The Haftarah Project: Bemidbar—Beyond the Theatrical Prophets
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The Hebrew prophets frequently used metaphor and allegory to convey their messages. Metaphors arising from day-to-day life helped them express theological and moral ideas through relatable imagery. For example, Isaiah described Israel as a vineyard that failed to produce good fruit, despite God’s finest care as vineyard-tender, thereby igniting God’s ire (Isaiah 5:1–7).
At God’s command, prophets also employed theatrical symbolic acts to capture attention and underscore their prophecies. Ezekiel, for instance, lay on his side for several hundred days to symbolize Israel’s and Judah’s years of sin and how that sin would lay upon him (Ezekiel 4:4–6). Jeremiah wore a yoke to represent impending captivity under Babylon, making his message dramatically tangible (Jeremiah 27:2–11).
These methods surely helped the prophets make their messages palpable and, in some cases, quite difficult to ignore. But what happens when the metaphor or allegory employed to inspire moral rectitude is itself morally problematic?
That’s the question our haftarah raises for us this week. The text depicts Israel as a whoring wife who, if persisting in her ways, will be grossly humiliated by being stripped naked by her husband, abandoned, left unprotected, and given to die through exposure and thirst. We shudder at the image of a woman, gravely limited in power within the patriarchal institution of marriage, suffering such a fate. We shudder because we hear too many echoes of real cries of real women around the world in our very time who suffer extreme cruelty and death when suspected of adultery (e.g., unjust imprisonment, life-threatening social ostracism, flogging and stoning, honor killings).
Indeed, the entire drama of the allegory is difficult. Hosea’s wife is but an object in the story, providing an “object lesson.” In chapter one, God instructs Hosea to marry “a wife of whoredom.” We understand that this command comes in order to supply the theatrical setting for God’s allegorical message. Israel has acted as a whore by following after foreign gods, depending on their supposed bounty instead of YHVH’s. She will be punished and stripped of all protection, until she realizes that YHVH is her true protector, lord, and husband. God brings her back by speaking coaxingly and tenderly to her, lavishing her with gifts (Hosea 2:16–17). In this moment, God appears distastefully similar to an abusive, controlling husband; veering from excoriating shame to tender endearments. We have trouble with the allegory.
And yet. And yet! Why read any haftarah, let alone the difficult ones, unless we are engaged in meaning-making? There is a message here for me—and perhaps for you. Do we not at times devote ourselves to idols of power, money, social recognition, and creature comforts that do not ultimately sustain us at the core? Is it not true that we as individuals and we as a people fall away at times from our committed and faithful relationship to the Source of our highest values? Those values are named as the true basis of our relationship with divinity when the covenant is re-established toward the end of our reading: justice, righteousness, kindness, and mercy (Hosea 2:21–22). When we align with that Source and those values as a corporate Jewish people (to whom this prophecy is addressed), the text suggests that a renewed covenant might be made with all creatures of the sky, land, and sea, putting an end to war, so that all might “lie down in safety” (Hosea 2:20). This is the ultimate fruit of faithfulness to God. I only pray that all who need to hear this prophecy, especially the current leaders of our people, incline their ears.
For those who would like to read a collection of supplementary of alternate verses that point to Hosea’s message of taking refuge in God as our true source of goodness and protection, the One whom we desire, I offer the following from Psalms:
Psalm 34:9
Taste and see how good YHVH is;
happy the person who takes refuge in God!
Psalm 42:2–3
Like a hind crying for water,
my soul cries for You, O God;
my soul thirsts for God, the living God;
O when will I come to appear before God!
From Psalm 16
A michtam of David.
Protect me, O God, for I seek refuge in You.
I say to YHVH,
“You are my lord, my benefactor;
there is none above You.” (16:1–2)
I bless YHVH who has guided me;
my conscience admonishes me at night.
I am ever mindful of YHVH’s presence;
God is at my right hand; I shall never be shaken.
So my heart rejoices,
my whole being exults,
and my body rests secure.
For You will not abandon me to Sheol,
or let Your faithful one see the Pit.
You will teach me the path of life.
In Your presence is perfect joy;
delights are ever in Your right hand. (16:7–11)
From Psalm 71
I seek refuge in You, O LORD;
may I never be disappointed.
As You are beneficent, save me and rescue me;
incline Your ear to me and deliver me.
Be a sheltering rock for me to which I may always repair;
decree my deliverance,
for You are my rock and my fortress.
My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and the lawless.
For You are my hope,
O Lord GOD,
my trust from my youth. (71:1–5)
Editors Note: The reflections from the Haftarah Project represent the thoughts and opinions of the author.