HUSEA
ROSEA
423
in three things: (1) The cultus, wliicli, though ostensibly service of J", is in trutli worship of a being altogether different from llini; ("J) the internal political disorders, the changes of dynasty, all of which have been effected with no thought of J" in the iM'ople'snunds ; and (.'!) the foreign politics, the makhig of covenants with Kgypt and Assyria, in the hope that they niighi Ileal the internal hurt of the people, instead of relying on J" their Goil. The three things are not independent, the one leads to the other. The fundamental evil is that there is "no knowledge of (Jod in the land,' no true conce])tion of Deity. lie is thought of as a nature -god, and this conception e.xerci.ses no restraint on the jjassions or life of the people ; hence the social inimoralities and the furious struggles of rival factions ; and these, again, lead to the appeal for foreign intervention. The prophet sometimes couples (1) and (2) together, as in ,H*i'', anil .sometimes (2) and (3), as in o'^ I'Ji. Clis. 4-l.S are one long indictment of Israel and threat of punislniient ; a few pas.sages illustrating the unchanging love of J" at the beginning {'M' 11'), and all through the people's history (ll''-'', cf. 2'), only throw their unfaithfulness into deeper shadow.*
(I) The Cultus. — Chs. 4-6 are mainly devoted to the cultus, though it is often alluded to all through the chainers («. il' 10> «•» 11^ l;i'^). The term ' whoredom ' is specially applied to the cultus. The idea may have been suggested by the gross immoralities practised at the sanctuaries (4'^-"), or it may be a corollary from the conception of the marriage relation of J" to Israt'l. The cultus is whoredom or unfaithfulness, becau.se, whatever be the name which the people give the god they serve, he is another than . I". There is 'no know- ledge of (iod in Ihi' land' ; under the name of J" they are woi'.sliii)ping a haul. The fea.sts of .1" are ' the days of the baals ' (2'^), the local Jehovahs are htKils. They are not the true husband of Israel, but ' her lovers ' or paramours ; she goes after them and forgets J" (•2''- '■'). Israel is a harlot, following her Movers' for the liire which they give her on all the corii-Hoors (!!' 2''). The judgnu-nt of Ilosea is that the genuine Israelilisli spiritual conception of .1" has been changed, and another conception sub.stiluted for it. He goes further, and asserts that the (leojile are not unconscious of the change : ' I will return to my first husband' (2', cf. T)" (!'"■). The conception of .1" that liius taken the place of the true idea of Ilim is that of a local nature-god, from whom nothing higlu-r is expected than the friiils of nature (2-' !)'), and who seeks nothing in return but such nature gifts (.j"). But this is not J". He desires piety (or goodness, "Pf?), not sacri- fices (0*); He has no plea-sura in the flesh which they sacrifice and eat (8'"). His service is that of the miiiil and life. Such has been their (iod from the land of Kgypt (12* IJ"), who has coin iiiuously spoken to them by His prophet.s, for by a luophet .1" brought up Israel from tlie land of Kgypt. and by a prophet was he preserved ; and He has multi plied visions (12'*''). The ritual cultus, because of the perverted notion that it is what J" ilesire.s, is ' sin ' (4*) : Kphraim multiplies altars to sin (rt'i 10'). And it is the priests, whose othce it was to instruct the people in the true knowledge of (iod, who are responsible for the people's ignorance. They themselves have rejected knowledge (4"). Kor interested rea.sons they foster the people's ])ropen.sity to scn.suous service: 'They feed upon the sin of my people' — the sacrificial cultus (4*'). And il is in vain that .1" writes or might write moral Turnhs ever so many, revealing the ' know-
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ledge' of Him ; they are accounted a foreign thing (8'^). A 'spirit of whoredom' possesses the people. Their mind is wholly away from J" as He truly is.
Ilosea's judgment is that the religion of Israel has become Canaanitized ; it is the old native gods that are worshipped, though under the name of .1". The Dionysiac revelry at the feasts is not Israelitish, it is that of ' the peoples,' the heathen ('.I'). He hardly a.scribes real existence to the baals. it is a distinction of conceptions of J" which he draws. As for the 'calves,' he will not allow- that they have any relation to J" — ' a w<irkman made it: it is no god' (8'"). Its wooden kernel shall become splintei-s, and its gold hull .shall be a present to king Jareb (8' 10"). With mock sym- pathy he describes the people and priests of Samaria as 'mourning' over its fate (10''), and makes merry over the spectacle of human wor- shippers kissing calves! (13-). But though the loss of 'knowledge of God' be the worst form of Israel's declension and the source of all other forms of it, — for religion ramifies into all the channels of life, and the nature-god instead of restraining human passions is rather served by the indulgence of them (4-''"'^), — Hosea some- times suggests a broader ground for Israel's cor- ruption. It was due to their entrance upon the C'anaanile civilization: ' according to the goodness of his land they made goodly images' (10' 4'i 11- i;!-"). In their whole mind the people has become Canaanitized: 'He is Canaan; the balances of deceit are in his hand' (12'''). Not till all the forms of Canaanitish life be swept away (2') and Israel have again to go through the wilderness will she learn to know J" as the chief good, and respond to Him as in the days of her youth (2'*i^ 12», cf. .ler 2-). See iv.