Bible Strands
Hosea 3:2
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God commands Hosea to demonstrate covenant loyalty to his unfaithful wife, and Hosea executes this directive by purchasing her back.
The words — The Hebrew verb אֶכְרֶה (ekherah) translates literally as "I bought," establishing the transactional nature of the restoration. The terms חֹמֶר (chomer) and לֵתֶךְ (lethech) specify dry volume measures that quantify the barley portion of the payment.
The thread — This personal purchase parallels dowry negotiations in Genesis 34:12, while the barley measurements align with agricultural valuation standards in Leviticus 27:16 and Ezekiel 45:11.
Why it lands — The text records a concrete financial exchange to enact a divine mandate, requiring the reader to recognize that covenant restoration involves measurable cost and deliberate action.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
Cross-references
- Genesis 34:12 Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!”
- Leviticus 27:16 If a man consecrates to the LORD a parcel of his land, then your valuation shall be proportional to the seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver for every homer of barley seed.
- Ezekiel 45:11 The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both.
- Genesis 31:41 Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!
- Exodus 22:17 If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, the man still must pay an amount comparable to the bridal price of a virgin.
- 1 Samuel 18:25 Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king desires no other dowry but a hundred Philistine foreskins as revenge on his enemies.’” But Saul intended to cause David’s death at the hands of the Philistines.
- Isaiah 5:10 For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”