The reader will not fail to observe how this last reference perfectly

balances the first, even to the inclusion of the word 'mercy'.  This

insistence upon the word 'salvation' and 'save' suggested by the name of the

Prophet, is a feature that is noticeable in another grouping of the Prophets

in the Hebrew canon.

The term 'Prophet' covers some books which are historical rather than

predictive, and opens with the book of Joshua and closes with the minor

prophets considered as one book.  The 'Prophets' therefore of the Hebrew

canon open with 'Joshua' the salvation of the Lord, the Captain, and close

with 'Joshua' the salvation of the Lord, the High Priest, the whole prophetic

section of the Old Testament being bounded by the name borne by The Saviour,

for 'Jesus' is but the Greek spelling of Joshua, as a reference to Acts 7:45

and Hebrews 4:8 will show.  A disquisition on such a theme as 'The nature of

God' is naturally outside the scope of studies such as this, but no one

should be able to read the words 'I will ... save them by the Lord*

their God' (1:7) without being struck by its peculiar phraseology.  It is

'The Lord' Who is the speaker (verse 4), 'And the Lord said ... I will avenge

... I will break ... And (God the word supplied by the Authorized Version)

said ... I will no more ... I will utterly ... I will have mercy ... and will

save'.  If the passage had read 'I will save them Myself' it would have been

readily understood.  It must be remembered that of 'God, Absolute and

Unconditioned' we know, and can know, nothing.  He, Himself, is greater than

all His names, and His very nature unnameable.  In this verse in Hosea we

see, as it were, God Himself referring to Himself in the realm of the

manifest and conditioned.  He is 'Jehovah Their God' Who in fulness of time

became Man and was known as 'The Man Christ Jesus'.  (See God6)

*

The same problem meets us in Psalm 110:1, but Matthew 22:44 leaves us

in no doubt as to the One Who is intended.  Some readers may have been

disturbed by an exposition of Psalm 2:2 where it is denied that 'His

anointed' refers to the Lord Jesus Christ in spite of Acts 4:25 -28.  This

note seems called for in the circumstances.

The first three chapters are chiefly characterized with the fact that

the Prophet enacts in his own family life, the message that he has to tell,

and this is followed in the remaining chapters where the Prophet, still using

symbol, gives the message by word of mouth.

'Go take unto thee a wife' (1:2).  'Go yet, love a woman' (3:1).  This

is 'the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea'.  'Hear the word of the

Lord, ye children of Israel' (4:1).  This is the continuance of the prophecy

of Hosea.  The word translated 'beginning' is not the same as that found in

Genesis 1:1.  It is the Hebrew chalal, (some texts read techillah) and is

found again in the margin of Hosea 8:10, where the text reads 'sorrow'.

It may appear strange to the casual reader that a word can mean either

'beginning' or 'sorrow' but the fact is, that the idea of a 'beginning' is a

derived meaning, the primary idea of chalal being 'to perforate', thence by

steps 'to lay open', 'to give access and so profane or defile' and eventually

'to begin' in the sense of 'opening'.  While a verbal connection between the

word 'beginning' and the subsequent strange episode in the life of the

prophet would not be evident to the English reader, Hosea, who was

commissioned by God to 'take a wife of whoredoms' (1:2) would scarcely fail

to note that the word 'beginning' was derived from the word meaning 'to lay