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Sexual and Marital Metaphors in Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel

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Sexual and Marital Metaphors in Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel Book Reviews / Biblical Interpretation 18 (2010) 418-527 489 Sexual and Marital Metaphors in Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. By Sharon Moughtin-Mumby. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. xiii + 314. Metaphors are ideas that tickle your mind and force you to react, since metaphors by their very nature do not allow the hearers to be passive, but engage them in the con- struction of metaphorical meanings. e prophetic sexual and marital metaphors have tickled and challenged the minds of many scholars. It would be naïve to assume that metaphors have a single meaning, but scholars, both traditional and feminist, seem to have failed to grasp the varied meanings of metaphors. Moughtin-Mumby is convinced that the sexual and marital metaphors in the prophetic books have been imprisoned by the default contexts or frames—‘marriage metaphor’ or ‘cultic prostitu tion’— which reduce or restrict their meanings. Acknowledging the persuasive and subversive power of metaphors, she seeks to free or rescue them from these restrictive moorings and discover meanings within each of their distinctive literary contexts (both immedi- ate and wider). By doing so, she aims to bring to the fore many innovative and vibrant meanings of these metaphors. Moughtin-Mumby begins with an analysis of the traditional approaches (‘substi- tutionary’) and feminist approaches (‘cognitive’) to the study of these prophetic met- aphors to expose the distinctions between them and also reveal the impact and results a particular approach has on the interpretation of metaphors. She identifies the weak- ness of the substitutionary approaches as the ‘blurring of the distinction between metaphor and metonym’ (11), and that of the feminist approaches as the lingering ‘traces of substitutionary approaches to metaphor’ (15). She then engages in a detailed examination of the works by five feminist scholars: Galambush (1992), Darr (1994), Weems (1995), Abma (1999) and Baumann (2003). While these scholars have sig nificantly moved the debate forward with literary historical approaches and by consciously aligning themselves ‘with cognitive theories, affirming the power of metaphorical language to create new meanings that cannot simply be paraphrased’ (17), Moughtin-Mumby notices ‘cracks,’ or traces of assumptions ‘commonly asso- ciated with substitutionary theories’, such as (1) the search for ‘etymologies’; (2) the use of the generic ‘marriage metaphor’; and (3) the presumption that a ‘recognized storyline lies behind all prophetic sexual and marital metaphorical language’ (22-30). To derive and discern the diverse meanings of metaphorical language, Moughtin- Mumby employs in the next five chapters what she terms, the ‘cognitive, contextual approach to metaphorical language’, and engages in an extensive analysis of key pas- sages in Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel by paying particular attention to literary features such as similes, repetition, rhetoric, word play, intratextuality as they intersect with the metaphor, both in the wider context of the book in which the metaphor is found and the immediate context of the narrative. rough such an approach she convincingly exhibits the wide-ranging meanings and nuances of the sexual and marital metaphors in the prophetic books. In Hosea 4-14, for example, ‘prostitution’ is more than ‘cultic prostitution’. When interpreted in the wider context of ‘judgment and renewal,’ the metaphor of prostitution includes © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/092725609X12531036271522 490 Book Reviews / Biblical Interpretation 18 (2010) 418-527 separation, estrangement, unfaithfulness, incongruous behavior, unacceptable cultic practice and cultic defilement (75). e sexual and marital metaphorical language of ‘prostitution’ in Jer. 2:1-4:4— when considered in the wider frame of Judah’s ridiculous, absurd, senseless and pur- poseless behavior—refers to the ridiculous, senseless, directionless and adulterous behavior of Judah (94). In Jer. 3:6-11, prostitution refers to adultery and bears simi- larities to Ezekiel 23 where the metaphor is actually speaking of child sacrifice. Both practices are seen as threatening to the male blood line. In Isa. 1:21, ‘prostitution’ is a reference to infidelity, social decline and Israel’s evil character in general (120), which is condemned. And yet in Isa. 23:15-18, such behav- ior by Tyre is encouraged since the profits go to Israel (121). e ‘transforming God’, is the theme of the wider context of Isaiah 40-55, a God whose, “overpowering desire is to return exiled Israel” (122). Marital metaphor, however, is not applied in a coher- ent and consistent way (142). In Isa. 54:1-6, Yhwh seeks to transform Zion that sees herself as barren mother and widowed wife without any clear suggestions that Yhwh is Zion’s husband. Similarly in 49: 14-23, Yhwh once again transforms Zion’s self perception as the barren, childless and forsaken one. Yhwh comes across the nursing mother, thereby challenging the traditional characterizations of the ‘marriage meta- phor’ (135-37). But this same transforming God seeks to demolish the high esteem of the virgin daughter Babylon by securing a reversal of her status into that of a widow in 47:1-5 (138). In Isa. 57: 3-10 the primary focus is not cultic prostitution or other sexual rites but the abhorrent practice of child sacrifice (149), while in 62:1-5 the theme is once again the transformed and renewed status of Zion as ‘married, ruled by her own people in their own land, rejoiced over by Yhwh, as a bride is celebrated by her bridegroom’ (151). Ezekiel 16 and 23 stand apart in the sense that—unlike the passages in Hosea, Jeremiah and Isaiah—they do fit the storyline of a ‘love story gone bad’ between Yhwh and Israel. Moughtin-Mumby notes the distinctions between the two chapters, the story lines, and the force responsible for the difference in story line. Yet she sees them as sister narratives, parallel in structures in which the metaphor of prostitution encourages control in Ezekiel 16, while in Ezekiel 23 the prostitution focus has ‘strong associations of uncontrollability’ (200). Both are problematic chapters because of the violent language and the lack of any redemptive language within the book (204). Moughtin-Mumby treats Hosea 1-3 as the last of the passages mainly because of the wide attention it has received for its use of the sexual and marital metaphor and its influence on our reading of the metaphor in other prophetic books. She approaches Hosea 1-3 with four basic assumptions: (1) there are missing details in these chapters that cannot be found in other prophetic books since there was no uniformly recog- nized story as the ‘marriage metaphor’ when these books were written (207); (2) these missing details should be sought in Hosea 2, which is a poetic and theological reflec- tion on the sign-act narrative (208); (3) Hosea 1-3 does not concern the life of the prophet but with sign-acts to convey Yhwh’s message; and (4) Hosea does not repre- sent Yhwh, or Gomer Israel. Adopting a diachronic approach to study these three .
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