1 By the expiation of an adulteress,
4 is showed the desolation of Israel before their restoration.
Hos 3:1 The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Show your love to your wife again.
This refers to the command of ch. 1:2 (see on ch. 1:2).
Only by regarding the narrative in this light does the experience become an effective illustration of God’s love for wayward Israel and His willingness to renew His covenant with her.
Loved by another man. By a slight change in the traditional Hebrew vowels, the LXX has obtained a translation of the clause which reads, “love a woman that loves evil things.” The translation “friend” may refer either to her lawful husband or to one of her lovers. Flagons of wine. Heb. ‘ashishe ‘anabim, “a raisin-cake,” made of dried, compressed grapes. These delicacies are here condemned probably because of their connection with the worship of false gods.
Hos 3:2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
Bought her.
Evidently Gomer had fallen into some type of debt or slavery after she had left Hosea (see ch. 2:7). Fifteen pieces. About half the price of a manservant (see on Ex. 21:32). Homer. An homer is 6.24 bu. (220 liters); thus the total barley paid was 9.36 bu. (330 liters). The price paid by the prophet, partly in money and partly in barley (counted an inferior cereal in Palestine), was approximately that of a common maidservant.
Thus was set forth strikingly the low, degraded estate of Hosea’s wife. The use of barley as part payment may itself have reflected this degradation by suggesting the “barley meal” offered when a wife was suspected of adultery (see Num. 5:11–15). Could any symbol show more pointedly the debased state to which Israel had fallen?
Hos 3:3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”
The full reunion was to be delayed, perhaps to allow for a period of probation, or for a period of purification, discipline, and instruction.
So will I also be.
That is, the prophet himself would not resume fully the family relationship with her for “many days.” Likewise Israel, separated from both her lovers and her Husband, would for “many days” be removed from her old idols and at the same time be cut off from her full covenant privileges.
Hos 3:4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods.
Without a king.
From the beginning of the Captivity, Israel was for “many days” without her own government.
Sacred stone. Maṣṣebah, “a stone pillar,” or “an obelisk,” often employed in connection with idolatrous worship (see on Deut. 16:22; 1 Kings 14:23).
Ephod. See on Ex. 28:6–12. Teraphim. Images. See on Gen. 31:19.
Hos 3:5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.
A reference to Israel’s return from captivity (see on ch. 1:11).
David their king. The ten tribes had rebelled and had broken away from the house of David (1 Kings 12:16, 25–33). To them was made no promise of a return to their former status of national independence following the Captivity.
In the restoration of Judah individual members of the tribes might share, and doubtless many did (see on Hosea 1:11). But those who returned would all be under one king (Eze. 37:16–28).
The final fulfillment of Hosea’s prediction will come “at the close of earth’s history, when Christ shall appear” (PK 298).
8Fear the Lord. See on Deut. 28:67.