Mining the Minors and Immanuel Can’s usual Thursday post have swapped spots this week. I’m sure you can guess why.
As I noted in the fifth instalment in this series, the latter verses of Hosea 2 — in my English translation at least — divide nicely into three sections, each of which conveniently begins with the word “therefore”. These divisions are not completely arbitrary. They reflect three movements in God’s program for idolatrous Israel, a program to which Israel must respond either positively or negatively. I also noted that the English translators of the ESV signal the intentionality of these movements with the words “I will”.
The first movement in verses 6-8 gives us two of God’s “I wills” and one of Israel’s.