Hoseachapter 3
5 verses · Hosea · 755 to 715 BC · The Twelve
For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.
Introduction
Hosea, The Twelve, Hosea Overview.
This short chapter is told by Hosea in the first person, and it is the book's last word about his marriage. He speaks to a kingdom at the height of its power, sure of its kings and its altars. The chapter sets a private purchase beside a public prophecy, and the one explains the other. Its first hearers could price a slave and a measure of barley at a glance, so the sum told them what the wife had become. Listen for the long waiting laid on her and on the nation alike. Listen also for the name of David, whose house the northern tribes had rejected.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who could price a slave and a sack of barley without thinking
- What
- Hosea's own account of buying back his unfaithful wife and setting her a long period of waiting, with its meaning for Israel.
- Where
- The northern kingdom of Israel, in the prophet's own household.
- When
- About 750 BC, in the last prosperous years of the northern kingdom; the date is approximate.
- Why
- To show that God would take Israel back after a long season without king, altar or oracle, and that the nation would return to Him and to David's line.
Historical context
The price is the sermon. Fifteen shekels of silver plus a homer and a half of barley comes to about thirty shekels of value, and thirty shekels of silver was the compensation the Law set for a slave gored by an ox. Hosea pays a slave's price for his own wife, and pays half of it in barley, the cheap grain the poor ate, because he apparently could not raise the full sum in silver.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
How Gomer came to need buying back is not spelled out. She may have been sold into debt slavery, or bound to a shrine, or living under another man's roof; the text says only that Hosea acquired her. Readers have argued for centuries over whether she was already a prostitute when he married her or became one afterwards, and the book does not settle it.
The list of things Israel will go without is a list of the whole apparatus of national life. King and prince is the government. Sacrifice and standing stone is the worship, legitimate and illegitimate together. Ephod and household idols were the two ways people asked about the future, the priestly garment used for enquiring of God, and the small figures kept in the house for the same purpose by less careful families.
The instruction to her is a period of enforced waiting: she is to live with him without the marriage resuming, for many days. Hearers would have heard that as a probation with an end date, not a divorce.
Significance
An Israelite listening to this knew what was being said about the nation. There would be a long stretch with no king, no altar, and no way to enquire, a state of affairs that must have sounded impossible in a kingdom at its peak.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the last line names what comes after: they will return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king. That was a stunning thing to say in the northern kingdom, which had rejected David's house two centuries earlier and built its whole identity on the split.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the fifth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Lech Lecha 19:2.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. His lemmas, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi reads the woman of the first verse as a picture of the covenant. She is a wife cherished by her husband who strays while under his roof. The verse sets beside her "the love of the Holy One, Blessed Is He, for the nation of Israel" (Rashi on Hosea 3:1:1). The cakes of grapes he takes with Menahem as goblets of wine. The people are "fond of becoming drunk with their wine and do not engage in Torah", and he sets Amos 6:6 beside it (Rashi on Hosea 3:1:2).
The price Hosea pays carries the Exodus and Sinai in its numbers. Jonathan renders the purchase as a redemption "on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan" (Rashi on Hosea 3:2:2). Rashi adds that fifteen "is the numerical equivalent of Nissan", and he counts the chomer and the lethech of barley as forty-five seah (Rashi on Hosea 3:2:3). The many days of the next verse add five more. The sum is fifty, which "alludes to the fifty days between Passover and Pentecost", the day the Torah was offered (Rashi on Hosea 3:3:1). The two charges to the woman he then reads as the first two of the Ten Commandments (Rashi on Hosea 3:3:2 and 3:3:3).
He records a second reading of the price "in the name of Rav Hai", which he calls "a most fitting thing". The fifteen pieces of silver, the chomer and the lethech are the valuations of Leviticus 27, set low as a sign of affection. The same note reads the teraphim as images "constructed, having in mind a particular hour established" (Rashi on Hosea 3:3:3).
The return in the last verse comes "Following the days of exile" (Rashi on Hosea 3:5:1). Rashi then reports a teaching given in the name of Rabbi Shimon the son of Yochai. In the reign of Rehoboam Israel rejected three things, "the Kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom of the House of David, and the Holy Temple". Rabbi Shimon the son of Menassiah answers that Israel "shall not be shown any omen of good until they repent by seeking out all three". Rashi names Midrash Samuel 13:4 as the source (Rashi on Hosea 3:5:2).
