God’s Good Covenant: Poetic Beauty in Hosea Enhanced by Counting

by Loren F. Bliese

Publisher:

Resource Publications

, 2021

Overview

In this study of Hosea Loren Bliese documents his current research into how the poetics of the Hebrew Bible were enhanced by arranging the counts of words and structures in order to beautify the message. The two words "good" and "covenant" are the only words that come once each in the five parts of the book. They point to a structural theme of the book, that God's covenant is good in contrast to idolatrous relationships that lead to disaster. Hosea's symbolic numbers are derived from both twenty-two of the Hebrew letters, and from twenty-six, the value of the divine name YHWH along with other numbers related to the name. Plays on the word "repent" or "return" have a build-up of repetitions to the end where the plea "Return, Israel, to the LORD your God" is prominent. Each of these words is marked by numeric significance. The book is a discourse analysis of Hosea's whole text, focusing on features of prominence, including symbolic numbers. The study analyzes thirty of the forty-five poems in Hosea with the form of metrical chiasmus pointing to a central peak. Bliese has developed this in previous writings. Abundant chi-square probability calculations support his analysis.

Praise for God’s Good Covenant

“God’s Good Covenant is another masterpiece by Loren Bliese. It unfolds salvation history in God’s saving act for Israel. . . . This book is a deep soul-searching conversation on God’s unfailing love and measureless grace. Bliese’s scholarly, linguistic, biblical, and missiological expertise presents God’s salvation as a thought-provoking, humbling, uplifting, and life-changing message. This applies to us today as individuals, church, and nation—we too are called to turn back from straying so as to not perish but be blessed by God’s goodness, all because of God’s mercy and unfailing love.”

—Tilahun Mekonnen, Lutheran Bible Translators



“This book offers an exciting new contribution to scholarship on Hosea, combining close readings with cutting-edge data analysis to uncover poetic dimensions in this biblical book. . . . Building on his penetrating study of Song of Songs, Bliese highlights the hidden ring structures that were foundational for how many biblical authors thought and wrote. His suggested readings and textual emendations will deeply engage serious Bible scholars, while his wider conclusions and reworking of Hosea will be of great interest to an even broader readership.”

—Frederick S. Colby, University of Oregon



“Drawing on decades of painstaking work in biblical exegesis and Bible translation, Bliese offers in this volume a careful, thorough analysis of the book of Hosea, paying attention to chiastic structures and numerological values of words in order to discover the central themes of the prophet: the goodness of God’s covenant and the need for Israel to repent and return to the Lord. Any student or translator of Hosea would benefit from Bliese’s careful and detailed research.”

—Kathryn Schifferdecker, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota

Product Details

• Title: God’s Good Covenant: Poetic Beauty in Hosea Enhanced by Counting
• Author: Loren F. Bliese
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Pages: 254
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781725296251, 9781725296237, 1725296233, 9781725296244, 1725296241, 172529625X
• Resource ID: LLS:9781725296251
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T17:32:18Z

About the Author

Loren Bliese has taught biblical exegesis especially on the Hebrew Bible at Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa for twenty-one years. He also served as a United Bible Societies Translation Consultant for twenty-four years with the Bible Society of Ethiopia. He has published Count God In: Theological Numbers in the Song of Songs in 2018, and many articles on discourse analysis of biblical Hebrew poetry and on Ethiopian linguistics and anthropology.