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

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 t...