King James Version

Hosea 3

5 verses with commentary

Hosea Redeems His Wife

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. of wine: Heb. of grapes

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KJV Study Commentary

Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress—God commands Hosea to take back Gomer after her adultery, mirroring Yahweh's relentless love for wayward Israel. According to the love of the LORD (כְּאַהֲבַת יְהוָה)—the comparison is explicit: Hosea's painful redemption of his unfaithful wife pictures God's covenant love (אַהֲבָה, ahavah). Who...

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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(1) **Adulteress.**—The woman described here is the daughter of Diblaim—*beloved of her friend;* better rendered, *loved by another.* This is preferable to the LXX., “a lover of evil,” which is based on a different reading of the same original text. Gomer is now the concubine slave of another—possibly in poor and destitute condition. And yet the prophet’s love for her is like Jehovah’s love for “t...

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?--**Beautiful as thou art, thou art not more so than other nations, which nevertheless have perished. **go down, &c.--**to the nether world, where all "beauty" is speedily marred.

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: half: Heb. lethech

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KJV Study Commentary

Redemption price: 'So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley.' Hosea redeems Gomer from slavery/prostitution, paying redemption price. Fifteen shekels of silver plus barley (worth about fifteen shekels) totals thirty pieces—half a slave's value (Exodus 21:32, thirty shekels) or a depreciated price, suggesting Gomer's degraded state....

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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(2) **Pieces of silver.—**Shekels. **So I bought her.**—Gomer was treated as no longer a wife, but requiring to be restored to such a position. The purchase of wives is still a very common practice in the East (See Henderson’s *Commentary,* and Deut. xxi 14.) **Half homer of barley.—**Half a homer is the translation given to the Hebrew word *lethekh,* which occurs only in this passage. This render...

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**20. she is delivered to the sword--**namely, by God. **draw her--**as if addressing her executioners: drag her forth to death.

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.

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KJV Study Commentary

Conditional restoration: '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.' After redemption, Hosea imposes conditions: waiting period ('many days'), sexual abstinence ('not play the harlot'), exclusive commitment ('not be for another man'). The reciprocal promise 'so will I also be for thee' ...

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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(3) **Shalt abide for me—***i.e.*, shalt abide in seclusion at my discretion. The “many days” are an indefinite period of amendment, while watchful care was being exercised over her. During this time she is to withdraw herself from her paramour and also from her husband. **Will I also be for thee.—**Better, *to thee: i.e.,* I will have no intercourse with thee. So Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and others. Th...

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. (Eze 31:16). Ezekiel has before his eyes Is 14:9, &c. **shall speak to him--**with "him" join "with them that help him"; shall speak to him and his helpers with a taunting welcome, as now one of themselves.

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: image: Heb. a standing, or, statue, or, pillar

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KJV Study Commentary

Days without structures: '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.' This verse details the 'many days' (v. 3): Israel stripped of all religious and political structures. 'Without king/prince' means no monarchy—fulfilled in exile and continuing (no Davidic king un...

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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(4) The prophet suddenly passes from his personal history to that of Israel, which it symbolised. **Without a king** . . .—The isolation of Gomer’s position pre-figured that of Israel in the exile. Her bitter experience was a parable of Israel’s utter deprivation of all civil and religious privilege. There was to be no king, or prince, or sacred ritual of any kind. Observe that the terms of both c...

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**22. her ... his--**The abrupt change of gender is, because Ezekiel has in view at one time the kingdom (feminine), at another the monarch. "Asshur," or Assyria, is placed first in punishment, as being first in guilt.

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.

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KJV Study Commentary

Future repentance and reign: '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.' After 'many days' (vv. 3-4), Israel will 'return' (shuvu)—repent, come back to YHWH. They will 'seek the LORD' (baqshu)—pursue relationship earnestly. 'David their king' refers not to historical David (dead 200...

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Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

(5) **David their king.**—Meaning the predicted representative of the Davidic dynasty. Thus Rehoboam and his house are spoken of as “David” (1Kings 12:16). The phrase “latter days” is used indefinitely of the distant future, the horizon of the seer’s gaze. It occurs in Genesis 49:1 (Authorised version, “last days”). We can only see the fulfilment of this anticipation in the Messianic reign. (Comp....

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

**23. in the sides of the pit--**Sepulchres in the East were caves hollowed out of the rock, and the bodies were laid in niches formed at the sides. Maurer needlessly departs from the ordinary meaning, and translates, "extremities" (compare Is 14:13, 15). **which caused terror--**They, who alive were a terror to others, are now, in the nether world, themselves a terrible object to behold.

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Hosea 3

Hosea Redeems His Wife

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