“Man of God, welcome,” the man said mockingly to him as he entered into the dimly lit room.

He looked at the man that spoke and watched as he pulled up his trousers. But his attention was quickly drawn to the activities on the bed.

There was a man on top of a woman, they were both nakedly naked. The man was thrusting hard and fast into her, like a mad sex starved rapist.

There was a 3rd man, he was half naked, holding his turgid penis in his right hand and engrossed in watching the couple on the bed. The 4th man was seated in the shadows, his large frame was barely visible except for the white cloth tied around his loins.

A range of emotions ran through him, from anger to disgust to sadness and then pity.

The woman on the bed looked at him briefly, smiled and then looked away. She wriggled her frame and circled the man on her with her legs, gripping him tighter and pushing him deeper with her heels.

There was no remorse in her eyes, all he saw was her delight from the sexual pummeling she was getting.

He stayed for a minute or two, before he leaving as silently as he came.

————————————————————————————————————————

Two days later, he returned back to the place.

She was on the floor, naked and unconscious.
There was bruises on her face and bite marks on her neck and breasts.

“Gomer,” he whispered into her ears.

She stirred slightly but did not open her eyes.

He took off his large coat to cover her and lifted her up with both hands.

He did not know which one annoyed him the most, whether it was meeting her naked like a slave or having to pay good money to get her back.

He actually never intended to come back for her.

But the same voice that had always spoke to him, had ordered him, “Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife. Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people, even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.”

This was his nightmare.
His daily nightmare.

There was no waking up from it.

There was no escape.

It was his reality.

His nightmare had started 6 years ago.

After prayers he had slept as usual, awaiting a vision, dream or instruction from his God.

He had waited long to hear from God and he somehow knew this night would be first night of many nights.

That night, for the very first time, God spoke to Hosea.

And God said: “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim.

She got pregnant and gave him a son.

Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

Gomer got pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter.

Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 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.”

After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son.

Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Gomer had left him afterwards. She had gone in search of other men.

And he, Hosea, had had to go in search of her as ordered by the same voice he had come to know as the voice of God.

As Hosea carried his wife back home, he spoke into her ears, “From now on you’re living with me. No more whoring, no more sleeping around. You’re living with me and I’m living with you.”

Written by King Olulu, not from Zulu
Inspired by the Book of Hosea