Did God Really Tell Hosea to Marry a Prostitute?

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Did God Really Tell Hosea to Marry a Prostitute?

According to Hosea 1:2: Many well intentioned Christians believe God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. However, is this true?

Well, to entertain such an idea that the Lord our God would send a specific command to one of His prophets to indulge in an act of fornication with a prostitute is not only wrong but it does not make any logical sense. For there are two very important facts a person has to ignore when they believe such a thing.

#1. A person has to Ignore God's Holy and righteous character. For haven't we read within the Scriptures that say: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" (James 1:13).

#2. A person has to ignore just how horrific the sinful act of fornication is bodily and the false worship of idolatry actually is.

Should we believe that the Lord would force a holy man of God into committing this despicable act with a prostitute (i.e. fornication) for the purpose of reproving the abominations of others? How could Hosea be the instrument for exposing & punishing the sin of Israel when He would be just as guilty as they? Where is the wisdom in this, as the means for Israel to change?

I believe part of the problem lies within the translation of Modern Versions. Some of them flat out say that the Lord told Hosea to marry a prostitute. This would include the New International Version (NIV), New Language Translation (NLT), God's Word (2003), and the Webster's Bible Translation to name just a few.

However, according to the King James (1769 Edition) in Hosea 1:2 it says:

"The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD."

At dictionary.com the word "whoredoms" refers to "idolatry". So if we were to re-read this verse with the word idolatry instead. The verse becomes a lot clearer.

"The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of idolatry and children of idolatry: for the land hath committed great idolatry, departing from the LORD." ~ (Hosea 1:2)

Doesn't the truth make more sense when you interpret it correctly?
Do you agree?

...
 

Dave-W

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You are trying to intrepret OT truths from a NT viewpoint. That never works. God gave the testaments the other way around for a purpose.

And why do you call married sex "fornication?" When he married Gomer, there was no fornicating.
 
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dayhiker

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I can see your point about God asking Hosea to marry a woman from harlotry.
When I read the Bible thru I find God has much more problems with harlotry than he does with prostitution.
So my opinion is that this make what God is asking Hosea to so worse than the traditional translations.
 
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You are trying to intrepret OT truths from a NT viewpoint. That never works. God gave the testaments the other way around for a purpose.

And why do you call married sex "fornication?" When he married Gomer, there was no fornicating.

Because Hosea would have been joining physically with all the other men she had intercourse with. For sex is the union between a man and a woman whereby they are to become one flesh. Yes, God can forgive people's sins if they repent of them. But God telling Hosea to join with a prostitute goes against the goodness of God's Laws even in the Old Covenant.
 
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Dave-W

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But God telling Hosea to join with a prostitute goes against the goodness of God's Laws even in the Old Covenant.
IMO you have some ideas presented here that just do not stand up. No matter which way you want to cut it; harlotry, whoredom, prostitution; they all boil down to the same thing and idol worship is considered the spiritual equivalent of prostitution.

He married a hooker and God told him to. Deal with it.
 
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IMO you have some ideas presented here that just do not stand up. No matter which way you want to cut it; harlotry, whoredom, prostitution; they all boil down to the same thing and idol worship is considered the spiritual equivalent of prostitution.

He married a hooker and God told him to. Deal with it.

"Deal with it" was the same answer I was given in another controversial topic I just recently brought up by another poster. That really is not an explanation of what the text says and nor is it a defense of God's goodness or righteousness. For life even teaches us that if a father tells his son to marry someone who is exeedingly sinful and or who is bad news, then they will be influenced in the wrong way by that person's sins. Scriptures says we are not to have be unevenly yoked. It also says we are not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but we are to rather, reprove them. Sex is also a union between a man and a woman, too. The two shall become one flesh. Paul even says this about joining with a harlot in Scripture.

"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh." (1 Corinthians 6:16).

"Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid." (1 Corinthians 6:15).
 
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Dave-W

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You are falling into the trap of the pharisees (which has been epidemic in many evangelical circles for decades) which is an almost idolatrous preoccupation on personal holiness, at the expense of the larger picture. You are so focused in on whether the prophet was joined to others via sex with a hooker that you are totally missing the message which was the whole people of Israel were going after false gods and entering a covenant with them which is a case of spiritual adultery and prostitution.

What you are claiming was wrong for Hosea, God was using as a picture for what was wrong with the whole nation.
 
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JaapAap

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Because Hosea would have been joining physically with all the other men she had intercourse with. For sex is the union between a man and a woman whereby they are to become one flesh. Yes, God can forgive people's sins if they repent of them. But God telling Hosea to join with a prostitute goes against the goodness of God's Laws even in the Old Covenant.
He would be joining with all those unclean demons, but if it was idolatry I guess you had the same thing. That's also unclean demons.

https://bible.org/seriespage/8-undying-love-story-hosea-and-gomer
 
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You are falling into the trap of the pharisees (which has been epidemic in many evangelical circles for decades) which is an almost idolatrous preoccupation on personal holiness, at the expense of the larger picture. You are so focused in on whether the prophet was joined to others via sex with a hooker that you are totally missing the message which was the whole people of Israel were going after false gods and entering a covenant with them which is a case of spiritual adultery and prostitution.

What you are claiming was wrong for Hosea, God was using as a picture for what was wrong with the whole nation.

Nowhere did I ever say that the Metaphor or Spiritual Picture God was trying to send was wrong. I believe God told Hosea to marry a woman who was from a people who were idolatrous. The same spiritual message can be made with the reading of the plain straight forward reading of the text that I provided, too. In fact, it is obvious in the fact that the text is talking about idolatry and not actual prostition because the passage says the children were idolatrous (or harlots), too. So unless you believe the children were also actual harlots, too, then we are only led to the conclusion that God is telling Hosea to marry a woman who was amongst a people of idolatry.
 
