The first two chapters of Hosea
New Book. Hebrew Bride
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Sub-Title:
The Ten Tribes and Judah in the Prophecy of Hosea, First Chapters
Author:
Yair Davidiy
Israel, 2018, 5778
134 pages
Now available for $25.
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The Ten Tribes are now to be found among Western Peoples. The Prophet Hosea speaks of the Ten Tribes using the metaphor of a loose woman named Gomer.
The lady in question represents the Ten Tribes who linked up with another group of peoples also named Gomer. Together they migrated to Western Europe. Their descendants are still there and in nations (the USA, etc.) that grew up from there. The simile of husband and wife is used several times in Scripture to represent the relationship either between the Almighty and Judah (i.e. the Jews) or that of God and the Ten Tribes or with both together. The Present-Day situation was predicted in Prophecy.
Additional Proof identifying the Lost Ten Tribes with elements who settled among Western Peoples is provided. The Balfour Declaration is indicated in prophecy.
This work has importance for Judah as well as for the Ten Tribes!
Hosea was the son of a Prince of Reuben. The Era of Hosea was the time of Israelite Exile. Hosea bore the same name as the Last King of Israel. The name Hosea is a form of the name Yehoshua (Joshua). There may be significance in the fact that the first leader of Israel when they conquered the land was named Hosea (i.e. Joshua) and the same name was given to the last king of the Ten Tribes and again the Prophet who lived and prophesied at the time of the Exile was too called Hosea.
Hosea was commanded to a take a loose woman named Gomer and have children by her. Commentators are divided as to whether this was a real-life event or something experienced only as a kind of Prophetic Vision.
The Children of Hosea with Gomer represent the Lost Ten Tribes. They do not refer to Judah who is expressly excluded (1:7, 11:12[12:1]) from the equation.
Hosea 1:
7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen.
Hiosea 11(KJV):
12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.
The name Gomer was also the name of a group of peoples descended from Japhet the son of Noah.
Genesis (NASB) 10:
1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
These sons of Gomer were the peoples referred to as Gimirrai by the Assyrians. They are referred to by historians as Cimmerians, Scythians, and Guti (Goths).
We find places of Cimmerians and Scythian settlement to be those in which Israelites were re-settled. there is evidence that the exiled Israelites asserted their independence and confederated with these Gomerites.
The names of the Children of Gomer refer to the fate that befell the Ten Tribes in their places of Exile. One of these names is "Jezreel." An Assyrian version of this name was applied by them to the Cimmerians. The Assyrians called the Cimmerians "zer qalkati" meaing approximately "Scattered Seed." This is virtually the same as the name "Yizrael" (i.e. Jezreel) that Hoses apllied to one of his children, i.e. one of the three sections of the Lost Ten Tribes!
Welsh Legend also refers to their origin from the Cimmerians.
Rabbi Yisrael Alter ("Beis Yisroel"), Rabbi of Gur Hasidim (1895 - 1977) identified the Israelites especially those of Joseph as Gomerites! Rabbi Yisrael Alter was speaking in religious terms but it is appropriate to toher portionso f Biblical prophecy and to histyorical sources. The Ten Tribes had become part of the Cimmerians group of peoples and moved west with them.
The Lost Ten Tribes will return. We are not sure how this will come about but correctly identifying who the Lost Ten Tribes are may well be part of it. Judah i.e. the present-day Jews will place a major role in helping the Lost Ten Tribes return.
Hosea 1:7 indicates that Judah in its places of Exile will not be like the Ten Tribes. Judah will not be a major military power, in fact no military at all during its exile.
Judah in exile will have been ruled by
THE THREE OATHS.
These are not Biblical injunctions. They are more like mythological descriptions of a metaphysical reality and not a prescriptions as to how the reality should be.
Nevertheless many Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the past attached significance to these oaths. Some of them (e.g. Satmer Hasidim) still do.
The Oaths said that the Jews in Exile (AND THE GENTILES) were abjured:
1. Not to rebell against the Gentiles.
2. Not to return to the land by Force.
3. For their part the Gentiles undertook not to oppress the Jews excessively.
Midrash Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 2:[7]1.
R. Yossi bar Chanina said: "There are two oaths here, one for Israel and one for the nations. Israel swore not to rebel against the nations [R. Yossi bar Chanina views Israel's two oaths in Ketuvot as just one], and the nations swore that they would not overly burden Israel, for by doing so they would cause the end of days to come prematurely."Midrash Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 2:18:
Rabbi Chelbo says ... And do not ascend like a wall from the Exile. If so, why is the King Messiah coming? To gather the exiles of Israel.
Not every authority agreed with the Three oaths or even took any notice of them.
