By Larry Fyffe
Yahweh of the Old Testament employs harsh allegories in His depiction of the inhabitants of the divided Promised Land as though they be two whoring wives He’s married to – Northern Israel and Judea.
Samaria to the north is personified as the elder sister Aholah who sleeps with Assyrians while Judea as Aholibah is even worse by comparison – she also takes on Babylonians, favouring those with cocks the size of a donkey’s:
For she doted upon their paramours Whose flesh is as the flesh of asses And whose issue is like the issue of horses
(Ezekiel 23: 20)
In another allegory, Yahweh appears to be more forgiving toward the northerners prior to their fall to the Assyrians. He orders Hosea, a prophet of doom, to take pesonified prostitute Samaria as his wife, and attempt to reform her worshippers of Baal, the ancient god of rain, wind, and fertility:
And the Lord said to Hosea
"Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms And children of whoredoms For the land hath committed great whoredom Departing from the Lord"
(Horsea 1:2)
Interpreted it can that the singer/songwriter quoted below takes on the persona of a modern Hosea (Ezekiel be thirteen when he becomes a prophet):
Twelve years old, they put me in a suit Forced me to marry a prostitute
(Bob Dylan: Key West)
The Judaic God, via the allegory of Hosea, endeavours to be motherly – kindly and lovingly as the symbolic pine tree; faith-filled Ephraim considers Baal a false idol:
Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard Him, and observed Him I am like a green fir tree From me is thy fruit found
(Hosea 14: 8)
God commands Hosea give his unfaithful wife a second chance at reconciliation after the prophet divorces her:
And she shall follow after her lovers But she shall not overtake them And she shall seek them, but shall not find them Then she shall say, "I will return to my first husband For then it was better with me than now"
(Hosea 2:7)
Hosea tries again, fails again: That's my story, but not where it ends She's still cute, and we're still friends Down on the bottom, way down in Key West
(Bob Dylan: Key West)
So ‘tough love’ Yahweh let’s the false gods of the Assyrians in:
"And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim Where on she burned incense to them And she decked herself with earrings, and her jewels And she went after her lovers And forgat me," saith the Lord
(Hosea 2:13)
Take what you have gathered from coincidence:
Key West is under the sun, under the radar, under the gun You stay to the left, and then you lean to the right Feel the sunlight on your skin, and the healing virtues of the wind Key West, Key West is the land of light
(Bob Dylan: Key West)
One sign points to ‘Judea’; the other to ‘Samaria’.
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