Monday, March 20, 2023

Else Kragelund Holt on Hosea 11:1

  

Hosea 11.1

 

Hosea 1.1-11 is naturally delimited both with regard to what precedes and to what follows, and v. 1 is the superscription of this unit.

 

‎כי נער ישראל ואהבהו וממצרים קראתי לבני

 

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt, I called my son

 

The metaphorical language in the chapter is taken from the sphere of family life, of which the repeated theme in the chapter is Yahweh’s fatherly love and mercy towards his sons, a kind of mercy that goes far beyond human mercy (v. 9). It is quite likely that the chapter has been put together by a redactor, but this is not a decisive issue for our purposes. In any case, the chapter is a kerygmatic unit, and it is introduced by a title that sums up its message. In this superscription the author refers back to the tradition of the call out of Egypt. The immense importance of this tradition for the Hosean tradition is seen not only in the passages where the event is mentioned directly (11.1; 12.10a; 13.4a), but also by the fact that Israel’s apostasy—as is also the case in other places in the Old Testament—can be described as the voluntary return of the people to Egypt (7.11; 12.2). On the other hand, the punishment of the people means that they will be sent back to Egypt (8.13; 9.3; 11.5), and Egypt can act as Yahweh’s instrument of punishment (7.16; 9.6). In 11.11 a renewed return from Egypt is promised. In agreement with what we have observed concerning the Jacob traditions in Chapter 2, we do not find in 11.1 a comprehensive presentation of the tradition to which reference is being made. There is no mention made of great and marvellous deeds, of the prophet who led the people (12.14), of the obedience of the people (2.17), or of their disobedience. Mention is only made of a theme: Yahweh has called Israel, his son, at the time of his youth in Egypt.

 

The depiction of Israel as a youth (נער) is first found in the Old Testament in the book of Hosea; the image is employed later by Jeremiah (2.2; 3.4). The word has a number of different layers of meaning, but in this context it must be understood as an expression for a youthful age, without the attribution of any special quality. The specific reference to the time of the occurrence, כי נער, indicates that it was long ago that Yahweh began to love Israel. There is no attempt to play upon Israel’s obedience in its youthful period as was the case in 2.17. The two passages are quite different in their use of metaphor. In 2.17 Israel is spoken of as Yahweh’s youthful lover, while 11.1 remains within the realm of childhood: Israel became Yahweh’s son, not his wife or betrothed. While 2.17 speaks of the time after the election, 11.1 refers to the period preceding the call and to the call itself. The structure of the verse indicates that נער and בני are parallel, and that election and love are one and the same thing. For Hosea love is the interpretive key to election.

 

Hos. 11.1 would appear to be a purely ‘historical’ statement about the first election, free from any mythological motifs, but part and parcel of the tradition of the knowledge, דעת אלהים, in accordance with which Hosea demands that Israel must live. The statement stands forth as something fundamental to this tradition of knowledge, for it provides the framework of understanding for what follows. Without any sense of contradiction, the call out of Egypt and the election in the wilderness are spoken of in the same breath. (Else Kragelund Holt, Prophesying the Past: The Use of Israel’s History in the Book of Hosea [Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 194; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995], 57-59)