Hosea’s marriage and the lobby for women emancipation

Old Testament Divinity Revision

Hosea's marriage to gomer is a solution to the lobby for woman emancipation.Discuss

With Brian Maregedze

▪ The book of Hosea is very interesting although it appears challenging to most readers of the Bible. The marriage between Hosea and Gomer has variously been interpreted but the writer is more concerned with the metaphorical interpretation of the marriage.
▪There is also need to read Hosea 1-3 with an open eye so as to have an understanding of the book.

▪ KEY WORDS

>Lobby- call for public support through use of influence or persuasion/support for a certain cause.
>Emancipation- being set free from dependence or subjection to slavery for instance.

Hosea' marriage has to be understood in the context of Ancient Israel and or Ancient times of Hosea who forgives an adulterous wife against the tradition which punished females within an adulterous scenario. Males were treated with favour.
However, with Gomer's case she was forgiven.
Also to note is that, Hosea had 3 children who were all female making him a person not honoured by their Jewish tradition.
Instead, Hosea accepted his wife Gomer.

Moving on to modern marriages, Hosea's marriage has been used to lobby(gain support) for emancipation (feminism) since Hosea lived beyond Jewish tradition by embracing his wife despite the circumstances of his time.

This also suggests that both male and female can be regarded as equal since since they have all the right to be forgiven when there is marital infidelity or challenges.

In a  Patriarchal social set up, when women commit a crime against their male counterparts the assumption is generally that they should face punishment.
Instead of confronting unfaithfulness with unfaithfulness,  Hosea rather responds with love and forgiveness which clearly points to a Bible which propmotes gender balance when dealing with marital problems.
In this regard, the  message is that of emancipation since women are usually the victims when it comes to infidelity issues in society.

On the other hand
●candidates can also bring out the view that the marriage between Hosea and Gomer is symbolic demonstrating the close relationship between Yahweh and Israel as a nation.

God being genderless and Israel being promiscuous based on joining other religions.

Over and above all, Hosea's marriage encourages egalitarian marriages were couples should not have a scenario were males dominate in the marriage but rather equality exists.

Read, Amy Bost Henegar(2011).

More points can be added  from both sides.

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