Hosea 1
1. Who was King Jeroboam mentioned in verse 1? How long did he reign? Answer
2. What did God command Hosea to do? Answer
3. Why did God personally name Hosea's two sons and one daughter? Answer
4. What prophetic event is hinted at in verse 7? Answer
5. Where is verse 9 referenced in the New Testament? Answer
6. Where is verse 10 referenced in Apostle Paul's writings? Answer
7. What are verses 10 and 11 referencing? Answer
Hosea 2
8. What do verses 2 to 23 describe? Answer
9. Who was Baal or the Baals (verses 8, 13)? Answer
10. What is referenced in verses 16 to 23? Answer
11. Where are verses 19 and 20 allude to in Biblical prophecy? Answer
12. Where is verse 23 quoted by the Apostle Paul? Answer
Hosea 3
13. What is Hosea told to do by God (verses 1)? Answer
14. What did Hosea have to do to reclaim his wife? Answer
15. What are teraphim (verse 4)? Answer
16. What is the timeframe of verse 5? Answer
Hosea 4
17. What is the cause of Israel's problems and impending judgment? Answer
18. How did Israel's spiritual depravity manifest itself? Answer
19. Why is verse 6 important? Answer
20. Why are verses 12 and 13 important? Answer
Hosea 5
21. Where is Mizpah and Tabor located? Answer
22. What shift takes place in verse 5? Answer
23. What does verse 9 foretell? Answer
Hosea 6
24. When will the events of verses 1 to 3 take place? Answer
25. Where is verse 6 quoted in the New Testament gospels? Answer
26. Where is Gilead located (verse 8)? Answer
Hosea 7
27. What does it mean that Ephraim called on Egypt and Assyria (verse 11)? Answer
Hosea 1 Answers
1. King Jeroboam II was the third generation over the Kingdom of Israel that descended from Jehu. King Jehu was promised by God he would have four generations sit on the throne for his obedience in decimating the house of Ahab (2Kings 10:30).
Jehu's dynasty, including his own reign, lasted from 841 to 753 B.C., the longest in Israel's history. Jeroboam II's son Zechariah would end up ruling only six months in 753.
[Israel's Royal Dynasties Timeline]
2. God commanded Hosea to marry a woman who worked as a prostitute and to produce children through her. The purpose of this marriage was to vividly symbolize the status of God's covenant relationship with Israel.
3. God named Hosea's children to draw attention to prophecies that would soon come to pass against Israel (the northern ten tribes) for its many sins.
The first child was a son named Jezreel which means "God sows." His name was meant to convey that Jehu's dynasty of rule would cease followed sometime afterwards by the fall of the Kingdom of Israel through the Assyrians (Hosea 1:4 - 5). The conquering and captivity of Israel was completed thirty years after Zechariah, the last of Jehu's line to rule, was murdered in 753 B.C.
Hosea's second child was a girl named Lo-Ruhamah whose name meant "no mercy." The name was given to convey that the Lord would no longer be merciful to his people but would execute judgment upon them.
The third child, a son, was called Lo-Ammi. His name meant "not my people," given to symbolize the Lord would completely sever his relationship with his people.
4. Hosea 1:7 hints at God saving the Kingdom of Judah by his personal intervention and not through human military strength. This miraculous act would take place in 701 B.C. when the Kingdom of Judah was saved within a single night! God sent his death angel among the Assyrian troops poised to destroy Jerusalem who, within a single night, killed 185,000 enemy warriors.
[Greatest Death Tolls in the Bible!]
5. Hosea 1:9 is referenced in 1Peter 2:10.
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (1Peter 2:10).
6. Hosea 1:10 is quoted in Romans 9:26
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God (Romans 9:26).
7. Hosea 1:10 - 11 is referencing a time during the Millennium when God will re-establish a relationship with his people. Israel and Judah will again be one nation and will live in the land they were given as an inheritance.
Hosea 2 Answers
8. In Hosea 2:2 - 23 God uses the prophet's relationship with his whore wife Gomer, and her unwillingness to stop being a prostitute, as a symbol of his relationship with his people. Although in verse 2 he calls for repentance, in verse 3 he starts listing the penalties for Israel's rebellion.
Gomer's "lovers" represents Israel's consistent pursuit of worshipping and obeying idols (idolatry) that they attributed to giving them the necessities of life (bread, water, wool, oil, etc.).
