HOSEA, a Hebrew prophet of the 8th century B.C., whose oracles are addressed to the northern kingdom (Israel), to which he seems to have belonged (vii. 5). The Old Testament book bearing his name is the first in order of "the twelve prophets," a unity from at least the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. (Ecclus. xlix. Io). The (editorial) title dates his work as done under Jeroboam II. (d. 743) and subsequently; there is no evident reference to the Syro-Ephraimitic war of 734, and the fall of Damascus in 732, though some would find one in v. 8 et seq. The general character of the book seems to reflect the closing decades of the northern kingdom, so that we may regard Hosea's work as belonging to the third quarter of the 8th century. The book, in its present form, consists of three introductory chapters, the first and third being biographical and autobiographical re spectively, followed by eleven chapters of short "oracles," more or less detached, so that no marked sequence of thought can be discerned, except that the closing chapter describes Israel's re pentance, in response to the passionate appeal of the prophet. The text is often corrupt, and this is one of the most difficult books of the Old Testament to interpret in detail, though the main themes are sufficiently clear.
The most interesting and important prob lem of the book relates to the marriage of Hosea, which is closely related to the form and content of his message. Accord ing to the first chapter, Hosea is commanded to take a harlot for his wife and children of harlotry ; he therefore marries Gomer bath Diblaim, who subsequently has three children, to whom the prophet gives symbolic names that he may make them the texts of prophetic messages concerning Israel. According to the third chapter, Hosea is commanded to love an unnamed woman, loved by a paramour, and an adulteress. He obeys by purchasing her, apparently from some kind of undescribed servitude, and by setting her apart for what seems to be a probationary period. There is no reason to doubt that these events actually happened, though they were interpreted as "prophetic symbolism" ; Ezekiel similarly employs actual events (the death of his wife, xxiv. 15 et seq.) . The phrase "wife of whoredom and children of whore dom" is sufficiently explained by the supposition that Hosea eventually discovered his wife's infidelity; it does not require us to suppose that she was unchaste before her marriage. But what is the relation of the first and third chapters? The natural and prima facie view is that the unnamed woman of the third chapter is still Gomer of the first, that after leaving her husband she has passed into other hands, possibly of the priests of a local sanctuary, at which -1,e may be serving as a "religious" prosti tute. On this view we are left with the idea that Hosea means to take Gomer back to his home after the necessary period of pro bation. It is, however, argued that the third chapter is really parallel to the first, since Gomer's departure from her husband ought not to be left to the imagination, and Gomer ought to be definitely named, if this were a sequel; whereas the use of the third person in the first chapter and the first person in the third suggests that they come from different hands. Against this view, however, the dissimilarity of the two narratives is a strong argu ment. Even if this be evaded by making the third chapter a pre lude to the first (Lindblom), the supposition of a double un chastity is artificial and confuses the allegorical application. The ordinary view, therefore, seems justified, with the important con sequence for exegesis that the record of Hosea's experience closes optimistically and not pessimistically, and leaves us free to credit him with such oracles of hope as those of the closing chapter of his book. There is no ground for supposing that Hosea was made a prophet by this experience of domestic sorrow; we should rather say that, being a prophet, he was led to interpret it as a divinely ordained "parable" of the relation of Yahweh to Israel. His oracles are deeply coloured by the experience, and he employs throughout the figure of a wife's infidelity to describe and con demn the sin of Israel. It may even be, as Professor Hans Schmidt has recently argued (Zeitschrift fur alttest. Wissen schaft,
PP.
sqq.) that the bitterness of the prophet's attack on the immorality of the high places and of the priests connected with them is due to a personal element—that it was from one of these sanctuaries that he had, in the literal sense, to "redeem" the temple-prostitute, Gomer, because she had left her husband for professional connection with a sanctuary, after having been first led astray by the licensed sexuality of its fes tivals (cf. iv. 8 et seq.) . There is certainly a depth of personal emotion in this book which can be paralleled nowhere else save in the greater prophet so like Hosea—Jeremiah, who knew the sorrows of a lonely life as Hosea did those of an unhappy mar riage. Hosea is the first to make a profoundly ethical application of the figure of marriage to the relation between God and man.
