God’s Ongoing Covenant Of Love And Marriage

There are hundreds of millions of people today who have two, three or more self-identities. This was also true 3,600 years ago; although to a lesser extent than today. For example, Prophet Abraham is called a Muslim in the Arabic Qur’an; and in the Hebrew Bible he is called a Hebrew [speaker] and a Babylonian immigrant who crossed the Jordan River.

The term ivri (the Hebrew) first appears in the Torah, when Prophet Abraham is called “the Hebrew: “And it was told to Abram the Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13) And Prophet Joseph uses the name as both a geographical and an socio-ethnic term: “I was kidnapped from the land of the ivrim” Genesis 40:15 and a Hebrew youth’ (Genesis 41:12), and “The Egyptians could not eat with the ivrim, since that would be an abomination.” (Genesis 43:32)

The word Muslim is a religious identity term that refers to faithful monotheistic believers. The word Hebrew is a linguistic, geographical and ethnic identity term like German the language, Germany the homeland and Germans the people. The word descendent is a biological inherited birth identity term like nobility or tribe.

Islam was a religion designed by God to overcome all other self-identities: “O mankind, We created you from male and female, and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know (respect) one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” (Quran 49:13)

“Once all humans were but a single community; then they disagreed (formulating different beliefs and rites). Had it not been that your Lord had already so ordained, a decisive judgement would have been made regarding [the truth of] their disagreements.” (10:19) Then all human communities invented different religions of their own with different creeds and ways This worldly life is a trial to see whether or not you yourselves recognize truth by competing in doing acts of kindness, toleration and welcoming others who are different into your own lands.

And: “Who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend.” (4:125)

By God’s design Prophet Abraham’s biological descendants through Isaac and Jacob became the first ongoing monotheistic community to last to this very day. “And remember Our servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – those of strength and [religious] vision. Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home [the “safe haven” Land of Israel]. And indeed they are to Us among the chosen and outstanding.” (Qur’an 38:45-7)

“And We certainty settled the Children of Israel in an agreeable settlement [the Land of Israel] and provided them with good things. And they did not differ until [after Torah] knowledge had come to them. Indeed, your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they used to differ. So if you [O Muhammad] are in doubt, about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you. The truth has certainly come to you from your Lord, so never be among the doubters. (Qur’an 10:93-4)

Qur’an 5:20-21 states: “Moses said to his people: O, my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you when he appointed among you prophets and made you possessors [of the Land of Israel] and gave you what he had not given anyone among the worlds. O my people, enter the holy land which Allah has assigned to you.”

None of the Messengers prior to Prophet Abraham were able to establish an ongoing monotheistic community that lasted to today. “And when there came to them a Messenger from Allah, confirming what was with them, a party of the people who were given the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs, as if they did not know it!” (Qur’an 2:101)

Professor Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is a Professor Emerita of Biblical Literature and History at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. In a very insightful essay she explains how the Prophet Hosea in the Hebrew Bible (2:18–25) states God’s coercion and retaliation will not achieve the kind of relationship that YHWH aspires to have with Israel—or a husband with a wife.

For that reason, prophet Hosea describes a changed strategy, one of persuasion and generosity: Hosea 2:16  “Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” The phrase “I will speak to her heart”—the language of courtship and romance.

The prospect of taking her back to the wilderness conjures the honeymoon that Israel and YHWH had enjoyed earlier: Hosea 2:17 “From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.”

Prophet Hosea envisions that YHWH’s tender words and actions would prompt Israel—or the wife—to change her attitude dramatically: “Hosea 2:18 “And in that day—declares YHWH—you will call [Me] Ishi, and no more will you call Me Baali.”

Ishi literally means “my man.” When used in relation to a woman, the noun ish usually refers to her husband (as is apparent when Hosea earlier uses this term in 2:4; see also Ruth 1:2–3). As a counterpart of ʾisha (woman), ʾish reflects parity between partners. Hereafter, Prophet Hosea envisions, Israel will address YHWH in personal terms, replacing the previous hierarchical relationship represented by rejection of the epithet Baali (from the word baʿal, which means “my lord” or “my master”).

In the Bible, baʿal is also used for “husband,” and as a verb for acting as a husband (see Isa 54:5). Importantly, however, Baal is also the title and name of the major Canaanite god worshipped by many (probably most) Israelites in Hosea’s time and beyond, much to the chagrin of the prophets, who repeatedly rail against such practice.

Thus, the verse describes a radically transformed relationship. It conveys mutuality and intimacy as the hoped-for model for the relationship between Israel and YHWH, and for a human couple. That is the key aspect of the chapter. The hoped for reconciliation is reached by abandoning fantasies or practice of abuse and coercion.

As Prophet Hosea presents it, turning to persuasion leads to the consummation of the relationship based on mutual commitment. It reaches its climax in the final verses of the chapter. First, Hosea envisions a transformation that affects all of humanity as well as nature, suggesting an Eden restored: Hosea 2:20 “In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; I will also banish bow, sword, and war from the land. Thus I will let them lie down in safety.”

This is followed by a renewed commitment to a marital relationship based on enduring love, verses which have been immortalized by their recitation when putting on tefillin (prayer) and by their inclusion in many marriage vows and modern ketubot: Hosea 2:21 “And I will betroth you to me forever. And I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, hesed and compassion. Hosea 2:22 “And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness/trust. And you will know YHWH”

The phrase “you will know YHWH” conjures the consummation of the relationship, in both spiritual and physical terms. To know another in the Bible typically entails sexual intimacy (e.g., Genesis 4:1). Hosea’s message here is so audacious that many translations shy away from it by placing a distance between the female Israel and YHWH. Thus “Then you shall be devoted to YHWH.”

But this chapter is laden with eroticism. The Bible does not shy away from depicting the relationship between Israel and YHWH in erotic terms, and the final verses confirm the sexual associations by richly envisioning the fertility that is engendered by this coupling.

Prophet Hosea 2:23 “In that day, I will respond—declares YHWH—I will respond to the sky, and it shall respond to the earth; 2:24 And the earth shall respond with new grain and wine and oil, and they shall respond to Jezreel. 2:25 I will sow her in the land as My own; and take Lo-ruhamah back in favor; and I will say to Lo-ammi, “You are My people,” and he will respond, “[You are] my God.”

The unity between “her,” Israel, and YHWH now is expected to affect the agricultural cycle so as to produce abundantly the staples that sustained Israel’s life in the land (grain, oil and wine). This fertility of nature underscores the implicit generative force of the union between YHWH and Israel, as does the reversal of the relationship with the “children.”

Attention to the structure of this chapter shows that YHWH relinquishes possible violence in favor of something else: gentle coaxing and persuasion. The result is a new model of intimacy between YHWH an Israel, and by analogy, between human marriage partners, with patriarchal hierarchy replaced by mutuality and generosity. In this sense Hosea 2 anticipates the relationship modeled in the Hebrew Bible Song of Songs.