Preface -- Abbreviations -- Chapter I: Introduction -- I. Form Criticism and Morphological Method -- II. The Analysis of Literary Forms -- Chapter II: The Data in Translation -- Chapter III: The Word as Literature -- I. The Size of Units and the Process of Transmission -- II. Poetry -- III. Narrative -- Chapter IV: The Word as Communication -- I. Introduction -- II. The Speaker -- A. Threats -- B. Accusations -- C. Positive Motifs. Relations to the Cult -- III. The Addressee -- Chapter V: The Word as Message: Terms -- I. Introduction -- II. Negative Terms -- A. General Negative Terms -- 1. Enmity -- 2. Separation and Negation -- B. Terms of Threat and Destruction -- 1. Judicial Controversy (Rîb) -- 2. »The Day of Yahweh« and Terms for War and Destruction -- 3. Other Threatening Terms -- C. Terms of Accusation -- 1. General and Moral Evil -- 2. Sins More Specifically Against Yahweh -- III. Positive Terms -- A. Expectations or Hopes for Israel -- B. Recognitions of Yahweh -- IV. Open or Ambiguous Terms for the God-Israel Relationship and Its Cult -- V. Conclusion -- Chapter VI: The Word as Message: Structure -- I. The Function of Prophecy in Its Context -- II. The Negative Structure -- III. The Positive Structure -- IV. The Structure of Eschatology -- A. Hosea's Conceptual Pattern -- B. The Dynamics of Eschatological Expectations -- C. Future and End in Human Life and the Question of Love -- Index.