Bonds of love offers a fresh interpretation of a selection of prophetic texts that present the covenant relationship as a marital relationship. The accent in this study is on method: historical and biographical categories such as ‘the prophet’ and ‘his career’ are left aside in order to concentrate on the composition and internal cohesion of the text. The reading strategy developed in this book is both synchronic and communication-oriented. Since prophetic texts essentially consist of speech, it is insufficient to study the text in abstraction from the audience that it addresses. The texts have a communication purpose, and a three-part model is developed in order to investigate the communication effects of the text on the implied audience and the contemporary reader.
The studies of Isaiah 50 and 54, Hosea 1-3 and Jeremiah 2-3 reveal that a synchronic interpretation of these texts can be very fruitful. Larger patterns of coherence come to the surface when one refrains from the procedure of atomizing the texts in original and secondary parts.The final chapter is devoted to the theological implications of the marriage imagery. What intriguing model of divine and human partnership is presented here? And what sort of intimate interaction between Yhwh and Israel is precisely envisioned?

Consultant editor: Frederick Schram