So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
Hosea stands first among the minor prophets, and his name means salvation. He was the last of the great prophets of the northern kingdom of Israel, writing about 750 B.C., about two hundred years before Daniel. He was contemporary with Isaiah and prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam II in Israel. The verse stands in Hosea 1-3, within Hosea 1-7, and its interest grows when the prophets who lived at the same time and the condition in Israel during the period of the prophecy are known. It reflects the moral condition of the Israelites, with people, priests, and princes all guilty of gross iniquity.
In the verse Hosea buys back his wife, paying part of the price in silver and the balance in barley, with silver and barley together forming the price. The transaction shows that it was a common thing to purchase wives and that wives were bought with money. Since a wife bought with money was not a chattel slave, buying with money does not constitute or prove chattel slavery, so the fact that servants were bought with money does not prove that they were slaves. Hosea's painful personal history symbolizes Jehovah's separation from His people.
The prophecy predicts the coming captivity and certain desolation of the nation with great definiteness and warns against wicked alliances. Beyond apostasy and desolation, the prophecy looks forward to the time when the Lord shall restore His people, and it is full of hopeful remonstrance, tender expostulation, and earnest entreaty, with fine passages, moral precepts of great worth, and prophecy of the future. The prophecy stands for the prediction that the children of Israel would be without a king during the days of their dispersion.
Hosea stands first among the minor prophets, and his name means salvation. He was the last of the great prophets of the northern kingdom of Israel, writing about 750 B.C., about two hundred years before Daniel. He was contemporary with Isaiah and prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam II in Israel. The verse stands in Hosea 1-3, within Hosea 1-7, and its interest grows when the prophets who lived at the same time and the condition in Israel during the period of the prophecy are known. It reflects the moral condition of the Israelites, with people, priests, and princes all guilty of gross iniquity.
In the verse Hosea buys back his wife, paying part of the price in silver and the balance in barley, with silver and barley together forming the price. The transaction shows that it was a common thing to purchase wives and that wives were bought with money. Since a wife bought with money was not a chattel slave, buying with money does not constitute or prove chattel slavery, so the fact that servants were bought with money does not prove that they were slaves. Hosea's painful personal history symbolizes Jehovah's separation from His people.
The prophecy predicts the coming captivity and certain desolation of the nation with great definiteness and warns against wicked alliances. Beyond apostasy and desolation, the prophecy looks forward to the time when the Lord shall restore His people, and it is full of hopeful remonstrance, tender expostulation, and earnest entreaty, with fine passages, moral precepts of great worth, and prophecy of the future. The prophecy stands for the prediction that the children of Israel would be without a king during the days of their dispersion.