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Hosea's Mostly Happy Harem

CecilW

CecilW

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I'm a wee bit tired of folks pulling out the "The Bible nowhere says" card against PM. Esapecially when it is then misapplied.

This morning, my goat was got by yet another, when the author then proceeded to use the story of Hosea and Gomer to defend monogamy. It was at that point that I realized ... (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

The Bible nowhere says that Gomer was Hosea's only wife. Rather, it proves that, no matter HOW many wives he had, each marriage relationship is an INDIVIDUAL one, as close and potentially dramatic as if it were an only one.

Further, it proves that a man's love for each individual wife should be loving and steadfast, regardless of a wife's faults, rebellion, and flat out sins against him or their relationship.

Now THAT's far more powerful than using it to prove an almost pathetic monogamist fixation on a prostitute.

(Hey! Cecil pulled off a SHORT rant for a change! :o :lol: )
 
good point, and we have no idea what a helpmeet his other wife/wives may have been to him during this trial.
 
As a possible bolstering point, Gomer's kids seem to have been ok, despite her absence. I suggest that their god level of adjustment, and lack of exhibited bitterness, may well have been due to the presence of Hosea's Chinese wife, Ma Too! :D

In my experience, children of single parent homes tend to have a good deal of bitterness and rejection issues.
 
Reading through the account, Hosea took the prostitute Gomer as his wife (1:2-3), and she then was apparantly unfaithful to him (2:2). Hosea was then instructed to "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress" ... "So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley" (3:1-2). Was this Gomer again, or was it a second prostitute? It would make sense that this could refer to Gomer given the illustration that God is making about his mercy to Israel. However he was not actually instructed to take his wife back, rather to just find an adulterous woman. The fact that he then had to buy her would actually suggest that this was a second woman - he should not have had to buy his own wife, he already owned her even if she was unfaithful. So this account might actually describe polygamy.

There is however one verse that could possibly describe monogamy - 3:3 - "And I said to her 'You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you' ". Does this mean she was his only wife? Does it mean he was just faithful to her for a period of "many days" only? Or does it mean something else?

All up it's rather difficult to tell if he was monogamous or polygamous. Either way, it really doesn't contribute anything whatsoever to the debate. When there's nothing solid in the Bible to support someone's position, they'll clutch at any straw.
 
He rescued out of the Hoe Sea?
 
Asforme&myhouse said:
Is it just me or does it seem like the naming of Hosea was intentional and now stands as the world record holder as being the most ahead of its’ time joke in recorded history?
Click to expand...

I 100% believe it. God has a sense of humor that way.
 
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