Ramban (Nachmanides) did not explicitly discuss the Three Oaths, however he did maintain that it is incumbent upon Jews in every generation as a positive commandment to attempt to conquer the Land of Israel. In his glosses (Hashmatot) to Maimonides Sefer HaMitzvot on Positive Commandment #4 he wrote:
#That we are commanded to take possession of the Land which the Almighty, Blessed Be He, gave to our forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov; and not to abandon it to other nations, or to leave it desolate, as He said to them, You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it, for I have given the Land to you to possess it, (Numbers, 33:53) and he said, further, To Inherit the Land which I swore to your forefathers, (to give them,) behold, we are commanded with the conquest of the land in every generation. #
Even according to the Oaths, it is implied by the Third Oath that if the Gentiles did oppress the Jews too much then the Jews would no longer be bound by the first two Oaths.
In addition the Gentiles in effect gave the Jews permission to return and released them from the oaths. They did this through the British Balfour Declaration of 1917 later confirmed by the League of Nations in 1920 and again by a United Nations Vote of Partition (of Palestine) in 1947. Once permission had been given the Jews were released ALTOGETHER AND UNCONDITIONALLY!
God as a Husband to Israel
The idea behind the Book of Hosea with the coupling of Hosea and Gomer representing the union of God with Israel is found elsewhere in Scripture.
Ezekiel ch.23 contains a Prophecy made by Ezekiel in Judah before he was taken to Babylon. In Ezekiel 23 the Almighty speaks of two women who are depicted as if they became His, i.e. His wives. One was named Ohalah and the other Oholibah.
Ezekiel 23:
4 Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Oholah represented Samaria i.e. the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel. She committed adultery with the Assyrians. Consequently the Assyrians killed her and "took her sons and her daughters" (23:10). Oholibah i.e. Judah in the time Ezekiel was prophesying was acting in the same way her sister had and is warned that the Babylonians and others will do unto her as was done to Oholah.
Isaiah 54:4 the Almighty depicts HIMSELF as a Husband to Israel. According to the context in this case he is referring primarily to Judah at the time of their Exile and Future Redemption.
In Jeremiah 3:1 the Almighty says that Israel is like a promiscuous woman who has been divorced but later (against accepted practice) is to be taken back again by her husband. God is that husband. The specific case here concerns the Ten Tribes in their early stages of Exile.
In their places of exile the Israelites will have worshipped Baal i.e. Bel just like the British used to do in Celtic times.
The Ten Tribes at the present time have the religious status of non-Jews. They were exiled because of their sins (Jeremiah 3:6-7 cf. 2-Kings chapters 17 and 18). The exiled tribes had been divorced by God (Jeremiah 3:8). Legislatively, their membership in Israel as a collectively obliged body was suspended.
Temporarily they are no longer legally obligated by the Mosaic Code (cf. Hosea 1:9, Yebamot 17). This will change in the future.
The Return of the Ten Tribes
Isaiah 49 describes the return of the Lost Ten Tribes.
Isaiah 49:
21 Then you will say in your heart,
Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away
so who has reared these?
I was left all alone
where then have these come from?
In other words, the Jews will ask where were all those now identified as Israel when the Jews needed help and were alone? According to the Midrash (Pesikta Rabati 32;10) this reaction of the Jews will take place WHEN THEY SEE THE THREE EXILES OF THE LOST TEN TRIBES RETURNING!
Despite this the Ten Tribes will be redeemed when Jews from Judah will go unto them:
The Midrash tells us:
These are the 'Ten Tribes.' They are those who were exiled beyond the Sambation River. The exiles of Judah and Benyamin [i.e. the present-day 'Jews'] are destined to go unto them and bring them back in order to merit with them the Messianic Era and life in the World-To-Come. This is as it says, 'In those days the house of Judah shall go unto the house of Israel and they shall come together out of the land of the north unto the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers' (Jeremiah 3:18).
Midrash, Yalkut Shimeoni, Song of Solomon 905.
Linguistic Note: We have quoted from Jeremiah 3:18 'In those days the house of Judah shall go unto the house of Israel." This is how Rabbinical Tradition understood it and how the Hebrew Bible (in this section) should be understood with the Hebrew preposition "al" being translated as "to." Some English translations render the "al" here as "with" which gives the verse a different implication. This can be debated since in the Bible both usages are found. Nevertheless our understanind of translating "al" here as "unto" is in line with majority usage and with Rabbinical Understanding. This for us is sufficient.
Despite the Ten Tribes being in need that the Jews go unto them to inform them of who they are the Future Redemption is dependent on Joseph.
Midrash Tanchuma (Nasa, 30): "The Almighty said to Joseph: Even though I paid you part of your reward the capital is preserved for you. This is in order that Israel should be redeemed with an everlasting Redemption. By virtue of Jacob and by virtue of you [Joseph] they shall be redeemed, as its says,
Psalms (NASB) 17:
15 You [i.e. God] have by Your power redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.