The Father Redeems His Beloved
3 1 Our Father said to me again, "Go, love a woman who is loved by another and yet is an adulteress — just as I, your Father, love the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love their raisin cakes." 1 1 v1 Raisin cakes were sweet offerings used in pagan fertility worship; Israel's love for them pictures spiritual unfaithfulness.
2 So I bought her back for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and about nine bushels of barley. 2 2 v2 The silver and grain together came to about the price of a slave; Hosea pays to win back his own unfaithful wife — a picture of our Father redeeming the children who left him. 3 Then I said to her, "You must remain with me for many days. Don't be a prostitute, and don't belong to another man — and I will do the same for you."
4 For the children of Israel will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or household idols. 3 3 v4 An ephod was a priestly garment used to seek God's guidance; its absence signals complete loss of access to him. 5 Afterward the children of Israel will return and seek their Father and David their king, and they will come trembling to our Father and to his goodness in the last days. 4 4 v5 The promised David who will reign is Jesus, the Son raised up from David's line — the king his returning children come home to.