Covenantal nature : representations of land in Hosea

Abstract

The last decades of biblical scholarship have treated the land in various ways – as a character, a theme, or even a theology – and culminate in the position that the land is inextricably part of the YHWH-Israel relationship, particularly as a homeland, a gift and the people's inheritance. In the Book of Hosea, these ideas are reworked as the land becomes associated with the failings of the people, reflecting the characters’ ideas and perceptions. The narrative thus promotes a reexamination of the Land’s place in YHWH’s relationship with the Israelites.

To achieve this, the dissertation considers how the land is represented in Hosea, particularly as a sacred space which is subject to the values, perceptions, and attitudes of a people. The study begins by conducting a literary-exegetical analysis of the Masoretic text, establishing Hosea’s textual notions of the land through morphological and structural analyses as well as discussions of Gattung and Sitz im Leben. The study then analyses how land is (re)produced as a sacred space, drawing on the social-scientific approach and considering the impact of holiness, the role of cultural memory, as well as covenantal exchange in the Land’s deconstruction and recreation.

This investigation demonstrates that land is expressed on three levels: the textual, the physical, and the relational, which are reflected in the narrative’s repeated processes of construction, destruction, and reconstruction. The reflections further exhibit how the undulations of Israel’s covenant with YHWH become enmeshed in the physical landscape, ultimately pointing to the Land’s role as YHWH and Israel’s sacred, covenantal space.