Hosea 1 Footnotes

The fourth view is commonly held among evangelical scholars. It allows for a literal understanding of the marriage and the children while at the same time avoiding any moral difficulties. The most important support is provided by Hosea’s description of the time when the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt as a season of bliss (Hs 2:14-15). Israel’s initial purity at the exodus from Egypt required that Hosea’s wife was also pure at the start of the marriage. In this view “a woman of promiscuity” means a wife who would prove unfaithful to Hosea after she married him, because she had a predisposition to adultery.