Gibeah and Ramah

A student, Chris Kou, notes that Hosea 5:8 alludes to the incident with the Levite and his concubine in Judges 19-20. “Blow the horn at Gibeah, the trumpet at Ramah” takes us back to “we will spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah” (Judges 19:13). The men of Gibeah are like the men of Sodom (cf. Isaiah 1:10, contemporary with Hosea), and the result is disastrous not only for the concubine but for the tribe of Benjamin.

Hosea, a prophet in the waning days of the northern kingdom, reminds his hearers of the period of Judges. Israel has returned to a time when there is no king in Israel, each doing what is right in his own eyes. And it seems that the replay of the time of judges in the later monarchy is part of a cycle leading to a new monarchy. Ultimately, Yahweh promises, the Davidic dynasty will be restored. In the interim, though, something else happens: After the judges came Saul and then the Davidic kings; when the turmoil of judges is replayed, God sends along Gentile kings to rule Israel and then Judah.