The corpus carries fourteen further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Hosea 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:3:1, 3:4:1 and 3:5:1. The corpus cites Metzudat David on Hosea 3:1:1 and 3:4:1 the same way. The corpus cites Radak on Hosea 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:4:1 and 3:5:1 the same way. The corpus cites Rashi on Hosea 3:3:4 and 3:4:1 the same way. The corpus cites Malbim on Hosea 3:4:1 the same way.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-five rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 8:18, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 7:13:2, Pesachim 36b:15 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 9:1. It holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 299:1 there as well.
On the second verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20, Chullin 92a:17, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:40, Ein Yaakov, Khullin 7:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Bava Kamma 5:6:2. It holds Pesikta DeRav Kahana 12:4, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 5:10, Pesikta Rabbati 15:1, Sanhedrin 96b:12, Sifrei Devarim 343:6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 307:1 there as well. On the fourth verse it holds Arakhin 16a:15, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Zevachim 9:1, Ein Yaakov, Arakhin 3:6, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 9:1 and Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 7:3:4. It holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:4:4, Vayikra Rabbah 10:6, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 380:2 and Zevachim 88b:7 there as well.
On the fifth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 83:1, Bereshit Rabbah 48:6, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 2:2, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 2:4:10, Megillah 18a:1 and Midrash Shmuel 13:4. It holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Lech Lecha 19:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 15:3 and Midrash Tehillim 24:2 there as well. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 3:1:1 to 3:5:2, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Hosea 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:3:1, 3:4:1 and 3:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Hosea 3:1:1 and 3:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Hosea 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:4:1 and 3:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Rashi, Rashi on Hosea 3:3:4 and 3:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Hosea 3:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/hosea/3.json, the 35 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Bought back for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley
show love to your wife again: The command repeats the sign of chapter 1, and now its meaning comes with it: "Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites". The woman is "your wife", loved again after her adultery. The raisin cakes, ashishah in Hebrew, were food of festival and fertility worship.
Hosea 3:1
And the Lord said to me: Go still, love the beloved woman to a friend and an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the children of Israel, and they respect (look at) foreign gods, and they love "wine presses of grapes." (Vulgate "they look at") LXX: "And the Lord said to me: Go still and love the woman loving evil and an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the children of Israel, and they look (respect) to foreign gods, and they love baked goods with wine."
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 3:1patristic
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Hosea 3:1
“Hosea is told, not as in Ho 1:2, "take a wife," but "love" her, that is, renew thy conjugal kindness to her. who look to other gods--that is, have done so heretofore, but henceforth (from the return from Babylon) shall do so no more (Ho 3:4). flagons of wine--rather, pressed cakes of dried grapes, such as were offered to idols (Jer 7:18) [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 3:1
“But I shall first run over the words, and then return to the subject Jehovah said to me, Go yet and love a woman. There is no doubt but that God describes here the favor he promises to the Israelites in a type or vision: for they are too gross in their notions, who think that the Prophet married a woman who had been a harlot.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Hosea 3:1
“Go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress - This woman is the same Gomer, whom the prophet had before been bidden to take, and whom, (it appears from this verse) had forsaken him, and was living in adultery with another man. The “friend” is the husband himself, the prophet.”
I bought her for fifteen shekels: The price comes to about thirty shekels in all, the price of a slave in Exodus 21:32. Hosea buys back a woman fallen into something like bond-service, paying half in silver and making up the rest in barley. He pays to recover what was already his by marriage.
Hosea 3:2
“Fifteen pieces of silver - If they were shekels, the price of this woman was about two pounds five shillings. A homer of barley - As the homer was about eight bushels, or something more, the homer and half was about twelve or thirteen bushels.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 3:2
“Fifteen pieces of silver - It was half the value of a slave, Exod. xxi, 32. An homer of barley - About fourteen bushels. Of barley - The meanest kind of provision; and suited to a low condition, all this is, to set forth Israel's indigence and ingratitude, and God's bounty to Israel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
live with me for many days: The terms are a time of fidelity, "you must not be promiscuous", matched by the prophet's pledge, "I will do the same for you". The bond is mutual. She is held in a middle state for "many days", and verses 4 and 5 apply that same state to the nation.
