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Chapter 3

Hosea and His Wife Reunited[a] Again the Lord said to me:

Go, love a woman
    who is loved by her spouse but commits adultery;
Just as the Lord loves the Israelites,
    though they turn to other gods
    and love raisin cakes.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 3:1–5 Just as the Lord is ready to take Israel back, Hosea takes his wife back. She must undergo a period of purification, just as Israel must experience purification before the restoration of the covenant relationship.
  2. 3:1 Raisin cakes: offerings to the fertility goddess Asherah, the female counterpart of Baal, cf. Jer 7:18; 44:19; Dn 14:5–8.