> [[hosea-02|← Previous]] | [[hosea-00|TOC]] | [[hosea-04|Next →]] --- # Hosea, Chapter 3 ## Chapter 3 **Hosea and His Wife Reunited.** 1 Again the LORD said to me: ^hosea-03-1 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. ^hosea-03-2 3 Then I said to her: ^hosea-03-3 “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 ^hosea-03-4 without king or prince, Without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the Israelites will turn back ^hosea-03-5 and seek the LORD, their God, and David, their king; They will come trembling to the LORD and to his bounty, in the last days. \* (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 mule 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 ([[exodus-28|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. a. (3:5) [Jer 30:9]; [Ez 34:23]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[hosea-02|← Previous]] | [[hosea-00|TOC]] | [[hosea-04|Next →]]