Of course, the sex element had already taken a great place in primitive religion, including the Canaanite. But the moral side of the sex relation, the higher principles which lead to its sub limation in human experience, so that human love becomes capable of reflecting the love of God and preparing man to under stand and respond to it—all this great line of thought was initiated by Hosea, with the result that it transformed an anthology of love lyrics (Song of Solomon, q.v.) into an allegory of the history of Israel, and culminated in the Gospel of the New Testament and the Pauline figure of the Church and her divine Bridegroom. The most moving passage of the book of Hosea (xi. 8, 9), "How shall I give thee up?", ascribes to God a human sympathy that suffers and cannot rest until it redeems a love as passionate as Hosea's for Gomer.
Hosea ascribes the contemporary moral corruption of Israel to the neglect of true religion, and to priestly encouragement (iv. 1-19) ; priests and rulers have misled the people (v. 1-7) ; hence the coming punishment, though it is in tended to produce penitence (v. 8-15) . Israel's return to Yahweh (vi. 1-3), however, is too shallow for the depth of her sin (vi. 4-11). The capital city and its rulers are wicked, and their foreign policy will deservedly fail (vii.) . The punishment will be the absorption of Israel by the nations (viii.). These coming sorrows of desolation and exile will be due to the false worship of Yahweh, as at Gilgal (ix.) . Israel's altars and idols will be over thrown, and the harvest of wickedness will be reaped (x.). But Yahweh is Israel's father, unable to destroy utterly (xi. I–I I) . How different is Israel from the ancestral figure, Jacob (xi.
xii.) ! The ingratitude of Israel for Yahweh's providential care fully warrants His anger (xiii.). The book closes with Israel's promise to abandon other aids and gods (xiv.). We have seen that the final attitude of Hosea towards Gomer warrants us in ascribing to him this expression of hope ; the temper of the prophet is different from that of Amos, in whose experience there is no ground for a similar view of the closing section of his book. In fact, the logic of Hosea's position, if we have rightly con strued his personal history, requires us to regard his message as finally optimistic. He penetrated more deeply than Amos into the idea of religion as a right "spirit" (iv. 12, V. 4), i.e., a right relation of loyalty to God ; such an emphasis makes "repentance" at once more fundamental and more conceivable.
The chief German commentaries are those by Bibliography.—The chief German commentaries are those by Nowack (1897 ; 1904), Wellhausen (1898) , Marti (1903), Sellin (1922), Lindblom, Hosea Litereirisch. Untersucht (192 7) ; in French there is A. Van Hoonacker (1908) ; amongst English books the following can be recommended:—T. K. Cheyne, Hosea in the Cam bridge Bible (1884) ; W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel
G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. i. (18g6 and 1927) ; W. R. Harper, Amos and Hosea, International Critical Com mentary (1905) ; A. C. Welch, The Religion of Israel under the King dom, v. (1912) ; G. H. Box, in Peake's Commentary (1919) ; Melville Scott, The Message of Hosea (1921) ; T. H. Robinson, The Clarendon Bible, O.T., vol. iii.: Decline and Fall of the Hebrew Kingdoms (1926).
(H. W. R.)
or simply "hose," the name given to flexible piping by means of which liquid (generally water but occasionally petrol etc.) may be conveyed. One end of the pipe is connected to the source of the water, while the other end is free, so that the direction of the stream of water which issues from the pipe may be changed at will. The method of manufacture and the strength of the materials used depend naturally upon the particular use to which the finished article is to be put. Simple garden hose is often made of india-rubber or composition, but the hose intended for fire brigade and similar important purposes must be of a much more substantial material. The most satisfactory material is the best long flax, although cotton is also extensively used for many types of this fabric.
