(This study still needs some editing)
Many trinitarians (and some others) cite Hosea 1:7 and claim that there are two Jehovahs being spoken of here: one Jehovah who saves by means of another Jehovah. Of course, the idea that there are “two Jehovahs” runs contrary to what is stated in Deuteronomy 6:4. Most trinitarians claim that there is one Jehovah whom they claim to be three persons.
Girolamo Zanchi states regarding Hosea 1:7
Jehovah says: “I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them in Jehovah their God,” that is, “I, Jehovah, will save them through Jehovah their God.” Since it is manifest that whomever the Father saves, he saves through Christ, what violence is done to the Prophet if we interpret these words such that Christ is that Jehovah through whom (or in whom) he saved us, and through whom the Father has compassion on us? And are we not interpreting consistently with the rest of Scripture and with the analogy of faith? -- On the Triune Elohim.
While Zanchi avoids saying that there are two Jehovahs in Hosea 1:7, his interpretation would, in effect, mean that there would be one Jehovah who speaks of another Jehovah through whom the first Jehovah saves. From this, he imagines and assumes that the one who saves is Jesus, whom he claims is being called “Jehovah” in Hosea 1:7. Trinitarians often claim that there are not two Jehovahs, but that, since it is claimed that Jehovah is more than one person, that Hosea 1:7 speaks of one person who Jehovah who sends another person who is also the same Jehovah.
One author claims:
The speaker is Elohim who says He will have mercy on the house of Judah and will save them by the instrumentality of YHVH, their Elohim. So Elohim number one will save Israel by means of Elohim number two.
Actually, the word ELOHIM only appears once in Hosea 1:7; there is nothing there about any Elohim number one and another Elohim number 2. Hosea 1:1,2 does identify the speaker as being Jehovah. The idea that there are two Elohims (number one and number two) or that there is a Jehovah number one and another Jehovah who is number 2 has to be added to and read into what is stated.
The reality is that no scripture presents Jehovah as being more than one person, nor is such a concept presented in Hosea 1:7. In every scripture that is cited as supposedly referring to the triune God concept, the idea Jehovah is more than one person has to be formulated beyond what written, added to what is written, and read into what is written. And, yet the scriptures can be seen to be fully in harmony with themselves without the creation of all the trintarian assumptions that have to be added to and read into the scriptures. Like all other scriptures, Hosea 1:7 says nothing at all about Jehovah being more than one person; that concept has to be read into what is written.
Some comments from trinitarian scholars regarding this:
by the Lord their God] Tautologically, as Genesis 19:24. Or, ‘as Jehovah their God’ (i.e ‘in the character of’ &c., comp. Exodus 6:3 ‘as El Shaddai’, Psalm 68:4 ‘his name is, essentially, in Jah’). Observe Hosea recognizes Judah’s higher religious ideal. == Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The usage of “will save them by Jehovah their God” could be tautological, used to emphasize that it was to be Jehovah the God of Israel who would deliver Israel, and they would not be delivered by any of the means spoken of in the latter part of the verse.
The Cambridge Bible also suggests that it could be “as Jehovah their God.” Indeed, a few translations render the phrase in Hosea 1:7 is such a manner, such as:
The Emphasised Bible (Rotherham)
but, on the house of Judah, will I have compassion, and I will save them, as Yahweh their God, - but will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by battle, by horses, or by horsemen.
Some other translations render it to show emphasis, such as:
GOD'S WORD® Translation
Yet, I will love the descendants of Judah. I will rescue them because I am the LORD their God. I won't use bows, swords, wars, horses, or horsemen to rescue them."
Another commentary states:
by the Lord their God—more emphatic than "by Myself"; by that Jehovah (Me) whom they worship as their God, whereas ye despise Him. -- Jamieson-Fausett-Brown Bible Commentary.
JFB suggests that the expression is used for emphasis.
John Gill stated:
and will save them by the Lord their God; by his own arm and power, and not theirs, or any creature's; nor by any warlike means or instruments whatever. -- Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gill suggests that the phrase is used for emphasis, to designate that it would the God of Israel who would deliver Israel and not any other means.
Another commentary states:
“All this points plainly and positively to the deliverance of Judah from Sennacherib in the days of Hezekiah, when in one night the angel of the Lord smote a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the flower of the Assyrian host, and Jehovah thus by himself delivered Judah. Thus, too, Judah is saved from that power before which Israel had previously and entirely succumbed. (Compare, on this miraculous deliverance, 2 Kings 19. and Isaiah 37.)” -- Pulpit Commentary, entry for Hosea 1:7. Exell, Joseph S; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice. “Commentary on Hosea 1:4”. The Pulpit Commentary. 1897.
Some other translations of Hosea 1:7:
New International Version
Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them--not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them.
New Living Translation
But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies--not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the LORD their God.”
GOD'S WORD® Translation
Yet, I will love the descendants of Judah. I will rescue them because I am the LORD their God. I won't use bows, swords, wars, horses, or horsemen to rescue them.”
Regardless of how one may render the verse into English (or any other language), the idea that Jesus is Jehovah, or that Jehovah is more than one person has to be added to, and read into, what is actually stated in the Hebrew.
Ronald R. Day, St.
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