基比亞的日子

Gibeah, meaning “hill,” was a small town belonging to the tribe of Benjamin’s allotted territory, located about twelve miles north of Jerusalem (Judges 19:12, 14). Because a ruffian from this town disgraced and killed a Levite’s concubine, whom he had brought back from her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah, the other tribes of Israel […]

鷹一樣的亞述

Assyria was a nation that rose in Mesopotamia (the region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in modern-day Iraq), with its capital at Nineveh (near modern Mosul, Iraq). By the late 8th century BC, Assyria gradually grew powerful, conquering eastern Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Babylonia, and Egypt. The Assyrians were active in the ancient […]

何西阿的比喻之二——薄餅

[Hosea 7:8] “Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.” The Northern Kingdom of Israel mingled with other nations, gradually losing the distinctiveness of God’s people. God’s people were meant to be a “people who live apart,” meant to solely follow and rely on God. However, the Northern Kingdom sought help […]

何西阿的比喻之一—火爐

In Hosea chapter 7, the prophet Hosea uses common household knowledge and tools of his time to illustrate the social conditions. In the short twenty years after the death of Jeroboam II, the Northern Kingdom experienced political turmoil, with four kings successively murdered and usurped (2 Kings 15:8-30). Whether they were the killers or the […]

指望之門—亞割谷

[Hosea 2:15] “There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.” [Isaiah 65:10] “Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of […]

先知何西阿

The prophet Hosea is the author of the Book of Hosea. His name is a shortened form of Hoshea, meaning “saved by the LORD” or “the LORD has saved.” (In the early part of his ministry, Amos from the Southern Kingdom and Jonah from the Northern Kingdom served as contemporary prophets; Joel from the Southern […]

《何西阿書》歷史背景

The Hebrew name for the Book of Hosea is “Hosea” (הוֹשֵׁעַ/ Hôshēa), and it’s the first book in the Book of the Twelve Prophets. Its author is Hosea, a prophet from the Northern Kingdom, who served from the end of Jeroboam II’s reign until just before the siege of Samaria (approximately 760–725 BC). During Jeroboam […]

小先知書簡介

In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of the Twelve Prophets (תרי עשר / Trei Asar) is collected as a single volume and is listed as the last book in the Prophets section of the Tanakh (תנ״ך). It’s also commonly referred to as the “Twelve Minor Prophets.” Among these twelve prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, […]

天開了

[Ezekiel 1:1] “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” Ezekiel was 30 years old at the time. As a priest, he would have typically begun his service […]

以西結對埃及的預言

In 598 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Judah for a second time (2 Kings 24:2). The following year, he took King Jehoiachin of Judah captive (2 Kings 24:15-16) and installed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, as king (2 Kings 24:17). As a puppet king installed by Babylon, Zedekiah’s position was rather precarious. He had to pledge […]