Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj AT live.com>]

Gabe Eisenstein wrote: Quote Even if "Jezreel" is a personification analogous 
to "Israel", wouldn't it stand for a group of people, Jezreelites, who were 
dominated by the royal retinue and employees, and who were massacred by Jehu? 
In other words, it seems to me that "blood of Jezreel" (as in KJ) or even 
"blood of the Jezreelites" would still most plausibly point to the massacre. 
The idea that the "blood" has not yet been spilled, that it refers only to a 
future invasion of Israel by foreigners and not to crimes committed in the 
past by the house of Jehu, requires a strange reading of paqadthi, does it 
not? It would have to be that God will "visit" (rather than "avenge") a 
punishment on Jeroboam that will consist of bloodshed in Jezreel -- why? Both 
the Bible and archaeology suggest that the royal residence in Jezreel was 
short-lived, and not used by Jeroboam. If it isn't a matter of avenging what 
Jehu did, what's the point?There is one thing that makes the question 
intriguing for me, and that is perhaps part of your hypothesis? "Great the 
day of Jezreel", which seems to be part of an addendum in verses 10-11, and 
refers not to any massacre OR invasion, but rather to a reunification of 
Israel and Judah. Anybody know how to make sense of it?UnquoteMy position is 
that "Jezreel" in "the blood of Jezreel" stands for Israel, so that the 
expression "the blood of Jezreel" = "the death [or homicide] of Jezreel" = 
"the death [or "homicide"] of Israel." This death results as a punishment of 
their idolatry. Note that the phrase "the blood of Jezreel" immediately 
follows the naming of Gomer's first child as "Jezreel," who is a person. 
(Note also that Jezreel's siblings Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi [both persons], 
too, represent Israel in some way in every occurrence of those names in the 
book of Hosea.) Hosea 12:14-13:1-2 sheds light on 1:4:  "14Ephraim provoked 
Him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall HE LEAVE HIS BLOOD UPON HIM, and 
his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. 1When Ephraim spake trembling he 
exalted himself in Israel; but WHEN HE OFFENDED IN BAAL, HE DIED. 2And now 
they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and 
idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the 
craftmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." 
[KJV, emphasis mine] I understand "his blood" in 13:14 to be Ephraim's own 
blood, so that "his blood" means "his death." The New English Bible renders 
this verse as follows: “Ephraim has given bitter provocation [to God by his 
idolatry]; therefore his Lord will make him answerable for his own death….” 
This death was the destruction of the nation by Assyria in 721 B.C.  As I 
mentioned in my first post, I understand "Baal" in every occurrence of that 
word in Hosea to refer to the bull worship introduced by Jeroboam I ("the 
sins of Jeroboam"). The royal house was to be punished for their bloodguilt 
for the death of Israel because of the part they played in the idolatry of 
the nation. This is in keeping with the principle that one can be guilty of 
the blood of another even though one had no direct hand in the killing of 
that other person (Deuteronomy 22:8; Ezekiel 33:1-9). From Jeroboam I 
onwards, all the kings of Israel were held responsible for Israel sinning 
(and, of course, its cosequences-ultimately destruction) through "the sins of 
Jeroboam" and they were all punished for that as well as their own sins (1 
Kings 14:1-16; 15:34; 16:2-3, 19, 26). The punishment was sometimes deferred 
to a future generation as in the case of Jehu. Note that in 1 Kings 14:16 the 
wife of Jeroboam I, the introducer of the cult of bull worship, is informed 
that Israel will be given up "because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, 
and who made Israel to sin." 
 "[The] bow of Israel," i.e., the military power of Israel, was to be broken 
in the valley of Jezreel as a token of the total destruction of the nation to 
follow later ("[I] will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel" 
[v. 4]). This is the significance of the first child of Gomer being named 
"Jezreel."
 
The other occurrences of the name "Jezreel" in Hosea support my view that 
"Jezreel" in "the blood of Jezreel" is a person. "[G]reat [shall] be the day 
of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:11) means, as the preceding words indicate, “that day 
when the people of the northern kingdom (represented by Jezreel) are gathered 
together with the people of the southern kingdom [Israel's sister nation] 
from their lands of exile and unified as one nation under one head will be 
great.” "Jezreel" could be replaced by "Israel" so that this clause reads 
"great shall be the day of Israel." (The expression "the day of Jezreel" is 
analogous to "the day of the Lord.") One can make no sense of the last clause 
of 1:11 if "Jezreel" refers to a geographical location. In 2:22-23, the 
etymological meaning of "Jezreel," "God sows," emerges. Again, "Jezreel" 
represents the nation. The only instance "Jezreel" in the book of Hosea 
refers to a geographical location is 1:5.
 
Hosea 1:4-5 pronounces judgment upon both the royal house and the nation for 
IDOLATRY, as both the preceding and the following context confirm, with the 
specific ground for the punishment of the royal house being "the blood of 
Jezreel." Therefore "the blood of Jezreel" cannot have anything to do with 
Jehu's blood-spilling in Jezreel, which is totally out of context. Note that 
Hosea’s ministry begins with God commanding him to take a “wife of whoredoms” 
and have “children of whoredoms” by her to symbolize the fact that the 
northern kingdom had departed from God and committed idolatry (Hosea 1:2), 
which firmly establishes idolatry as the context for the passage that 
follows. Where does Jehu's massacre at Jezreel fit into that?
 
It may be asked how the destruction (or death) of the nation of Israel could 
be avenged on her kings before the event. In answer it may be asked, By the 
same token, how could Hosea, writing *before* Israel's destruction, say that 
Ephraim "died" because of his idolatry (Hosea 13:1)? The idea behind 13:1 
must be the *certainty* of Ephraim's (=Israel's) death due to his idolatry 
(cf. Genesis 2:17 with 5:5). It may be that the same idea underlies "the 
blood of Jezreel" in 1:4. Look at 1 Kings 14:16 again, where Israel's 
ultimate fate, though alterable by national repentance, is, in divine 
foresight, a certainty.    
In the case of the murder of a person, the blood of the victim is avenged 
upon the murderer/s after the commission of the murder. But we are here 
dealing with a nation, not a person, though symbolized by a person (named 
"Jezreel"), and, if the kings were individually and collectively responsible 
for the eventual death of the nation, the only time when they could be 
punished for their sin was while they were yet living! They could not have 
been punished after the destruction of the nation because all the kings had 
ceased to exist by that time except the last-reigning king.
 
 
Leonard Jayawardena
Sri Lanka 
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