Thursday, June 21, 2012

Hosea 9

The chapter seems to largely repeat what else is in Hosea in that punishment is coming to Israel. We get a few details about what will happen to those that survive. A difficulty in reading this is how literal to take it. Based simply on the literal text, they will either go back to Egypt or will go to Assyria. Those that go to Egypt will be gathered and Memphis will bury them. This could just mean that the government in Memphis, a major city in Egypt, will control them. "Bury" could mean literal burying (I.e, by sand or dirt), buried with work, or buried within the population.

Similarly, those that go to Assyria will eat unclean meat. I think this indicates that they will lose their Israelite identity.

Finally, verse 17 says that they will be wanderers among nations. Again, this seems to indicate that they will be "lost", i.e., the lost 10 tribes of Israel. They will simply lose their cultural identify and intermingle with the gene pool of the other populations. They might have become the Arab, Persian, or Lebanese people of today.

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