Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective

After two preliminary chapters dealing with interpretive issues and methodology, part one (chapters 3-5) discusses the major metaphorical terms in light of their cultural and historical background: marriage and divorce, wife and mother, fornication and adultery, and lovers and Baal(s). [...] Kelle's careful analysis of the metaphorical language shows that it is based largely on similarities between marriage customs and political conventions: 1 YHWH's "wife"-like the wives of West Semitic gods in general-was the capital city of his people, i.e., Samaria. 2 The withholding of material resources, providing for basic necessities like food and clothing, was a consequence of both divorce and treaty violation. 3 The terminology for adultery and fornication was figuratively used to describe the impolitic behavior of capital cities and their governing elites. 4 The humiliating public exposure of nakedness (2:10) was not actually a punishment imposed by husbands on unfaithful wives, but was radier a figurative description of how defeated capital cities were treated. 5 The terms "lover" and "baal" were conventionally used to describe treaty partners and suzerains, etc.