I've just happened upon the prophecy of Hosea (aka. Osee) on my voyage through the Bible (I'm precisely halfway through now) and I thought I'd copy-and-paste some interesting bits from the first chapters here. This is one of the ideas we get in the readings at Mass sometimes: that, as Israel drifted further and further away from God after the people had rejected the rule of David's family (after the death of Solomon David's son), God became more and more the jilted husband, and he expressed this vividly through the prophets that he sent to correct the people. And Hosea is notably the prophet speaking to an adulterous nation. The prophets were generally unsuccessful; only a powerful king like Jehu of Israel, was able to draw the people away from idolatry, however briefly. And now Osee predicted the destruction of the people, but he predicted her restoration in time. The harlot is Israel, rejecting God for other gods, her gallants, the various Ba'als (lords of the harvest, lesser gods of the countryside):
"Harlot mother of theirs brought reproach on the womb that bore them; 'Haste I away,' she said, 'to those gallants of mine, the gods of whose gift bread comes to me, and water, wool and flax, oil and wine!' See if I do not hedge her way about with thorns, fence in her prospect, till way she can find none! Then, it may be, when her gallants she courts in vain, searches for them in vain, she will have other thoughts: 'Back go I to the Husband that was mine once; things were better with me in days gone by.' Yet I it was, did she but know it, that bread and wine and oil gave her, gave her all the silver and gold she squandered on Baal. And now I mean to revoke the gift; no harvest for her, no vintage; I will give wool and flax a holiday, that once laboured to cover her shame; no gallant of hers but shall see and mock at it; such is My Will, and none shall thwart Me. Gone the days of rejoicing, the days of solemnity; gone is new moon, and sabbath, and festival; vine and fig-tree blighted, whose fruit, she told herself, was but the hire those lovers paid; all shall be woodland, for the wild beasts to ravage as they will. Penance she must do for that hey-day of idolatry, when the incense smoked, and out she went, all rings and necklaces, to meet her lovers, the gods of the country-side, 'and for Me,' the Lord says, 'never a thought!' It is but love’s stratagem, thus to lead her out into the wilderness; once there, it shall be all words of comfort. Clad in vineyards that wilderness shall be, that vale of sad memory a passage-way of hope; and a song shall be on her lips, the very music of her youth, when I rescued her from Egypt long ago. Husband she calls me now, the Lord says, Master no longer; that name I stifle on her lips; master-gods of the country-side must all be forgotten. Beast and bird and creeping thing to peace pledge I; bow and sword and war’s alarms break I; all shall sleep safe abed, the folk that dwell in her. Everlastingly I will betroth thee to Myself, favour and redress and mercy of Mine thy dowry; by the keeping of His troth thou shalt learn to know the Lord. When that day comes, heaven shall win answer, the Lord says, answer from Me; and from heaven, earth; and from earth, the corn and wine and oil it nourishes; and from these, the people of My sowing. Deep, deep I will sow them in the land I love; a friend, now, to her that was Unbefriended; to a people that was none of Mine I will say, 'Thou art My people,' and they to Me, 'Thou art my God.'" - Osee, 2: 5-24
All this marital language. This idolatry/harlotry had come about following Israel's long-time prosperity, and God now means to lead her out into the desert again, as when He had done so after her escape from Egypt - she would be drawn away from prosperity so that she could once more rely entirely on God, and so realise that it was He Who had given her any prosperity she had enjoyed.
And now here's some of the basis of the expectation that the Messiah who would accomplish the restoration of the people would be an heir of David - no, that He would be David, in so far as He would tune His mind entirely to the mind of God and follow the Will of God without spot or stain. David was the one king of Israel who had remained faithful to God, you see, rejecting entirely the native religions of the Holy Land; no other king the people had was ever as faithful as David had been. Even Solomon had proved a disappointment in his old age. But an Heir of David's in the distant future would be. But they would have to wait some time for such a king:
"A long time the sons of Israel must wait, neither king nor prince to rule them, neither sacrifice nor shrine to worship at, neither sacred mantle nor their own images to consult. Then they will come back, and to the Lord, their own God, betake them, and to David that is their true king; the Lord, and the Lord’s goodness, holds them spell-bound at last." - Osee, 3: 4-5
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