Hosea 3
What Happens in This Chapter
God tells Hosea to love his wife again, even though she has gone to another man. Hosea pays silver and barley for her and asks her to stay with him for a long time. God says Israel will also live a long time without a king, without sacrifices, and without idols. After that, the people of Israel will come back and look for God and for David their king.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
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.
1Then God said to me, "Go and love your wife again. She is loved by another man, and she has been unfaithful. Love her the way I love the people of Israel. They keep turning to other gods. They bring raisin cakes to those idols."
The KJV says "flagons of wine," but the word means pressed cakes made of raisins. People brought them as gifts to idols.
2So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
2So I paid for her. I gave fifteen pieces of silver. I also gave a large amount of barley grain.
The KJV measures the barley in "homers," an old measure for grain. Together it was about eight or nine bushels, close to what the silver was worth.
3And 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.
3Then I said to her, "You must stay with me for a long time. Do not go to other men. Do not belong to another man. And I will stay with you too."
4For 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:
4The people of Israel will live a long time in the same way. They will have no king and no ruler. They will have no sacrifices and no sacred stone. They will have no ephod and no idols.
An ephod was a special vest worn by a priest. People used it to ask God questions. The KJV word "teraphim" means small statues of gods kept in homes.
5Afterward 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.
5After that, the people of Israel will come back. They will look for the LORD their God. They will look for David their king. In the days to come, they will come to God shaking with awe. They will come to his goodness.
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