USB ~ Hosea 3

Hosea and His Wife Reunited. †

1 Again the LORD said to me: Go, love a woman who is loved by her spouse but commits adultery; Just as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.†

2 † So I acquired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

3 Then I said to her: “You will wait for me for many days; you will not prostitute yourself Or belong to any man; I in turn will wait for you.”

4 † For the Israelites will remain many days without king or prince, Without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or household gods.

5 Afterward the Israelites will turn back and seek the LORD, their God, and David, their king;† a They will come trembling to the LORD and to his bounty, in the last days.

Footnotes

†. 3:1-5 Just as the Lord is ready to take Israel back, Hosea takes his wife back. She must undergo a period of purification, just as Israel must experience purification before the restoration of the covenant relationship.

†. 3:1 Raisin cakes: offerings to the fertility goddess Asherah, the female counterpart of Baal, cf. Jer 7:18; 44:19; Dn 14:5-8.

†. 3:2 Just as the Lord offered a new bride price to Israel (2:21-22), so Hosea offers a new bride price to his wife. He returns to her what he has taken away from her (2:5): “fifteen (shekels) of silver”; “a homer of barley,” a unit of dry measurement, which according to the etymology means “a mulehttps://bible.usccb.org/bible/35-dn-az/014?005#34014005 load”; and “a lethech of barley,” which is a half-homer.

†. 3:4 Israel will lose its political and cultic institutions. Sacred pillar: originally perhaps a phallic symbol, representing Baal. These were also used in Israelite worship (cf. notes on Gn 28:18; Ex 34:13). Ephod: an instrument used in consulting the deity (1 Sm 23:6-12; 30:7; cf. notes on Ex 28:6, 15-30). Household gods: in Hebrew, teraphim; images regarded as the tutelary deities of the household (Gn 31:19; Jgs 17:5; 18:14, 17-18).

†. 3:5 David, their king: the king belonging to the line of David who will restore the Israelite nation (Jer 23:5; Ez 34:23, 24). The last days: a future time of transformation.

3:5 Jer 30:9; Ez 34:23.

Footnotes

II. ISRAEL’S GUILT, PUNISHMENT, AND RESTORATION