The Book of Gomer

 

This is written in the style of the Old Testament Prophets, and is based on the crimes for which they condemned both Judah and Israel.   The name Gomer is taken from the wife of the prophet Hosea who was an adulteress, but should be understood as being a different character entirely.   Necessarily, much of this is embellished, even invented, but the basic principles of ceremonial prostitution and human sacrifice were denounced by the Prophets as having been practised in the reigns of the worst Kings of Judah so I have used my imagination and some of the gorier passages of the Bible, to concoct this pastiche.

 

PC Disclaimer: Everything here is based on genuine biblical texts, and I make no claims about what the pagan worshippers of the ancient Middle East actually did in their ceremonies!

 

 1 The word of the LORD came to his prophet in Jerusalem:

² "Your sister, the adulteress Gomer, wife of Jehom (who lived in Lachish during the reign of King Manasseh), will come to you and seek your aid, but your door shall be closed to her;

³ For I shall make her an example of the fate of Jerusalem for her sins."

 

⁴ Gomer lay with her husband's neighbour, even with his manservant, and allowed them to use her ⁵ as though she were a prostitute and not the honoured wife of a righteous man.   ⁶ She thought that she could hide her sin against her husband, but was found out as she cried her evil to the heavens in her passion.

 

⁷ Then Jehom took his wife and said to her,

 

            ⁸ "Though you have sinned against me, yet I cannot bear for you to suffer the fate that the LORD decrees; ⁹ but the priests do not follow the detestable practices of the King, and will insist on it.   ¹⁰I will send you away and you may seek your own way."

 

¹¹ So Gomer fled from Lachish with nothing, for Jehom would not suffer her the things he had given her, not even the clothes she wore.   So she went to Jerusalem, where her brother was a prophet of the LORD.

 

¹² But the prophet did as God commanded him and did not offer her shelter, or clothing, or food to eat but cast her out on the streets.  

 

¹³ "Is this the love a brother shows his sister, even in her hour of need?

¹⁴ Where should I turn now, if not to my own kin, when all others have left me?"

 

¹⁵ And the word of the LORD came to the prophet and he told Gomer,

            "This is what the LORD says,

            ¹⁶ 'When you married you took a new kin,

            You took him as your own, to be your lover and protector

            ¹⁷ Yet you turned away from the one who loved you and went chasing his servants and his neighbours as though they loved you more.

            ¹⁸ But where are they now?   They have used you and gone their way.   They will be found out and destroyed just as you have been.

            ¹⁹ O adulterous woman, how like my people of Judah you have been, and how like your fate will theirs be.'"

 

²⁰ And Gomer trembled at these words, for she did not know what they meant.

 

²¹ The wickedness of King Manasseh, is it not recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah?   In every high place and under every spreading tree the people of Judah committed their lewdness and detestable practices.   ²² So Gomer went to the temple to offer herself, for she did not know where else to go.   ²³ And because she was still young and beautiful, she was accepted.

 

2 Gomer became a prostitute of Baal, and offered herself fully to the service of the Baal-worshippers as commanded by Mannaseh himself.

 

² In the temple, the house of the LORD, they committed their iniquities with her, ³ to test that she had treasures to give that would serve well.   And the high priest told her, "kneel!" and she knelt.   ⁴ Then he commanded, "open your mouth!" and she opened her mouth.   ⁵ Then he shed his priestly robes and his manhood stood out before him.   ⁶ When Gomer had seen the manhood of her lovers who had used her and abandoned her, they had been nothing like this.

 

⁷ In fear she leaned back, saying, "That is more than I can take, it will tear me apart!" ⁸ but the high priest of Baal laughed and said that she would be cast into the valley of Ben-Hinnom if she could not serve him well.   ⁹ And he took her by the hair as she knelt before him.   ¹⁰ The other priests took her arms and pressed them to her back, so that she could not move or struggle, but must take what was dealt out to her.   ¹¹ And the high priest forced his length into her mouth so that she must suck on it.   ¹² Truly, he did not stop at her mouth, but reached her very throat so that she would choke each time he drew back and entered her throat again.   ¹³ Though her tears were many and her humiliation great, there was no mercy for Gomer until the high priest was fully satisfied, ¹⁴ and she had to swallow what was dealt to her.

 

¹⁵ This is what the LORD says:

 

"Will I not give up my adulterous people to the worshippers of Baal, even as Gomer was given up to the High Priest?  

¹⁶ My people have gone astray!  

They have offered themselves to all, like prostitutes they have offered themselves!  

¹⁷ And, even as Gomer offered herself, will not the people to whom Judah made her offer prove to have greater manliness, and take far more than was offered?  

¹⁸ Everything that my people flaunted, as Gomer flaunted everything, it will be taken, and so shall my people be punished for their sin."

 

¹⁹ When Gomer had proved her ability to serve, by swallowing the High Priest's seed, she was taken by the priests to the high places to serve in the worship of Baal.

 

²⁰ On the alter they laid her, and with strong vines they bound her arms and her legs so that she could not cover herself, ²¹ but her lewdness was on display to all who came there.   ²² Her thighs were spread wide and all could see her pink flower.   ²³ Her supple breasts were uncovered and open to all.   ²⁴ The other prostitutes were laid all about, as the defiled people of Jerusalem gathered.

