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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Hosea 3 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/hosea/3.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/hosea/3.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/hosea/3-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../hosea/">Hosea</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../hosea/2.htm" title="Hosea 2">◄</a> Hosea 3 <a href="../hosea/4.htm" title="Hosea 4">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"><span class= "bld">III.</span><p>We must assume some interval to have elapsed since the events of Hosea’s domestic life, detailed in Hosea 1. Meanwhile the immoralities of Gomer have continued. She at length abandons the home of her lawful husband, and cohabits with one of her lovers. At this point comes the Divine injunction to the prophet.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/3-1.htm">Hosea 3:1</a></div><div class="verse">Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of <i>her</i> 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.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Adulteress.</span>—The woman described here is the daughter of Diblaim—<span class= "ital">beloved of her friend;</span> better rendered, <span class= "ital">loved by another.</span> 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 “the children of Israel, even when they are turned to other gods, <span class= "ital">and love grape-cakes”</span>—the luscious sacrificial cakes used in idolatrous worship: a term generally descriptive of the licentious accompaniments of the Ashtoreth worship. (Comp. <a href="/jeremiah/7-18.htm" title="The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.">Jeremiah 7:18</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/3-2.htm">Hosea 3:2</a></div><div class="verse">So I bought her to me for fifteen <i>pieces</i> of silver, and <i>for</i> an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Pieces of silver.—</span>Shekels.<p><span class= "bld">So I bought her.</span>—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 <span class= "ital">Commentary,</span> and Deut. xxi 14.)<p><span class= "bld">Half homer of barley.—</span>Half a homer is the translation given to the Hebrew word <span class= "ital">lethekh,</span> which occurs only in this passage. This rendering is founded on the interpretation half a cor (cor = homer), which is given in all the Greek versions except the LXX. The latter read “and a <span class= "ital">nébhel</span> of wine,” the <span class= "ital">nébhel</span> being probably a skin bottle of a certain liquid capacity. This pre-supposes a different Hebrew text. From <a href="/2_kings/7-1.htm" title="Then Elisha said, Hear you the word of the LORD; Thus said the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.">2Kings 7:1</a> we may infer that an ephah of barley at ordinary times would cost one shekel (comp. <a href="/amos/8-5.htm" title="Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?">Amos 8:5</a>), and since a homer contains ten ephahs, the price paid by the prophet was thirty shekels altogether. Reckoning a shekel as <span class= "ital">=</span> two drachms (so LXX.), or 2s. 6 d., the price paid by Hosea was about £3 15s. According to <a href="/exodus/21-32.htm" title="If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.">Exodus 21:32</a>, this was the compensation enacted for a slave gored to death by a bull, and is a hint of the degradation to which Gomer had sunk.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/3-3.htm">Hosea 3:3</a></div><div class="verse">And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for <i>another</i> man: so <i>will</i> I also <i>be</i> for thee.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Shalt abide for me—</span><span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, 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.<p><span class= "bld">Will I also be for thee.—</span>Better, <span class= "ital">to thee: i.e.,</span> I will have no intercourse with thee. So Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and others. That this was only to be a temporary discipline is evident from <a href="/hosea/3-4.htm" title="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:">Hosea 3:4</a> and Hosea 6.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/3-4.htm">Hosea 3:4</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>without</i> teraphim:</div>(4) The prophet suddenly passes from his personal history to that of Israel, which it symbolised.<p><span class= "bld">Without a king</span> . . .—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 cultus are here intermingled, suggesting the idolatrous conceptions of the pure ancient practice which Jeroboam’s calf-worship was only too likely to introduce. By “image” we are to understand upright stones, representing Baal or the sun-god. (Comp. <a href="/hosea/10-1.htm" title="Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.">Hosea 10:1</a> and <a href="/exodus/24-4.htm" title="And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.">Exodus 24:4</a>.) On “ephod,” see <a href="/judges/17-5.htm" title="And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.">Judges 17:5</a>; <a href="/judges/18-14.htm" title="Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said to their brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what you have to do.">Judges 18:14</a>; <a href="/context/judges/18-17.htm" title="And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.">Judges 18:17-20</a>; on “teraphim,” <a href="/context/genesis/31-19.htm" title="And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.">Genesis 31:19-35</a>; <a href="/context/1_samuel/19-13.htm" title="And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.">1Samuel 19:13-16</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/21-21.htm" title="For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.">Ezekiel 21:21</a>; <a href="/zechariah/10-2.htm" title="For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.">Zechariah 10:2</a>. In the last two passages the word is translated “idols,” “images,” their use as instruments of divination being condemned.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/hosea/3-5.htm">Hosea 3:5</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">David their king.</span>—Meaning the predicted representative of the Davidic dynasty. Thus Rehoboam and his house are spoken of as “David” (<a href="/1_kings/12-16.htm" title="So when all Israel saw that the king listened not to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to your own house, David. So Israel departed to their tents.">1Kings 12:16</a>). The phrase “latter days” is used indefinitely of the distant future, the horizon of the seer’s gaze. It occurs in <a href="/genesis/49-1.htm" title="And Jacob called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.">Genesis 49:1</a> (Authorised version, “last days”). We can only see the fulfilment of this anticipation in the Messianic reign. (Comp. <a href="/ezekiel/34-23.htm" title="And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.">Ezekiel 34:23</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/37-24.htm" title="And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.">Ezekiel 37:24</a>.)<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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