Immature approaches to the topic of Gender in the Bible usually focus on a few handful of “problem” texts, ones that explicitly command or deny certain behavior to men as men or to women as women. Even so, there turn out to be more of those than people like, so “handful” is the wrong of description. But, more importantly, such forays ignore the larger scheme of gendered conversatıon the Bible carries on throughout its 1,000 or so pages (and 2,000 years). As a matter of course, the prophets and apostles distinguish gender in the midst of discussion on all sorts of other things. This should not startle us since it is often talking about people in relationship, and gender is an essential of that. Overlooking so many indirect passages that nonetheless express God’s view on the matter leaves much of the picture of gender undrawn.
Case in point: Hosea 4. After the live-action story of the Old Testament prophet’s own tragic marriage (ch.s 1-3), the prophesies of Hosea begin in earnest. The book addresses the Northern Kingdom’s dire spiritual situation on the eve of its destruction by Assyria. Things are quite bad. God’s temporal judgment will fall on Israel now and there is no preventing it. In Chapter four’s opening salvo proclaiming the people’s problems, Hosea reveals a surprise: God will refuse to give a certain punishment:
12 My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
Engaged in sympathetic magic popular in pagan rites, the people have descended into widescale cultic prostitution, adultery, and just plain “whoring.” Hosea specifically names the women as engaging in this sexual degradation. In the one place in the book where he uses the plural words “daughters” and “brides,” he distinguishes the genders in what he says.
BUT, the prophet declares, God will not bring personal punishment upon these daughters and brides. Even though what they are doing is really awful, they will not be held accountable for it. Why? Verse 14: “For the men themselves” are engaging in the same misconduct.
This is where many commentators struggle with the passage. Not believing that those responsible could possibly escape the Lord’s just discipline on such things, they try to come up with other ways of reading (or amending) v14. One important commentator suggests reading the text as, “I will not punish (only) your daughters…” But he admits to inserting the “only” in his interpretation only because he cannot see the sin going unaddressed. Another respected scholar suggests framing the sentence as a question: “Shall I not punish your daughters…Indeed the men….” because “the women’s guilt is surely punishable. How would God punish the land and people yet exempt the women?” Another commentary, generally recognized as superior in its exhaustive treatment of Hosea, simply amends the text. They protest, “It is inconceivable that the women could be exculpated, even if men are primarily responsible.” So the authors just change it to “I will punish….”!
But the text stubbornly remains. Both do badly. But God says that He won’t punish the women. And He won’t because of how the men are failing. Once again, the Scripture distinguishes the sexes in an important way.
Why? The asymmetry implied is that of order, that is, the man’s call to represent in close or communal intergendered relationship. While other times, women are distinguished, this time it is the men.
Just as God calls to Adam to give an account, his name ringing out in the cool of the day, even though Eve sinned first (Genesis 3),
just as Numbers 30 assigns ultimate responsibility to the husband, in that covenant age, for the vows a woman or daughter may make,
just as men are ordered as priests for over a thousand years even in the face of universal cultural pressure to ordain priestesses (Exodus 28-39),
just as in Proverbs’ ideal family a man represents the family “in the gate” (Proverbs 31),
just as Jesus foregoes the many mature women traveling with Him to choose men to be His twelve apostles,
just as Paul calls men to specialize in praying for the community, even though women do pray, must pray, and are quite good at it (1Timothy 2), and
just as women are invited to support the men in their life taking this step forward in responsibility,
just so the women in Hosea’s audience will not be punished for this failure.
Because the men failed to represent God and His righteousness to their community, because they shirked their sacred place as men, and likely because they wouldn’t even recognize that responsibility, the women followed suit and are not held to blame.
And a people without understanding came to ruin.