1An Illustration of God’s Love for Idolatrous Israel The LORD said to me,“Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the LORD loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”
2So I paid fifteen shekels of silver and about seven bushels of barley to purchase her.
3Then I told her,“You must live with me many days; you must not commit adultery or become joined to another man, and I also will wait for you.”
4For the Israelites must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols.
5Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the LORD their God and their Davidic king. Then they will submit to the LORD in fear and receive his blessings in the future.
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 3
God is still by the prophet inculcating the same thing upon this careless people, and much in the same manner as before, by a type or sign, that of the dealings of a husband with an adulterous wife. In this chapter we have, I. The bad character which the people of Israel now had; they were, as is said of the Athenians…
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