Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Hosea

• Hosea 1:10

  Because Hosea is such a profound prophet, it is no easy matter to get at his meaning. Still, I must keep my promise and quote something from him at this point. He says, "And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people'; it shall be said to them, 'You are sons of the living God.' " The apostles themselves understood this text as a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, who were previously not God's people. And because the Gentiles are spiritually sons of Abraham and correctly therefore alluded to as Israel, Hosea goes on to say, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the earth." Now to add one word of explanation to this text would be to lose the savor of Hosea's prophetic style.

  CITY OF GOD 18:28

• Hosea 2:5

  They, therefore, who are wicked, evildoers, carnal, fleshly, devilish, think that they receive at the hands of their seducers what are the gifts of God alone, whether sacraments, or any spiritual workings about present salvation. But these men have not love towards God, but are busied about those by whose pride they are led astray, and are compared to the adulterous woman, whom the prophet introduces as saying, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and my oil, and everything that befits me." For thus arise heresies and schisms, when the fleshly people which is not founded on the love of God says, "I will go after my lovers," with whom, either by corruption of her faith, or by the puffing up of her pride, she shamefully commits adultery. But for the sake of those who, having undergone the difficulties, and straits, and barriers of the empty reasoning of those by whom they are led astray, afterwards feel the prickings of fear, and return to the way of peace, to seeking God in all sincerity,—for their sake He goes on to say, "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now." Then, that they may not attribute to their seducers what they have that is sound, and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions; that they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately added, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal."

  ON BAPTISM 3:27

• Hosea 2:5

  Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea points out, who said, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me?" Let us grant that we may understand this also of the people of the Jews that went astray; yet whom else are the false Christians (such as are all heretics and schismatics) wont to imitate, except false Israelites?

  ON BAPTISM 3:26

• Hosea 3:5

  But let us hear what Hosea goes on to say: "And after this the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the last days." You will never find a prophecy plainer than this, for the name King David means Christ, who, as Paul says, "was born according to the flesh of the offspring of David." Further on still, Hosea foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day, but in the mysterious way that is proper to prophecy. He says, "He shall heal us after two days, and on the third day we shall rise up again." This is the theme underlying the words of Paul: "Therefore if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above."

  CITY OF GOD 18:28

• Hosea 4:5

  For us too, you see, once the night of this age is done, there will be a resurrection of the flesh for the kingdom; it's the model or sample of this that has already occurred in our head. That, indeed, is why the Lord wished to rise again at night; because, in the apostle's words, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shone in our hearts." So the Lord represented light shining out of darkness by being born at night and also by rising at night. Light out of darkness, in fact, is Christ out of the Jews, to whom it was said, "I have likened your mother to night." But in that nation, as it were in that night, the virgin Mary was not night but somehow or other a star of the night; which is why a star also signaled her childbearing, guiding a far distant night, that is the magi from the east, to worship the light. Thus in them too would be realized the command to "the light to shine out of darkness."

  SERMON 223D.2

• Hosea 4:5

  "Day continues according to your ordinance." For all these things are day: "and this is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" and "let us walk honestly as in the day." "For all things serve you." He said "all things of some," "all" which belong to this day "serve you." For the ungodly, of whom it is said, "I have compared thy mother unto the night," do not serve you.

  EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 119:91

• Hosea 6:2

  Further on, Hosea foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day, but in the mysterious way that is proper to prophecy. He says, "He shall heal us after two days, and on the third day we shall rise again." This is the idea underlying the words of Paul [when he says], "Therefore if you have risen in Christ, seek the things that are above."

  CITY OF GOD 28

• Hosea 12:1

  God of my heart … I didn't know how to love you, because I did not know how to conceive the existence of anything—however glorious—beyond mere matter. The soul that goes puffing and wheezing after such figments of the imagination [as fortune telling] is one that goes whoring from you and trusts what is phony and feeds on the wind. Yet while I wouldn't have this sorcerer sacrificing to demons on my behalf, I was actually sacrificing to them myself just by being involved in my superstition. For what else is to feed on the wind, if not to feed on error, and so to become the sport and plaything of the demonic?

  CONFESSIONS 4:2

• Hosea 13:8

  In fulfillment of holy Writ, the truth has resounded through the voice of the apostles, for the psalmist has sung, "Their voice has gone forth unto all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." So also "Christ our Passover is sacrificed," for of him the prophet had foretold: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and he was mute as a lamb before its shearer, and he opened not his mouth." Who is this man? He is the man of whom the prophet at once goes on to say, "In humility his judgment was taken away; who shall declare his generation?" I recognize the realization of so much humility in a king of so much power, for he who is as a lamb that opens not its mouth before its shearer is also "the lion of the tribe of Judah." Who is this lamb and lion? He suffered death like a lamb, and he has devoured like a lion. Who is this lamb and lion? Meek yet courageous; lovable yet fearsome; innocent yet powerful; silent under judgment, yet roaring to pronounce judgment. Who is this lamb and lion—suffering like a lamb; rising up like a lion? Rather, is he not at the same time a lamb and lion in his suffering and his resurrection? Let us discern the lamb in the suffering. "He was," as we have just reminded you, "mute as a lamb before its shearer, and he opened not his mouth." Let us discern the lion in the suffering.

  SERMON 4

• Hosea 13:11

  Praise wicked King Saul, because he also was a punishment for sinners, as the Lord says: "I gave you a king in my wrath." Praise the demon that king suffered, because it also was punishment for a sinner. Praise the blindness of heart that has befallen Israel, and do not be silent about why it is said, "Until the full number of the Gentiles should enter," although you will perhaps deny this is a punishment. If you were a lover of the inner light, you would cry out that it is not merely a punishment but a very great punishment.

  AGAINST JULIAN 3:8

• Hosea 13:14

  What is it the chaste person would like? That no lust at all should stir in the members against chastity. [The chaste person] wants peace but hasn't yet got it. I mean, when we get to the stage where no lusts at all rise up to be opposed, there won't be any more enemy for us to wrestle with; nor is there in that state any expectation of victory, because the triumph is being celebrated over the enemy already conquered. Listen to the apostle telling you about that victory: "The perishable must put on imperishability, and the mortal put on immortality; then will come about the saying that is written: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' " Now listen to the song of triumph: "Where, O death, is your striving? Where, O death, is your sting?" You have stabbed, you have wounded, you have knocked down; but the one who made me was wounded for me. O death, death! The one who made me was wounded for me, and by his death he conquered you. And that's when those who triumph over you are going to say, "Where, O death, is your striving? Where, O death, is your sting?"

  SERMON 128