Very helpful insights into how metaphors work both in Hosea and in general. I especially learned a lot from the opening chapter, on metaphor theory and the rhetorical function of metaphor and metaphor clusters, and chapter 8, in which Lancaster argues for an “aspective approach” to Hosea’s God, which avoids reductionism in favor of unity in the midst of complexity. The piling up of different and mixed metaphors is an attempt by the biblical author to highlight the many characteristics of the divine.

For Lancaster, there is no root metaphor that holds all of the metaphorical statements about God (and God’s relationship to Israel) together. But there does seem to be an underlying theological foundation for Hosea’s metaphors, which Lancaster identifies as God’s commitment and fidelity to Israel. Though the book of Hosea abounds in different pictures of God (farmer, parent, husband, lion—even moth and dew!), Lancaster argues that God’s commitment to the people of Israel is the “theological reality that unites all of the[se] metaphors” (217). Furthermore, within the book of Hosea, the variety of metaphors—some of which terrify and threaten, others of which woo and comfort—serve to call the people of Israel back to repentance and back into relationship with their deity (see ch. 7).

I found this book very helpful for thinking through Hosea’s metaphorical portrait of God, and while it certainly will not be the last word on the subject, this book is an important contribution to the discussion, because it brings recent work in metaphor theory to bear on a text that has enamored readers for millennia.