John Mark Hicks

Just as the first section of Hosea concluded with God’s love for Israel and the promise of their return under a Davidic king (3:1-5) and the second section of Hosea closed with God’s compassion and love for Israel and their return to their homes (11:1-11), so the third and final section of Hosea ends with […]

This section in Hosea’s last oracle begins and ends with the language of “guilt” (Hosea 13:1, 16). This functions like an inclusio or two bookends that characterize the content. Israel is guilty because they worshipped Baal and because Samaria rebelled against God. Hosea brings this message home by retelling the story of Ephraim’s demise. They […]

This begins a new section in Hosea, the last of three. The sentence, “The LORD has an indictment” in Hosea 12:1 parallels the one in Hosea 4:1 that opened the second section of the book as well as the indictment in the first section (Hosea 2:2).  The first two sections are (1) chapters 1-3 focused […]

Judah, presently a small backwater province of the Persian Empire, is promised that its future borders will spill over into Philistia, Lebanon and Syria (Zechariah 9:1-8). The land will yield grain and new wine as God restores Judah (Zechariah 9:16-17). God will accomplish this through a king who will bring peace to the nations (Zechariah […]