Hosea 5-7

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

5:3-4 - "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD."
5:7 - "They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields."

6:10 - "In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there, Israel is defiled."

Hosea 7 - No mention of any women.

My Comments

Now, I present the above verses with a bit of uncertainty. They do not specifically state any female pronouns in these verses. But I put them with the facts because of the words "whore" and "whoredom" which have never once been used to describe a man and so I feel it would be odd for the Bible to start doing that now. Plus, it has been shown that a lands perceived sex can change without any warning or fanfare. Therefore, despite a lack of female pronouns I do believe these verses are still referencing these places/tribes as female.

Now, for some fun, let's contrast the male punishment of these tribes with the female punishment Israel as been forced to suffer for the past few books.

5:11 - "Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity."
7:8-9 - "Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, but he does not know it."
7:11 - "Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria."

Holy shit, what atrocities!? Grey hairs, strength taken away, calling Ephraim SILLY?! Oh, the injustice! My God, why am I focusing on the women when it's so clear just how horrible the Bible treats men?! D:

Yeah... no. Ephraim may be crushed, oppressed, grey haired, weak and pronounced "silly," but I think that really doesn't even come close to Israel's oppression, destruction, repeated rapes, repeated unclothing and public shaming, constant condemnation of her "whoredom" and her "lusts" and "whoring," her constant reminder of her less than status. I mean, if they are equal then those must be some REALLY horrible grey hairs.

I'm gonna be honest, the line about Ephraim becoming like a dove and being "silly and without sense" left me with some very mixed emotions. I was at once hit with how RIDICULOUS that sounds after so many books of the suffering and unfair treatment of Israel and her other female tribes mixed with an extreme feeling of anger that that is how Ephraim is described after dealing with single chapters that used the word "whore" and "whoredom" 23 TIMES and that was not even counting synonyms of "whore" and "whoring" and "whoredom" which brings the number to truly ridiculous amounts.

If anyone wanted to see just how differently women or female designated cities/tribes
are treated from men or male designated cities/tribes then there ya go. If you want to read the entire chapters just to see if I'm just pulling out the weaker male quotes then be my guest. These chapters aren't very long. But the punishments do not get any worse than this and anything male Ephraim is meant to suffer Israel suffered and then some. But if you doubt this then, really, go look up the chapters are tell me I'm bullshitting.

And just one more verse that stood out to me:

6:6-7 - "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But as Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me."

Adam transgressed the covenant and was faithless to God because Adam took the word of woman over the word of God. Woman is, indeed, the greatest enemy when it comes to man's relationship with God. Hell, this trust of a woman over God is the main reason God has to spend all this time making his people suffer and sending people to hell. Honestly, as far as I am concerned, the Original Sin wasn't eating the apple but trusting a woman. This was man's first act of "adultery" and, really, God hasn't forgiven woman since. Now God spends book after book, chapter after chapter warning men of just how evil woman is. Just how little woman is to be trusted. Heaven forbid men give woman even an ounce of freedom or control lest men "cheat" on God again and force God to punish them to an even greater extent.

"For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD."

Again I think to myself, how can anyone say the Bible isn't woman hating?

Wednesday: More Hosea