An Ecocentric Reading of אמת‎, חסד‎, and דעת אלהים‎ in Hosea 4.1-6

Abstract

Many critics have blamed the current ecological crisis on an interpretation of the biblical text that legitimates human abuse of the earth’s resources, through a misconstruction of the human relationship with the rest of the created order. The Hebrew text of Hosea 4.1-6 documents a tacit knowledge of the consequence of human action on the ecosystem, evidence that has been eclipsed in various English translations due to the contextual gap between the text and the English recipient. This paper attempts a reconstruction of the Hebrew text, and undertakes a fresh translation that exposes the cosmological underpinnings of the text. The passage is then interpreted from an ecocentric perspective in a synchronic reading with other passages. This reveals an awareness of an intricate relationship among humanity, the earth, and non-human inhabitants of the earth, a relationship that Hosea describes with the terms אמת‎, חסד‎, and דעת אלהים‎.