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Hosea 3

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The Command to Love an Adulteress 1–3

1
Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. ​
2
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: ​
3
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee. ​

The Meaning of Israel’s Desolation and Future Hope 4–5

4
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: ​
5
Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Hosea 3

Verse 1

love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress — The second command after 1:2–3. ‘Love’ (ahab) is the verb of the command, and ‘the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel’ is the noun (ahavah) from the same root. ‘Friend’ (rea) is a companion, lover or husband. ‘Flagons’ (ashishah) are cakes of pressed raisins, a word found in 2 Sam 6:19, 1 Chr 16:3, Song 2:5 and here.

Verse 2

fifteen pieces of silver — ‘Bought’ is karah, to acquire by bargain. The price is part silver and part barley, ‘an homer… and an half homer’ (lethek, a dry measure found only here). Thirty shekels of silver was the price of a servant (Exod 21:32); this verse does not add silver and grain into one sum.

Verse 3

Thou shalt abide for me many days — ‘Abide’ is yashab, to sit or stay, the verb Israel is given in v.4. The woman is not to ‘play the harlot’ (zanah) or belong to ‘another man’, and the husband binds himself in return: ‘so will I also be for thee’.

Verse 4

without a king… without teraphim — Six things are taken away. The king, the ‘sacrifice’ and the ephod (the priest’s garment, Exod 28:6) were the LORD’s own appointments. The ‘image’ (matstsebah, a standing pillar, forbidden in Lev 26:1) and the teraphim, household images (Gen 31:19), were not; Micah had an ephod and teraphim together (Judg 17:5).

Verse 5

David their king — The return is to the LORD and to the king he promised: ‘my servant David’ (Ezek 34:23–24), ‘David their king, whom I will raise up unto them’ (Jer 30:9). ‘The latter days’ is the phrase of Deut 4:30, where those in tribulation ‘turn to the LORD’. Luke records that the Son of Mary receives ‘the throne of his father David’ (Luke 1:32).