The Prophetic Word of Hosea: A Morphological Study (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Book 111)

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. Preface 7 Abbreviations 9 Chapter I: Introduction 15 I. Form Criticism and Morphological Method 15 II. The Analysis of Literary Forms 16 Chapter II: The Data in Translation 20 Chapter III: The Word as Literature 42 I. The Size of Units and the Process of Transmission 42 II. Poetry 51 III. Narrative 65 Chapter IV: The Word as Communication 73 I. Introduction 73 II. The Speaker 74 A. Threats 75 B. Accusations 75 C. Positive Motifs. Relations to the Cult 83 III. The Addressee 85 Chapter V: The Word as Message: Terms 95 I. Introduction 95 II. Negative Terms 97 A. General Negative Terms 97 1. Enmity 97 2. Separation and Negation 100 B. Terms of Threat and Destruction 103 1. Judicial Controversy (Rîb) 103 2. »The Day of Yahweh« and Terms for War and Destruction 107 3. Other Threatening Terms 109 C. Terms of Accusation 112 1. General and Moral Evil 112 2. Sins More Specifically Against Yahweh 116 III. Positive Terms 119 A. Expectations or Hopes for Israel 119 B. Recognitions of Yahweh 124 IV. Open or Ambiguous Terms for the God-Israel Relationship and Its Cult 125 V. Conclusion 127 Chapter VI: The Word as Message: Structure 130 I. The Function of Prophecy in Its Context 130 II. The Negative Structure 133 III. The Positive Structure 140 IV. The Structure of Eschatology 143 A. Hosea’s Conceptual Pattern 143 B. The Dynamics of Eschatological Expectations 147 C. Future and End in Human Life and the Question of Love 152 Index 155