The second part, containing 4-14, is a summary of Hosea's discourses, filled with denunciations, threatenings, exhortations, promises, and revelations of mercy.

Quotations from Hosea are found in Matthew 2:15; 9:15; 12:7; Romans 9:25,26. There are, in addition, various allusions to it in other places (Luke 23:30; Revelation 6:16, Compare Hosea 10:8; Romans 9:25,26; 1 Peter 2:10, Compare Hosea 1:10, etc.).

As regards the style of this writer, it has been said that "each verse forms a whole for itself, like one heavy toll in a funeral knell." "Inversions (7:8; 9:11,13; 12:: 8), anacolutha (9:6; 12:8, etc.), ellipses (9:4; 13:9, etc.), paranomasias, and plays upon words, are very characteristic of (Hosea 8:7; 9:15; 10:5; 11:5; 12:11)."

Hose’a, Prophecies of [SBD]

This book consists of fourteen chapters. It is easy to recognize two great divisions in the book:

• (1) ch. 1 to 3;
• (2) ch. 4 to end.

The subdivision of these several parts is a work of greater difficulty--

• 1. The first division should probably be subdivided into three separate poems, each originating in a distinct aim, and each after its own fashion attempting to express the idolatry of Israel by imagery borrowed from the matrimonial relation.

• 2. Attempts have been made to subdivide the second part of the book. These divisions are made either according to reigns of contemporary kings or according to the subject-matter of the poem. The prophecies were probably collected by Hosea himself toward the end of his career. Of his style Eichhorn says, "His discourse is like a garland woven of a multiplicity of flowers; images are woven upon images, metaphor strung upon metaphor. Like a bee he flies from one flower-bed to another, that he may suck his honey from the most varied pieces .... Often he is prone to approach to allegory; often he sinks down in obscurity."

Hosea [ISBE]