"People are kissing calves!" God has said to the prophet Hosea. "Yet I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt ... besides me there is no savior" (Hosea 13:2, 4).

If we close our eyes and open our imagination, we can hear the voice of the prophet speaking the word of God: "They have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law .... They made kings, but not through me .... With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction" (8:1, 4).

A woman has fallen at Hosea's feet and three children cling to her skirt. They are not alone, but are facing a tribunal of some sort. We are not alone either; our imaginary guide has joined us.

What's this? we ask.

The Permanent Judicial Commission has accused Hosea of misconduct. He is a Levite, a man of God, yet he has married a whore.

A what?

A whore, a woman named Gomer. He says God told him, "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord" (1:2).

Those are the children?

The oldest boy is called Jezreel, after a place of great bloodshed a century ago; the girl is Loruhamah, which means "not pitied," and the toddler is Loammi, meaning "not my people."

A whore! and children with horrible names! What was the prophet's motive?

Hosea says Israel acted like a whore, breaking covenant with God. "When Israel was a child," Hosea said, speaking for God, "I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols" (11:1-2).

So he's being tried by the PJC?

Before our guide can answer, Hosea shouts words that put the people on trial instead: "The Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land ... . Swearing, lying, and murder ... stealing and adultery break out; bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish" (4:1-3). "So I will become like a lion to them," Hosea continues, speaking for God, "I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, ... I will devour them ... as a wild animal would mangle them" (13: 7-8).

The Commission trembles as Hosea comes forward. Then he reaches in his cloak and draws out 15 shekels of silver and hands them to the convener while the two older children bring up six bushels of barley and a measure of wine. Symbolically taking Gomer as his wife once more, Hosea explains, "The Lord said to me again, "'Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel'" (3:1).

He's telling the Commission that, self-acknowledged and unrepentant, he'll sin again?

He is telling them he will forgive again ... as God will forgive again ... and again and again. That is Hosea's prophet statement: "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God'" (1:10).

That's the prophet's motive?

That is the word of God.