be read as a metaphor for the religious attitude of the nation, with Hosea the faithful husband representing God, and Gomer as the unfaithful wife representing Israel (Eliade 468-469).
There is some dispute about whether Gomer was a harlot in the usual sense. She has been considered either a harlot or an unfaithful spouse (King 25). There is also the question of whether "harlot" might refer to a professional prostitute or a sacred prostitute (Eliade 469). The three children of this marriage were given symbolic names: the son was Jezreel ("God sows"), one daughter Lo-ruhamah ("Not-Pitied"), and the other La-'amma ("Not-My-People"). These names foreshadow the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel for violation of the divine covenant (King 25-26). According to the account, Gomer seems to have continued her unfaithfulness after marriage, so that only the first of her children is stated explicitly to be Hosea's, allowing for the possibility that the fathers of the others were different men. She was expelled from her husband's house because of her continued sin (Hosea 2), but she is ultimately readmitted (Hosea 3). The metaphorical nature of the account is seen in the names and in the relationships that are indicated in the scripture. The marriage, the names of the children, the separation, and the restoration of the wife to the home are all mentioned in order to portray graphically the adulterous wanderings of israel from her "husband" Yahweh, whom she had married at Mt. Sinai, had been separated from in the Exile, and had been restored to under Ezra and Nehemiah (Freedman 1074).
The Book of Hosea is the first of the twelve prophetic books called the "minor prophets," a name that refers to their length and not their significance. The Book of Hosea contains some of the most obscure passages of the entire Hebrew Bible for several reasons. First there is the matter of the frequent and sudden shifts in mood and subject....