Hosea

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14

Hosea 3 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Hosea 3 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment

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.

God tells Hosea to "love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress."
Is it wrong to commit adultery?

But did Hosea commit adultery here? I think it is at least a likely interpretation that the meaning is that Hosea is told to buy back his own wife. She had gone from him, and had returned to her former occupation.
It is said she was beloved of her friend, that is, her husband, Hosea himself.

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 Hosea buys a wife for 15 pieces of silver and one and a half homers of barley.

I believe Hosea bought here his own wife from the hands of her pimp.

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.

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:

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.

"Fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days."
Should we fear God?

See 2 Tim. 1:7.