Book of Hosea

Compiled by WD Kemner December 2025

Chapter 3

The wife is Bought back

Hosea 3:1-3

1 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.

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

3 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.

Fifteen shekels was the purchase price of a slave. She made a contract to abide with Hosea “many days” and not to be with another man.

Hosea 3:4-5

Cross Reference: seeking God in the End

4 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:

5 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.

Israel (like Gomer) must wait many days without and afterward when they see their return they will see their King!

Prophetic statement.  Israel waited centuries before becoming a nation in 1967.  They have yet to seek God’s return and return to Temple worship.