 

²⁵ All who gathered there lay in their nakedness and used the prostitutes as their wives, but the priests only used Gomer.   ²⁶ She cried out as the High Priest entered her, and raped her with his manhood, but her protests were as nothing because she had offered herself.   ²⁷ His size overwhelmed her and she was stretched and bruised.   ²⁸ Her screams were the music of the worship, they were the psalms that the sinful people of Jerusalem offered to their false gods.   ²⁹ Each scream only lifted the lustfulness of the priests and the men as they slaked their thirst for iniquity in worshipping Baal with vile deeds.

 

³⁰ When the High Priest was finished with Gomer, he withdrew his spent manhood, but the evil was not spent.   ³¹ To consecrate her body to the Baal, they brought out lashes of leather and staffs of supple wood.   ³² Her tender breasts they whipped; her vulnerable flower they punished, ³³ her body was beaten and lashed until every patch was covered ³⁴ with the marks of the priests' cruelty.   And her cries were like the psalms they offered to their false gods.

 

³⁵ Then they untied her and turned her over, ³⁶ and now her beaten sore breasts were pressed against the altar and her back was exposed, her thighs and arms stretched wide as before, ³⁷ and then they continued until every patch of her back and her behind was as red as her front.   ³⁸ And the iniquitous men were driven to a frenzy and used their prostitutes as never before.   ³⁹ And the screams were like the psalms that they offered to their false gods.

 

⁴⁰ Then each of the priests took Gomer and used her as their prostitute ⁴¹ until she had taken each of them in her body and in her mouth, and she was exhausted.   ⁴² They left her overnight as a symbol of their worship for the starry hosts.

 

⁴³ This is the depth of Gomer's sinfulness!   This is the evil that was in her heart!   ⁴⁴ For she did not wish for her freedom, but longed for the next time that she would be used to worship Baal.   ⁴⁵ Did she not learn from her rape?   Had the punishment no effect?   ⁴⁶ No! for still she preferred her sinful ways!

 

3. So it came to pass that the king heard of the lustful prostitute of Baal and came to partake of her himself.   ² Such was the corrupt nature of Gomer's heart, she had swallowed so many men that she had no trouble pleasing Manasseh with her mouth.   ³ But he was not satisfied.   But Gomer was so corrupted that she gladly spread her legs for him and he entered her and used her again.   ⁴ Then the king rose and left her leaking his filth.

 

⁵ The king declared, "This woman will be an offering to Baal at Ben-Hinnom, for she is too fine for men, she shall be made an offering."

 

⁶ The priests were dismayed by this, for they were glad of Gomer's body and enjoyed using her, ⁷ but they could not argue with the king.   So they offered her to him ⁸ that they might persuade him to choose a different offering.

 

⁹ The King took her back to his bedchamber in chains, and there he did as he wished with her.   ¹⁰ He whipped her breasts until they bled: never had she been so whipped before!   ¹¹ He pressed the hot coals against her skin, even to her soft flower, delighting in her screams.   ¹² He punished her most severely until even with her wicked heart she wept for her pain.

 

¹³ Then she knew that he would not stop until he had taken her completely.   ¹⁴ He used her not as a man uses a woman, but as a man uses another man.   ¹⁵ Her darkest hole was not safe from him but he pressed his manhood against it ¹⁶ until she gave way and she screamed as she was raped from behind.   ¹⁷ Her scream was of pain, and of humiliation ¹⁸ and was music to the king's ears.   ¹⁹ Nothing could she keep from her attacker, no place would be secret from him, nothing private.   ²⁰ All would be ransacked!  

 

²¹ And the King left his seed in her bowels as he had left it in her mouth and her flower.  

 

²² Then he kept her in chains in a dungeon, in bondage to him.

 

²³ This is what the LORD says:

 

"Jerusalem is the prostitute of all prostitutes:

She has lain down in the high places with any who come to her.

²⁴ She has shown all her wares so she has nothing to hide and no shame!

She shall face the fate of Gomer.  

²⁵ Everything shall be taken from her, she shall be given in exile and everything shall be destroyed!  

Her humiliation will be complete, her devastation absolute.

²⁶ In that day, there shall be no mercy for the sinful people of Judah, ²⁷ from Babylon will come the ravaging sword that will invade every secret and tear her down.   ²⁸ For she has angered me and cast doubt upon my name."

 

4. After seven years the King grew tired of Gomer.   ² But when she would have been sacrificed to Baal, Jehom came from Lachish ³ and he came to the home of the man of God and said, ⁴ "where is my wife, your sister?" and the man of God told him all that had taken place.   ⁵ And Jehom went to the King and pleaded for his wife.   ⁶ The King was cruel but because he had no more use for Gomer, he released her to her husband, ⁷ and she was taken back into Jehom's arms.

 

Jehom said to her, ⁸ "You should have been put to death, but I thought to spare you.   ⁹ Yet I see now that you could not escape punishment."   ¹⁰ And Gomer wept and tore her clothes and begged Jehom for forgiveness.   ¹¹ Jehom took his wife to him and said, ¹² "You are my wife, and you will be my wife, and that is all there is."

 

¹³ This is what the LORD says:

 

"After seventy years I shall lift my people from their bondage in a foreign land, from their exile I shall gather my remnant.  

¹⁴ O Judah, what is impossible for man, I will do.  

¹⁵ You will be restored, my bride again with a virgin flower.   ¹⁶ Your splendour shall be restored!  

¹⁷Never again to be cast down, never again to be used and cast into darkness.

¹⁸ Yours shall be the everlasting light of the LORD, in righteousness always, for you are my chosen."