Abstract:
Weather imagery plays a major role in Hosea. Hosea 2 recalls the image of an unfaithful wife;
Hosea 4:2–3 describes the withering of the land; in 6:3; 10:12; 14:6, the several types of
precipitation draw attention to the utterance of YHWH or the requested righteousness; in
9:10.13.16; 10:1; 13:5; 14:6.8, Israel is symbolised by different plants that blossom and wither,
depending on their relation to Yhwh. In all of these instances, weather phenomena contribute
to these images. In this article, I try to catalogue and evaluate the metaphors and concepts to
look at how meteorological images convey theological and historical messages, and vice versa
how historical events or sociological procedures demonstrate their consequences in nature,
especially in the weather. It seems that weather imagery is used to describe the consequences
of idolatry, injustice and false politics. These cause drought and famine in a concrete sense, but
the withering of Israel figuratively, the last word of the book is a call for repentance that could
ensure Israel’s well-being once again. With these metaphors, Hosea explicitly delivers a plea
for monolatry and righteousness, as well as for equality, in an implicit way. These pieces of
evidence can provide a basis for further interpretation from the hermeneutical perspective of
the notion called ‘interconnectedness’.
CONTRIBUTION : This article analyses the weather imagery of the Book of Hosea and contributes
to a better understanding of the use of these metaphors in prophetic discourses.
Description:
Special Collection: Theology, Economy and Environment: Social, Cultural and Biotic Influences on Religious Communities, sub-edited
by Jerry Pillay (University of Pretoria).
This research is part of the project ‘Prophetic Studies’ of Prof. Alphonso Groenewald in the Department of Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria.