9. Baal was a Canaanite pagan deity. The Baals were various images of Baal in different cities.
[Top Ten Deities Israel Worshipped!]
10. Hosea 2:16 - 23 references a time when Israel will be restored in its relationship with God. This time, during Jesus' reign on earth, will bring peace and prosperity to God's people and the name of pagan deities will not be mentioned (verse 17).
11. Hosea 2:19 - 20 is allude to in Revelation 19:7
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready (Revelation 19:7).
12. The Apostle Paul quotes Hosea 2:23 in Romans 9:25.
As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved (Romans 9:25).
Hosea 3 Answers
13. Hosea is told, once again, to demonstrate his love for his adulterous wife. This symbolized God's great love for his people in spite of their behavior.
[What Are the Different Types of Love?]
14. Hosea paid fifteen shekels of silver and some grain to buy his wife back from someone who possibly owned her as a slave.
15. Teraphim were likely idols or talismans associated with pagan magical rites. They were sometimes used as household gods or for divination.
16. The timeframe of Hosea 3:5 is the last or latter days after Jesus returns to earth.
Hosea 4 Answers
17. The cause of Israel's problems is that truth, mercy and a right knowledge of God did not exist in the nation (Hosea 4:1).
18. Israelites were indulging in cursing, lying, murdering, stealing and committing adultery. These were all self-centered sins that broke the Ten Commandments (the third, ninth, sixth, eighth and seventh commandments in that order).
19. Hosea 4:6 is one of the often used Old Testament scriptures. It is sometimes used to illustrate that when leaders reject the truth that comes from God and fail to teach it to the people that the Lord will ultimately reject them.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children (Hosea 4:6).
20. Hosea 4:12 - 13 links idolatry and the worship of pagan deities with spiritual adultery. The Israelites were called by God to worship him and him alone. The serving and worshipping of anything else was a betrayal of this relationship just like physical adultery is a betrayal of the marriage covenant.
Hosea 5 Answers
21. Mizpah is located in the Kingdom of Israel's territory east of the Jordan River. Mount Tabor is also located west of the Jordan near the valley of Jezreel.
22. Starting in Hosea 5:5 the Kingdom of Judah and her leaders are mentioned as suffering due to their sins. In verse 8 several cities in Benjamin (Kingdom of Judah's) territory are called upon to watch for enemies.
23. Verse 9 foretells the conquering and captivity of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrian Empire.
Hosea 6 Answers
24. Hosea 6:1 - 3 will take place sometime early in the Millennial reign of Jesus upon the earth. It will be a time when Israel will finally recognize the Lord as their only God and seek his truth.
25. Hosea 6:6 is quoted in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7.
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13).
But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless (Matthew 12:7).
26. The Biblical area known as Gilead is located east of the Jordan River and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. It was the home to many important Old Testament cities such as Jabeshgilead (Judges 21), Ramothgilead (1Kings 22:1 - 3), Mahanaim (Genesis 32:1 - 2), Peniel (also called Penuel, 32:30 - 31) and Succoth (33:17).
Hosea 7 Answers
27. The Kingdom of Israel is also called Ephraim in Hosea. Israel (the northern ten tribes), instead of relying on God to protect it, sought alliances with foreign pagan powers such as Assyria and Egypt.
Israel's King Jehu, in 841 B.C., paid tribute money to Assyria. Kings Jehoash, as well as Menahem (2Kings 15:19 - 20), did so as well.
Israel's last ruler, Hoshea, began to pay tribute to the Assyrian Empire starting in 732 B.C. After a few years the king stopped all payments and began to secretly seek an alliance with Egypt. These plans, however, were discovered by Assyria and used as a reason to attack and conquer Israel (2Kings 17:1 - 6).
[Kingdoms of Israel / Judah Map]
It should be noted that the Kingdom of Judah also sought to align with foreign powers, from time to time, in order to protect itself and advance its goals.
Judah's King Ahaz, in 732 B.C., paid for the Assyrians to help him against the Kings of Syria and Israel. Assyria then proceeded to conquer Damascus and kill the Syrian king (2Kings 16:5 - 9).
King Josiah, who aligned himself with the up and coming Babylonian Empire, lost his life in 609 B.C. when he tried to stop Egypt from attacking the Babylonians (2Kings 23:29).