereas previously he had walked away from YHWH when YHWH called (v. 2a), Ephraim will now walk, by his own volition, in his divine parent’s footsteps (v. 10a). No longer is this walking the obstinate departure of a toddler—it is now the trembling, fearful approach (v. 10b, 11a)^[24] of a matured, obedient heir. Hosea declares that as a result of this changed behavior, YHWH will once again settle the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom in their houses.

Reconciling the Children of Israel with YHWH Their Parent

The metaphor of Israel as a child and God as his parent in the opening of the chapter builds a unified image and message throughout this unit: having raised Ephraim from infancy (vv. 3–4), YHWH expresses grief at the youth’s obstinate departure after his removal from Egypt (vv. 1–2). This obstinacy contributes to a political “return” to Egypt, which brings about a physical relocation (exile!) to Assyria and its provinces (v. 5).

But even amid this darkness, the prophetic message holds out hope for reconciliation between divine parent and human child. The divine parent realizes that giving up the child is virtually impossible (vv. 8–9), and the child himself will reverse his wayward walking to once again establish a relationship with his divine parent (vv. 10–11).

Addendum

The Reconstruction of Hosea 11:1–4

The emendations are in bold type:

^{הושע יא:א} כִּי נַעַר יִשְׂרָאֵל וָאֹהֲבֵהוּ וּמִמִּצְרַיִם קָרָאתִי לִבְנִי.

^{Hos 11:1} When Israel was a boy, I loved him; and I called my son out of Egypt.

^יא:ב כְּקָרְאִי לָהֶם כֵּן הָלְכוּ מִפָּנַי הֵם לַבְּעָלִים יְזַבֵּחוּ וְלַפְּסִלִים יְקַטֵּרוּן.

^11:2 The more I called to them, the more they went from before me; as for them, they would sacrifice to the Baals and they would burn incense to the idols.

^יא:ג וְאָנֹכִי תִרְגַּלְתִּי לְאֶפְרַיִם קָחָם עַל־זְרוֹעֹתַי וְלֹא יָדְעוּ כִּי רְפָאתִים.

^11:3 (Although) I myself had swaddled Ephraim, taking them upon my arms, they did not realize that it was I who had cared for them.

^יא:ד בְּחַבְלֵי אָדָם אֶמְשְׁכֵם בַּעֲבֹתוֹת אַהֲבָה וָאֶהְיֶה לָהֶם כִּמְרִימֵי עֻל עַל לְחֵיהֶם וָאַט אֵלָיו אוֹכִיל לוֹ.^[25]

^11:4 I would draw them together with baby’s cords, with strings of love, and I was to them like those who lift a baby up to their cheeks; and (it was) I (who had) turned to him, I (who) fed him.