Hosea 6 Study Notes

This root in cognate languages usually means “spread/stretch out” but in Akkadian denotes “extirpate, eradicate.” Pashat involves taking off (Ezk 44:19), removing (1Sm 19:24), or stripping off (Ezk 26:16) one’s own clothes. One strips oneself (Is 32:11). Pashat also means raid (1Sm 23:27) or make a raid (Jb 1:17). It indicates the action of attacking or rushing (forward) that is involved in a raid (Jdg 9:33,44). Locusts strip the land or shed their skin (Nah 3:16). Gangs pillage (Hs 7:1). Intensive verbs denote stripping or plundering the dead (1Sm 31:8; 2Sm 23:10). Causative verbs concern stripping off (Gn 37:23) or removing (Nm 20:26) the clothes from another person. Somebody strips another (Hs 2:3) or strips him of honor (Jb 19:9). People strip skin from people (Mc 3:3) and skin animals (Lv 1:6). The reflexive-passive also describes removing one’s own clothes (1Sm 18:4).

6:7 A place called Adam is known from Jos 3:16, but no sin or covenant violation is known to have occurred there. The reference is probably to the first man. Although the term covenant is not used in Gn 1-3, the relation between God and the first man is often described as covenantal. The covenant is sometimes called the “covenant of works,” in which Adam’s divinely bestowed life would be maintained in return for obedience. The significance of Adam’s sin for the human race is clarified in Rm 5:15-17. The word there is either a wordplay alluding to idolatry being practiced at or near Adam or is a vague reference to places where such betrayal was occurring.

6:8-11a Judgment approaching Judah is here described as a coming harvest because the people were growing ripe with wickedness (Jr 51:33; Jl 3:13; Rv 14:14-16).

6:11b-7:2 Healing of sin requires exposure of sin.