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You are falling into the trap of the pharisees (which has been epidemic in many evangelical circles for decades) which is an almost idolatrous preoccupation on personal holiness, at the expense of the larger picture. You are so focused in on whether the prophet was joined to others via sex with a hooker that you are totally missing the message which was the whole people of Israel were going after false gods and entering a covenant with them which is a case of spiritual adultery and prostitution.

What you are claiming was wrong for Hosea, God was using as a picture for what was wrong with the whole nation.

Nowhere did I ever say that the Metaphor or Spiritual Picture God was trying to send was wrong. I believe God told Hosea to marry a woman who was from a people who were idolatrous. The same spiritual message can be made with the reading of the plain straight forward reading of the text that I provided, too. In fact, it is obvious in the fact that the text is talking about idolatry and not actual prostition because the passage says the children were idolatrous (or harlots), too. So unless you believe the children were also actual harlots, too, then we are only led to the conclusion that God is telling Hosea to marry a woman who was amongst a people of idolatry.
 
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Not what the text says. It says "children of harlotry." i.e., their fathers were her customers.

The word in the Hebrew is זְנוּנִים z'nunim and is the same word to describe Tamar being with child after bedding her father-in-law Judah.

It refers to her existing offspring. Those sired by Hosea would NOT be "children of harlotry."
 
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He would be joining with all those unclean demons, but if it was idolatry I guess you had the same thing. That's also unclean demons.

https://bible.org/seriespage/8-undying-love-story-hosea-and-gomer

But nowhere does the text say that Gomer denied the True LORD GOD and was continuously idolatrous, though. The text says for Hosea to marry a wife of idolatry (prostitution) and to take children of idolatry (prostitution). Meaning, Hosea was being told to marry a wife and take children from a people who were idolatrous. For the context tells us that is referring to people who have departed from the LORD as the context of their whoredowm or spiritual idolatry (Which is in reference to the PEOPLE).

"for the land (PEOPLE) hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD." (Hosea 1:2).

This is the context of the "whoredom" (idolatry) that is being spoken of here.
 
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Not what the text says. It says children of harlotry. i.e., their fathers were her customers.
God does not change. If you were not married, and you believe you ran into a spirit that was God who told you to marry a prostitute today, would you do it? If not, then what would be your reason in Scripture to prove that the real True God would not want you to do something like that?
 
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Dave-W

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God does not change. If you were not married, and you believe you ran into a spirit that was God who told you to marry a prostitute today, would you do it? If not, then what would be your reason in Scripture to prove that the real True God would not want you to do something like that?
Do you believe God told Abraham to kill Isaac?
 
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Do you believe God told Abraham to kill Isaac?

So if you had a vision you believe might be from God that told you to mow down a bunch of children with a machine gun or to do something you believed to be wrong or sinful, you would just do it?

See, I believe I can know God is good. His righteous and good ways are not a mystery to me. I am not in a Mystery religion. I am in a relationship with Jesus Christ and He can teach me His good ways. I can know them. For the Spirit guides me into all truth. God is not the author of confusion. He is not going to tell me to do good and then turn around and tell me to do something bad.

For Abraham did not believe he was going to just permanently murder his son. Hebrews 11:19 tells us Abraham believed God was going to resurrect Isaac. If Abraham did not believe God was going to resurrect Isaac, and that God was asking him to permanently take the life of his son, then I would believe this to be wrong because God does not ask us to break His own eternal moral Laws. God is good and His standard for righteousness is always good and knowable.
 
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You are falling into the trap of the pharisees (which has been epidemic in many evangelical circles for decades) which is an almost idolatrous preoccupation on personal holiness, at the expense of the larger picture. You are so focused in on whether the prophet was joined to others via sex with a hooker that you are totally missing the message which was the whole people of Israel were going after false gods and entering a covenant with them which is a case of spiritual adultery and prostitution.

What you are claiming was wrong for Hosea, God was using as a picture for what was wrong with the whole nation.

Actually the problem with the Pharisees is that they were not holy. Jesus said they ignored the weightier matters of the Law like justice, faith, and mercy. For the Law is not made for a righteous man, but it is for the lawless and disobedient. Jesus was never against His own Laws (or God's Laws). Jesus told the Pharisees to first clean the inside of the cup and then the outside of the cup will be clean. Meaning, they needed to get their hearts right with God inwardly, then God could then do the "good work" within their lives.
 
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Dave-W

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Actually the problem with the Pharisees is that they were not holy.
But they THOUGHT they were. That was the issue. And they were trying desperately to hang on to that which they thought they had.

How much do you actually know about the Pharisees?
Why does traditional Judaism now look at both Jesus and Paul as fitting within the norms of Pharisaic Judaism?
 
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Did God Really Tell Hosea to Marry a Prostitute?
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Imo, yes, he did. I will stick to the plain word of Scripture on this one.

It was intended to be a shocking thing to do, and it was. The reason is that throughout its history God says that Israel behaves like a harlot towards him. This is him making that message very explicit indeed.
 
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Imo, yes, he did. I will stick to the plain word of Scripture on this one.

It was intended to be a shocking thing to do, and it was. The reason is that throughout its history God says that Israel behaves like a harlot towards him. This is him making that message very explicit indeed.

the mentality I see displayed in this (and others) thread is one of turning God from a real PERSON into a rule book.

"God can't do that; because it violates xxxxx."

So what? God is an all-powerful person and can do any thing he wants any time he wants. He has personally sent lying demons to a king to lure him into a deadly trap. He told his close friend to kill his own son. He had Isaiah walk around stark naked for years. He is not bounded by how we interpret his ways and rules.

So that is why I say to get over it and deal with Him as He is.
 
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