The Introduction draws attention to the many pictures and metaphors employed in the text. Literary study of the text reveals three sections: Chapters 1–3, 4–11, 12–14. Redaction-critical study indicates that the text developed from an earliest eighth-century text into the final form produced in the post-exilic period. Chapters 1–3 contain narrative material and prophetic sayings concerning Hosea’s marriage. Chapters 4–11 and 12–14 contain prophetic words of judgment and restoration. Key themes include Israel’s unfaithfulness to YHWH, of which the people’s worship of Baal and the nation’s propensity to seek alliances with Assyria and Egypt (rather than seeking YHWH) are indicative. There are Closer Look sections (A Wife of Prostitution; Baalism, Canaanite Religion and Ancient Ugarit; Knowledge of and by YHWH; Hosea and the Ten Commandments; Ephraim in Hosea; The Covenant in Scholarly Research; Jacob in Hosea 12). There are also Bridging the Horizons sections (The Metaphor of the Unfaithful Wife; Priestly Responsibility; Israel’s Alliances with Foreign Nations; The Judgment and Mercy of YHWH).

This article explores Brecht’s origins and life in Augsburg from the time he was born in 1898 until he left Augsburg for Berlin in 1924. Brecht came from a well-educated and prosperous middle-class family, and he was raised as a Lutheran by his mother, although he soon rejected any form of Christian religious belief. From an early age he demonstrated great promise and ambition as a writer and soaked up influences from all around him, including the fairs that occurred in Augsburg on a regular basis. He read widely and was influenced by what he read. Among his most important influences were Frank Wedekind, Georg Büchner, Rudyard Kipling, Friedrich Nietzsche, François Villon, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine.In his adolescence Brecht became the center of a group of friends in Augsburg devoted to literature, music, and a nonconformist approach to life. In Augsburg Brecht experienced the Bavarian Revolution after the end of World War I.Brecht’s first plays Baal and Drums in the Night reflect some of his experiences and thoughts while living in Augsburg, and his revolutionary first book of poetry, Domestic Breviary, also emerged above all out of his life in Augsburg.

This chapter shows how the story-cycles of Elijah and Elisha use royal illness to provide a Yahwistic perspective for the political and cultic crises of the ninth century. In 1 Kgs 22:52–2 Kgs 1, Elijah uses Ahaziah’s illness as an opportunity to emphasize the superiority of Yahweh as the national god of Israel. In a similar vein, we witness in 2 Kgs 8:7–15, how Elisha uses the illness and death of Ben-Hadad to anticipate the disastrous effects of Hazael’s reign, which leads to a temporary period of hardship for the Israelites and can be interpreted as a punishment for Baal-worship. In both instances the oracles associate the king’s illness and premature death with the cultic misconduct of dynasties and people.