Hosea 3

¹Again the Lord said to me:

Go, love a woman

who is loved by her spouse but commits adultery;

Just as the Lord loves the Israelites,

though they turn to other gods

and love raisin cakes.

²So I acquired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.[#Just as the Lord offered a new bride price to Israel (2:21–22), so Hosea offers a new bride price to his wife. He returns to her what he has taken away from her (2:5): “fifteen (shekels) of silver”; “a homer of barley,” a unit of dry measurement, which according to the etymology means “a mule load”; and “a lethech of barley,” which is a half-homer.]

³Then I said to her:

“You will wait for me for many days;

you will not prostitute yourself

Or belong to any man;

I in turn will wait for you.”

⁴For the Israelites will remain many days[#Israel will lose its political and cultic institutions. : originally perhaps a phallic symbol, representing Baal. These were also used in Israelite worship (cf. notes on Gn 28:18; Ex 34:13). : an instrument used in consulting the deity (1 Sm 23:6–12; 30:7; cf. notes on Ex 28:6, 15–30). : in Hebrew, teraphim ; images regarded as the tutelary deities of the household (Gn 31:19; Jgs 17:5; 18:14, 17–18).]

without king or prince,

Without sacrifice or sacred pillar,

without ephod or household gods.

⁵Afterward the Israelites will turn back

and seek the Lord , their God,

and David, their king;

They will come trembling to the Lord

and to his bounty, in the last days.