Hosea 3 (WEB)

Chapter Text

3:1 Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”

3:2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

3:3 I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”

3:4 For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.

3:5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "yahweh", "said", "again", "love", "woman", "loved", "another", and "adulteress". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "yahweh" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local WEB text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "yahweh" and "said" carries the first interpretive weight. In Hosea context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "yahweh" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.