Hosea 3
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Reclaiming a wife
Reclaiming a wife
And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”
With chapter three we start a new portion of the narrative. We start this with a very familiar story pattern that sounds the same as chapter one. This is not a retelling of the same events for a different perspective. Things like the word ‘again’ let us know this is a subsequent event. Hosea is told to love a woman loved (had intercourse with) another man and is an adulteress. Back in chapter one Gomer was not called an adulteress she is now called one because she’s been married to Hosea since then. Gomer isn’t mentioned by name but I think we get the context that this is the same woman. I think something we can take away here is the subtle loss of identity. Previously Gomer was named and she was wife of Hosea, mother of the children. Here the Bible doesn’t use her name and just puts woman. Without the connection to God we have no identity in that same parallel Gomer without her connection with Hosea has no identity. Then we are told directly the parallel so we don’t miss it. Even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and cakes of raisins. So even as people who have known the love of God yet still sin and turn to sin God loves us and provides redemption so that we can be with Him. Also… raisin cakes? Many think the raisin cakes were an important part of Baal worship and why they’re mentioned here.
This time instead of a third person narrative we get a first person narrative. So we want to keep that in mind and think about what the change in language might be intended to communicate. We see this right away in the next verse.
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
In chapter one it said Hos 1.3 “So he went and took Gomer...” Where here we see it says “I bought her”
Something I always like to do is to compare the value a shekel probably had 6.87g of silver which as of last night was worth $4.28 so 15 of those is $64.20 but we can’t forget the fact that it was money and goods that were used to purchase her. This homer and lethech we can’t know 100% but the best guesses is that is a volume of 330 liters, which would give us about 198Kg of barley which in 2022 USA prices comes out to $59.40 a grand total of $123.60 which doesn’t sound like much but today’s prices for those things probably don’t translate the same as the value would translate. Interestingly you see that the two converted into today’s prices are actually fairly close. In Exodus 21:32 “If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.” and Lev 27.4 “If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels.” so… 30 shekels = a slave and Hosea gives 15 shekels and something equivalent to 15 shekels. This is probably an indication that Hosea didn’t have that much money outright to just buy her back. It’s also a confirming clue that she was a slave, beyond the obvious buying her part. We don’t get a lot of details here. How much time has gone by? Did Hosea kick her out, did she run away? Did she go broke and sell herself into slavery to pay off debts or did she join one of the temples as a prostitute, which was common at the time. We just don’t know and aren’t told. Some conditions do get set as we move to verse three though.
And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
Implied here is a period of celibacy. We don’t know how many days are many days, maybe enough to know if she was pregnant? He certainly did not want her to continue on with her extramarital activities. He would also be to her. I don’t think this meant he was normally just going about town sleeping with other women. I think this clues us in that not only is she not to be with another man she won’t be with him for a period of time as well. We get the reason here spelled out again to show God’s purpose here.
For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.
The children of Israel will also need to be spiritually celibate and not even have the opportunity to worship God because of their circumstances.
Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
So they will be restored to seek the Lord their God and we saw that with the restoration of the Temple hundreds of years later but David their king? At this point in time David has been long dead how could they seek David their king? This must mean the descendant of David, but there has not been another descendant of David on the throne since the exile that is coming up. This king they should be seeking is fulfilled in Jesus. And still one day in the future they will come in fear to the Lord seeking their true king Jesus Christ son of David, the son of God.
When we read this how does it reflect inside as we meditate on the Word? Have we not also been broken, spiritually enslaved? Have we been separated from God unable to even worship him? Did God not come himself to pay our price, to buy us and bring us to himself? I think this is a powerful message that still applies today. Not only to us but to everyone.
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