The flax fibre, after having been carefully spun into yarn, is boiled twice and then beetled; these two processes remove all in jurious matter, and make the yarn soft and lustrous. Several threads may be twisted together to secure uniformity and strength, and then the compound yarns are wound on to large bobbins, and made into a chain or warp; the number of threads in the chain de pends upon the size of the hose, which may be anything from half an inch to 15 in. or even more in diameter. When the chain is warped, it is beamed upon the weaver's beam, and the ends— either double or triple—are drawn through the leaves of the cambs, healds or heddles, passed through the reed and finally tied to the cloth beam. The preparation of the warp for any kind of loom varies very little, but the weaving may vary greatly. In all cases the hose fabric is essentially circular, although it appears quite flat during the weaving operation.
There are very few hand-made fabrics that can compete with the machine-made article, but the very best type of hose-pipe is certainly one of the former class. The cloth can be made much more cheaply in the power-loom than in the hand-loom, but, up to the present, no power-loom has been made which can weave as substantial a cloth as the hand-loom product ; the weak part in all hose-pipes is where the weft passes round the sides from top to bottom of the fabric or vice versa, that is, the side corresponding to the selvages in an ordinary cloth ; the hand-loom weaver can draw the weft tighter than is possible in the power-loom, hence the threads at the sides can be brought close together, and by this means the fabric is made almost, but not quite, as perfect here as in other parts ; in addition, the ends of weft can be made to over lap in hand-loom weaving—thus preventing a weak spot. It is essential that the warp threads be held tightly in the loom, and to secure this, they pass alternately over and under three or four back rests before reaching the heddles or cambs, which are almost invariably made of wire. Although the warp yarn is made very soft and pliable by boiling and beetling, the weaver always tallows it in order to make it work more easily.
The commonest type of hose-pipe is made on the double-plain principle of weaving, the cloth being perfectly plain but woven in such a manner that the pipe is with out seams of any kind. Fig. 1 is a design showing two repeats or eight shots in the way of the weft, and six repeats or 24 threads in the way of the warp, consequently the weave is complete on four threads, or leaves, and four picks. Fig. 2 illustrates the method of interlacing the threads and the picks : this figure shows that 23 threads only are used, the first thread—shown shaded in fig. I—having been left out. It is neces sary to use a number of threads which is either one less or one more than some mul tiple of four—the number of threads in the unit weave. The sectional view (fig. 2), although indicating the crossing of the warp and the weft, is quite different from an actual section through the threads : the warp is almost invariably two, three or more ply, and in addition two or more of these twisted threads pass through the same heddle-eye or mail in the Iamb; moreover, they are set very closely together —so closely, indeed, that the threads en tirely conceal the weft ; it is, therefore, impossible to give a correct sectional view with satisfactory clearness, as the threads are so very rank, but fig. 3 gives some idea of the structure of the fabric. This view shows ninety-nine threads and one complete round of weft; this round is, of course, equal to two picks or shots—one pick for the top part of the cloth and one for the bottom part. A comparison of this figure with fig. 2 will, perhaps, make the de scription clearer. The weft in fig. 3 is thinner than the warp, but, in practice, it is always much thicker, and may consist of from two to seventy threads twisted together.
Hose-pipes are also woven with the three-leaf twill on both sides, and occasionally with the four-leaf twill. These pipes, woven with the twill weaves, are usually lined with a pure rubber tube which is fixed to the inside of the cloth by another layer of rub ber after the cloth leaves the loom. Such pipes have usually, but not invariably, a smoother inner surface than those which are un lined, hence, when they are used, less friction is presented to the flow of water, and there is less tendency for the pipe to leak. They are, therefore, suitable for hotels, public buildings and similar places where their temporary use will not result in undue damage to articles of furniture, carpets and general decoration.
The greatest care must be observed in the weaving of these fabrics, the slightest flaw in the structure rendering the article practically useless. After the cloth has been woven, it is carefully examined, and then steeped in a chemical solution which acts as an antiseptic. The cloth is thus effectively preserved from mildew, and is, in addition, made more pliable. Finally the hose-pipe is dried artificially, tested for strength and resistance to pressure of water, and finally, fitted with the necessary couplings and nozzles.
See T. Woodhouse and T. Milne, Textile Design: Pure and Applied (1912). (T W.)
