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HorseAid to Bible Understanding
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to John as representing the righteousness and justice of the war that Christ will wage against all enemies on behalf of his God and Father, Jehovah. (Rev. 19:11, 14) Earlier, Christ’s taking kingly action and the calamities that follow are represented by different horsemen and their mounts.—Rev. 6:2-8.
John also saw armies of cavalry to the number of two myriads of myriads (200,000,000) empowered to execute the destructive judgments of God. The horses had death-dealing power in both their heads and their tails. All these horses apparently were under the direction of the four angels that had been bound at the Euphrates River.—Rev. 9:15-19.
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Horse GateAid to Bible Understanding
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HORSE GATE
See GATE, GATEWAY.
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HosahAid to Bible Understanding
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HOSAH
(Hoʹsah) [refuge].
1. A Merarite gatekeeper for the tent in which the ark of the covenant was put by David. (1 Chron. 16:1, 37, 38) He and his sons made up a division of gatekeepers assigned to the Shallecheth gate on the W of the sanctuary.—1 Chron. 26:10-19.
2. A city in Asher apparently near Tyre, but otherwise unknown.—Josh. 19:24, 29, 30.
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HoseaAid to Bible Understanding
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HOSEA
(Ho·seʹa) [literally, Ho·sheʹa (Masoretic text), meaning “salvation; deliverance”].
Hebrew prophet and writer of the Bible book of Hosea; identified merely as the son of Beeri. Hosea served as Jehovah’s prophet during the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah and Jeroboam II (son of Joash) of Israel, in the late ninth century and the first part of the eighth century B.C.E. (Hos. 1:1) Prophets of the same general period included Amos, Isaiah and Micah.—Amos 1:1; Isa. 1:1; Mic. 1:1.
Hosea may be identified as a prophet (and probably a subject) of the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel. That kingdom was the principal object of the declarations in the book of Hosea. Whereas Judah was named therein only fifteen times, and its capital city, Jerusalem, not even once, the book contains more than forty references to Israel, thirty-seven to Ephraim (Israel’s dominant tribe), and six to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Most of the other locations mentioned in the book were either a part of the northern kingdom or were on its borders.—1:4, 5; 5:1, 8; 6:8, 9; 10:5, 8, 15; 12:11; 14:6, 7.
Hosea, nevertheless, apparently attached primary importance to the kings of Judah, mentioning all four who reigned there during his ministry, while listing only the one ruling in Israel when he began his work. (Hos. 1:1) But, rather than indicating that the prophet came from, or was born in, Judah, this factor may show that Hosea, like other prophets of God, regarded only the Judean kings of David’s family as rightful rulers over God’s people, viewing the northern kingdom of Israel as a general religious and civil apostasy from Jehovah. Of course, this listing of rulers in both kingdoms facilitates more accurate dating of Hosea’s prophetic activity.—See HOSEA, BOOK OF.
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Hosea, Book ofAid to Bible Understanding
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HOSEA, BOOK OF
A book of the Hebrew Scriptures written by “Hosea the son of Beeri.” (Hos. 1:1) In it the writer’s domestic life is paralleled with God’s relationship to Israel. (Chaps. 1-3) The book shows that mere formal religious ceremony does not find acceptance with Jehovah. (6:6) It also highlights God’s mercy and loving-kindness.—2:19; 11:1-4; 14:4.
TIME AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION
Hosea began serving as a prophet at a time when Judean King Uzziah (829-777 B.C.E.) and King Jeroboam II of Israel (c. 844-803 B.C.E.) were contemporaries, and thus no later than 803 B.C.E., the apparent end of Jeroboam’s reign. (Hos. 1:1) Hosea’s prophetic ministry continued into the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah, who began to rule about 746 B.C.E. Hence, it spanned no less than fifty-seven years, though it doubtless covered some time in the reigns of Jeroboam and Hezekiah, thus being somewhat longer. Although Hosea recorded a prophecy concerning Samaria’s destruction (Hos. 13:16), he did not report its fulfillment, which he probably would have done if the writing of the book had extended to 740 B.C.E., the date of Samaria’s fall. Therefore, the book of Hosea was evidently written in the district of Samaria and completed sometime between 746 and 740 B.C.E.
SETTING
The book of Hosea is concerned primarily with the northern ten-tribe kingdom of Israel (also called “Ephraim” after its dominant tribe, the names being used interchangeably in the book). When Hosea began to prophesy during King Jeroboam’s reign, Israel enjoyed material prosperity. But the people had rejected knowledge of God. (Hos. 4:6) Their wicked practices included acts of bloodshed, stealing, fornication, adultery and the veneration of Baal and calf idols. (Hos. 2:8, 13; 4:2, 13, 14; 10:5) After King Jeroboam’s death, prosperity ceased and frightful conditions came into existence, marked by unrest and political assassination. (2 Ki. 14:29–15:30) Faithful Hosea also prophesied amid these circumstances. Finally, in 740 B.C.E., Samaria fell to the Assyrians, bringing the ten-tribe kingdom to its end.—2 Ki. 17:6.
HOSEA’S WIFE AND THE CHILDREN
At Jehovah’s command, Hosea took to himself “a wife of fornication and children of fornication.” (Hos. 1:2) This does not necessarily mean that the prophet married a prostitute or an immoral woman already having illegitimate children. It may indicate that the woman would become adulterous and have such children after her marriage to the prophet. Hosea married Gomer, who “bore to him a son,” Jezreel. (1:3, 4) Gomer later gave birth to a daughter, Lo-ruhamah, and thereafter to a son named Lo-ammi, both possibly being fruits of her adultery, as no personal reference is made to the prophet in connection with their births. (1:6, 8, 9) Lo-ruhamah means “she was not shown mercy,” and the meaning of Lo-ammi is “not my people,” these names indicating Jehovah’s disapproval of wayward Israel. On the other hand, the name of the firstborn child “Jezreel,” meaning “God will sow seed,” is applied to the people favorably in a restoration prophecy.—2:21-23.
After the birth of these children, Gomer apparently abandoned Hosea for her paramours, but it is not said that the prophet divorced her. Evidently she was later forsaken by her lovers and fell into poverty and slavery, for Hosea 3:1-3 seems to indicate that the prophet purchased her as though she was a slave and took her back as a wife. His relationship with Gomer paralleled that of Jehovah with Israel, God being willing to take back his erring people after they repented of their spiritual adultery.—2:16, 19, 20; 3:1-5.
Some Bible scholars have viewed Hosea’s marriage as visionary, as a trance or a dream never carried into action. However, the prophet did not say or indicate that a vision or a dream was involved. Others have considered the marriage to be an allegory or a parable. But Hosea did not use symbolical or figurative terminology when discussing it. Viewing this as an account of the actual marriage of Hosea to Gomer and of Gomer’s literal restoration to the prophet gives force and significance to the application of these things historically and factually to Israel. It does not strain the plain Biblical account and it harmonizes with Jehovah’s choosing of Israel, the nation’s subsequent spiritual adultery and the people’s restoration to God upon their repentance.
STYLE
Hosea’s writing style is concise, even abrupt at times. There are rapid changes of thought. The book contains expressions of great feeling and power in the form of rebuke, warning and exhortation, as well as
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