View Hosea 3 in the note window.
Another type of the spiritual whoredom of Israel, ver. 1 - 3.
The punishment of it, ver. 4.
Their reformation, ver. 5.
1: Of her friend - Her husband. An adulteress - Either already
tainted, or that certainly will be tainted with that vice.
According to the love - Let this be the emblem of my love to the children
of Israel. And love - Love the feasts of their idols, where they drink
wine to excess.
2: Fifteen pieces of silver - It was half the value of a slave,(Ex 21:32).
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.
3: Abide for me - Thou shalt wait unmarried, until I espouse thee.
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.
Without a king - None of their own royal line shall sit on the throne.
A prince - Strangers shall be princes and governors over them. Without
a sacrifice - Offered according to the law. An image - They could carry
none of their images with them, and the Assyrians would not let them
make new ones. Ephod - No priest as well as no ephod. And without
teraphim - Idolatrous images kept in their private houses, like the
Roman household gods; in one word, such should be the state of their
captives; they should have nothing of their own either in religious or
civil affairs, but be wholly under the power of their conquering enemies.
5: Return - Repent. 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.
The latter days - In the days of the Messiah, in gospel - times.
