Hosea 3:1-5
1 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.a
2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
3 And 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.
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image,b and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
5 Afterward 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.
Finally, the prophet was commanded to love and find and restore his sinning and wandering bride. Through his obedience he entered into fellowship with the amazing tenderness of God, and was thereby prepared to deliver the messages which followed. It must have been a startling command, "Go ye, love a woman... An adulteress," but its explanation was found in the words, "even as the Lord loveth the children of Israel." Hosea was commanded to exercise love in spite of his wife's sin, in order that he might learn God's attitude toward Israel. He obeyed, and the price he paid for her was the price of a slave, which in all probability she had become by this time.
The covenant he made with her was that she should enter on a period of seclusion, in which she would be neither harlot nor wife, and that he would be so toward her. The national interpretation of this covenant was that during Israel's time of penitence she would be deprived of both the true and the false, the king or prince, sacrifice or pillar, ephod or teraphim. The ultimate issue would be Israel's return to all the honors and blessings of union with God.
Thus equipped, the prophet was prepared to deliver his messages, all of which sounded the notes of sin, of love, and of judgment.