Hosea, 3

1. Yahweh said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who loves another man, an adulteress, and love her as Yahweh loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.'

1. And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins."

2. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver, a homer of barley and a skin of wine,

2. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

3. and I said to her, 'You will have to spend a long time waiting for me without playing the whore and without giving yourself to any man, and I will behave in the same way towards you.'

3. And I said to her, "You must dwell as mine for many days; you shall not play the harlot, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you."

4. For the Israelites will have to spend a long time without king or leader, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or domestic images;

4. For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim.

5. but after that, the Israel- ites will return and again seek Yahweh their God and David their king, and turn trembling to Yahweh for his bounty in the final days.

5. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.