Hosea 3:2

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: SO I BOUGHT HER. The price paid is too small to be a probable dowry wherewith to buy a wife from her parents; but it is just half the price of a female slave in money, the rest of the, price being made up in grain (, "thirty shekels of silver"). Hosea pays this for the redemption of his wife who has become the slave of her paramont. The price being half grain was because the latter was the allowance of food for the slave, and of the coarsest kind, not wheat, but barley, which was the offering of one accused of adultery; and being the food of beasts, implies that she had degraded herself beneath her true human dignity as allied with God, to be as the horse and mule which have no understanding. Israel, as committing sin, was the slave of sin ...

These verses have been read together, for in these four the Prophet explains the vision presented to him. He says, first, that he had done what had been enjoined him by God; which was conveyed to him by a vision, or in a typical form, that by such an exhibition he might impress the minds of the people: _I bought_, he says, a wife for fifteen silverings, and for a corus of barley and half a corus; that is, for a corus (12) and a half. He tells us in this verse that he had bought the wife whom he was to take for a small price. By the _fifteen _silverings and the corus and half of barley is set forth, I have no doubt, her abject and mean condition. Servants, we know, were valued at thirty shekels of silver when hurt by an ox, (Exodus 21:32.) But the Prophet gives her for his wife fifteen silvering; which seemed a contemptible gift. But then the Lord shows, that though he would but

1-3 The dislike of men to true religion is because they love objects and forms, which allow them to indulge, instead of mortifying their lusts. How wonderful that a holy God should have good-will to those whose carnal mind is enmity against Him! Here is represented God's gracious dealings with the fallen race of mankind, that had gone from him. This is the covenant of grace he is willing to enter into with them, they must be to him a people, and he will be to them a God. They must accept the punishment of their sin, and must not return to folly. And it is a certain sign that our afflictions are means of good to us, when we are kept from being overcome by the temptations of an afflicted state....

Verse 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....

SO I BOUGHT HER TO ME FOR FIFTEEN PIECES OF SILVER - The fifteen shekels were half the price of a common slave Exodus 21:32, and so may denote her worthlessness. The homer and half-homer of barley, or forty-five bushels, are nearly the allowance of food for a slave among the Romans, four bushels a month. Barley was the offering of one accused of adultery, and, being the food of animals, betokens that she was “like horse and mule which have no understanding.” The Jews gave dowries for their wives; but she was the prophet’s wife already. It was then perhaps an allowance, whereby he bought her back from her evil freedom, not to live as his wife, but to be honestly maintained, until it should be fit, completely to restore her....

EXPOSITION This short chapter contains two sections, of which the first, comprising Hosea 3:1, is a symbolic representation; and the second, consisting of Hosea 3:4 and Hosea 3:5, gives the explanation. The prophet bestows his affections on a worthless wife, who, notwithstanding his tender love to her, proves utterly unfaithful and lives in adultery. He does not cast her off, but, in order to reclaim her and bring her to repentance, he places her in a position of restraint, where she is obliged to renounce all intercourse with her paramours. Thus it was with Israel. They had had multiplied experience of God's loving-kindness and tender mercies, but in spite of all his benefits, great and manifold, they were alike ungrateful and

SO I BOUGHT HER TO ME FOR FIFTEEN PIECES OF SILVER,.... Or, "fifteen shekels", which was about one pound seventeen shillings and six pence of our money, reckoning a shekel at two shillings and six pence; though some make it to be but two shillings and four pence; this was but half the price of a servant, Exodus 21:32, and alludes to the dowry which men used to give to women at their marriage; see 1 Samuel 18:25. The word here used has the signification of digging; hence the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "I dug her"; and the abettors and defenders of it think it refers to the digging, or boring the ears of a servant that chose to continue with his master, Exodus 21:6, but the word is used in the sense of buyi

CHAPTER 3 ISRAEL'S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE _ 1. The past (Hosea 3:1) _ 2. The present (Hosea 3:4) 3. The future (Hosea 3:5) Hosea 3:1. The command here is not that the Prophet should enter into relation with another woman, but it concerns the same Gomer, the unfaithful wife. It seems she left the prophet and lived in adultery with another man. “And Jehovah said unto me, Go again, love a wife, who is beloved of her friend and who is an adulteress; just as Jehovah loves the children of Israel, who have turned towards other gods, and love raisin cakes” (correct translation; used in the idolatrous worship). She is not called “thy wife,

The prophet, bidden yet again to love a woman, who is loved by another and is an adulteress, in this respect imitating Yahweh's love for His unfaithful people, buys her out of slavery and subjects her to a purifying seclusion (Hosea 3:1). In the same way Israel shall be deprived for a time of her civil and religious institutions (? in exile), in order to return later under Yahweh, a purified and happy people. The reference is still to Gomer, though this is denied by Marti, who regards the piece as a later addition to the Book. [8] According to the usual interpretation, after her unfaithful conduct had led to her repudiation by her husband, Gomer had sold herself voluntarily into bondage to one of her paramours. The prophet, however, who has been led to see in his domestic tragedy a parable of God's relation with Israel, is taught to forgive and redeem his wife by seeing God's readiness t...

FIFTEEN PIECES OF SILVER. fifteen shekels (App-51.) The price of the redemption of. slave. HOMER. See App-61....