Hosea 3.1-5 contains the command to Hosea to go again and love the woman who was unfaithful to him and gives us a picture of how Yehovah will restore Israel.
v 1…Then the Lord (Yehovah) said to me, “Go again, love a woman (Gomer) who is loved by her friend (husband), yet an adulterous woman, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes (these were offered to idols-Jer 7.18, 44.19).”
v 2…So I bought her (acquired her by agreement) for myself for fifteen shekels of silver (silver is the metal of redemption and this was half the price for a slave-Exo 21.32) and a homer and a half of barley (a lowly, coarse grain and alludes to the low estate, poor, captive status of Israel).
v 3…Then I said to her, “You shall stay (sit) with me many days (reform her in a faithful relationship and cut off her adultery, alluding to Israel’s relationship with idols). You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man (prostitute yourself, or marry another); so I will also be toward you (he will not take another wife).”
v 4…For the sons of Israel will remain many days (Assyrian Captivity, Babylonian Captivity, Roman exile for 2000 years) without a king (no civil government with a monarchy-Hos 10.15), or prince, without sacrifice (religious government through the Temple, korbanot, priesthood, etc) or sacred pillar (a monument to Baal or pagan gods, called a “mazavah”), and without ephod (the priesthood with the Urim V’ Thummim through which Yehovah revealed himself), or household idols (“teraphim” were deities that revealed the future; Hosea mentions objects connected to both the true worship of Yehovah and idolatry because they mixed the two together. Yehovah was going to take the true worship of Yehovah and the false worship of idols away for a time).
v 5…Afterward (after the dispersion, the birth-pains, etc) the sons of Israel will return (repent) and seek the Lord (Hos 5.15) their God and David their king (a term for the Messiah-Jer 23.5; Ezek 34.23) and they will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days (“acharit yamim” and this is an eschatological term for when the Messiah comes).
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