Hosea 3:3
"You shall wait for many days for me: you shall not fornicate, and you shall not be a man's wife; but I will also wait for you." LXX: "You shall sit for many days with me, and you shall not fornicate, nor be with another man, and I to you." This means, you will not shamefully prostitute yourself to other lovers, nor will you join me, the man whom you are hired by, in legitimate marriage.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Hosea 3:3patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Hosea 3:3
“He would not immediately receive her to marriage privileges, but would test her repentance and discipline her by the long probation; still the marriage covenant would hold good, she was to be kept separated for but a time, not divorced (Isa 50:1); in God's good time she shall be restored.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Many days without king or sacrifice, then a return
many days without king or prince: The sign is applied to the nation, for "the Israelites must live many days without king". The list pairs lawful worship with the objects of idolatry, sacrifice and ephod beside sacred pillar and idol. Throne, altar and idol are taken away together, and the loss falls on every side.
Hosea 3:4
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince,.... Without any form of civil government, either regal or without any civil magistrate, either superior or subordinate, of their own; being subject to the kings and princes of other nations, as the ten tribes were from their captivity by Shalmaneser, to the coming of Christ, which was about seven hundred years; and from that time the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have had no kings and princes among them, for the space of nineteen hundred years, which may very well be called "many days".”
4 more voices on this verse
Hosea 3:4
“Many days without a king - Hitherto this prophecy has been literally fulfilled. Since the destruction of the temple by the Romans they have neither had king nor prince, nor any civil government of their own, but have lived in different nations of the earth as mere exiles. They have neither priests nor sacrifices nor urim nor thummim; no prophet, no oracle, no communication of any kind from God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hosea 3:4
“They shall have no sacrifice or altar (so the LXX.), and therefore no sacrifice because no altar. They shall have no ephod, nor teraphim, no legal priesthood, no means of knowing God's mind, no oracle to consult in doubtful cases, but shall be all in the dark. Note, The case of those is very melancholy that are deprived of all opportunities to worship God in public.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 3:4
“The latter was one of the five things which the second temple lacked, and which the first had. It, as representing the divinely constituted priesthood, is opposed to the idolatrous "teraphim," as "sacrifice" (to Jehovah) is to "an (idolatrous) image." "Abide" answers to "thou shalt abide for me" (Ho 3:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hosea 3:4
“For - Now the parable is unfolded, it shall be with Israel as with such a woman, they and she were guilty of adultery, both punished long, both made slaves, kept hardly, and valued meanly, yet in mercy at last pardoned, and re-accepted tho' after a long time of probation.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the people of Israel will return: The waiting ends in return, when Israel will "seek the LORD their God and David their king". The name of David joins this hope to the promise of a lasting throne. The chapter closes as they "will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days".
Hosea 3:5
“THE whole verse runs thus: "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." A brief word may suffice upon the prophecy. I think no reader of Holy Scripture can doubt but that the seed of Abraham, however long they may be in blindness, will at the last obey the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of David, and in those days the goodness of God to them will be so extraordinary that they shall fear and wonder at it.”
3 more voices on this verse
Hosea 3:5
“Others by his goodness understand Christ, the same with David their King. But it is rather to be taken for that attribute of God which he showed as his glory, and by which he proclaimed his name. Note, It is not only the Lord and his greatness that we are to fear, but the Lord and his goodness, not only his majesty, but his mercy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hosea 3:5
“Afterward shall the children of Israel return - Elsewhere it is said more fully, “return to the Lord.” It expresses more than “turning” or even conversion to God. It is not conversion only, but reversion too, a turning “back from” the unbelief and sins, for which they had left God, and a return to Him whom they had forsaken.”
Hosea 3:5
“And David - The Messiah who is the son of David. And his goodness - God and his goodness; that is, the good and gracious God. God in Christ and with Christ shall be worshipped.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.