Hosea 3

Hosea 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.

Then said the Lord, Go, and, by this act that I do now enjoin thee, shew to Israel their sin, and their shame and punishment: go then, and make profession of love to a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress; and bring her home to thee; and make it known, that thou dost it in a type of that love, which the Lord beareth towards the adulterous nation of Israel, who idolatrously looks after other gods, and gives herself to intemperate courses.

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 went, according to the command of God, and, for no great price, I procured such a woman, beloved of her friend though otherwise infamous: and proclaimed her a type of Israel.

Hosea 3:3

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.

And, for that purpose, I said unto her, Thou shalt continue as a widow in my house, mourning for many days; and shalt not be permitted to play the harlot, neither will I suffer thee to have the liberty of conversing with any other man. Neither will I come to thee to converse with thee: The following words are וּבְכָל־אֲנִי אֵלַי — et etiam ego ad te; the negative particle (וְלֹא) being here to be understood to be repeated; so as the words seem to run, Neither, will I be to thee.

Hosea 3:4

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.

For the children of Israel, who have been guilty of these spiritual fornications, shall, for a just punishment of their uncleanness, be left desolate for many years; for, from the time of their deportation into captivity, till the restoration of my Spiritual Kingdom by the Messiah, shall be six hundred and fourscore years: in which time, they shall be without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, and, in short, without any face, either of a church or common-wealth; yea, even of so much as a church miserably depraved by those superstitions and corrupt services, which are now in use amongst them.

Hosea 3:5

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. Afterward, when the Son of God shall be manifested in the flesh, the children of Israel, together with all my whole Church, shall return, and submit themselves to the worship of the true God, and of the Messiah, the true Son and Successor of David: and shall be holily and religiously affected to God and his service, in the days of the Gospel.