Hosea 3:4

For The explanation of this latter part of the prophet's acted allegory. As he has restrained his erring wife from even the legitimate gratification of her natural instincts, so Jehovah will chastise idolatrous Israel by depriving her of her civil and religious institutions. By -the children of Israel" Hosea means the Ten Tribes, as elsewhere in these Chapter s,

shall abide Rather, shall sit still (as Hosea 3:3).

many days The prophet has received no revelation as to the duration of the captivity of the Ten Tribes.

without a king and without a prince The abolition of -king and princes" corresponds to the denial of intercourse with her lovers to Gomer. The term -prince" is used partly of the magnates of the state in general, partly of the -elders" or heads of families, who played such an important part in the Israelitish community (comp. Exo 3:16; 2 Samuel 19:11; 1Ki 8:1; 1 Kings 20:7; Jeremiah 26:17). A king and princes are mentioned together again in Hosea 7:3; Hosea 13:10 (and probably in Hosea 8:10).

without a sacrifice and without an image The withholding of this and the next pair of objects corresponds to the cessation of conjugal intercourse between Hosea and Gomer. Consequently as Hosea represents Jehovah, the -image" (or rather consecrated pillar, Heb. maçççbah) spoken of must stand in some relation to Jehovah, must in fact be of one of those pillars sacred to Jehovah, which, as many think, lasted on in Judah (much more therefore in Israel) at any rate till the time of Hezekiah: see note on Hosea 10:1. The -pillars" were the distinguishing marks of holy places, and are therefore very naturally combined by Hosea with sacrifices or altars (Sept., followed by Pesh. and Vulg. reads -altar" here instead of -sacrifice"). Comp. Dean Plumptre:

No pomp of kings, no priests in gorgeous robes,

No victims bleeding on the altar-fires,

No golden ephod set with sparkling gems,

No pillar speaking of the gate of heaven,

No Teraphim with strange mysterious gleam

Shall give their signs oracular.

(Lazarus, p. 90.)

It follows from this passage of Hosea that the worship of Jehovah in northern Israel presented features altogether alien to the orthodox worship of Jehovah according to the Law, and that Hosea raises no protest against it. He refers to its suspension as a privation corresponding to and equally felt with that of king and princes. We must remember however that the kings of N. Israel were regarded by Hosea as usurpers.

without an ephod The high priest's ephod is described in Exodus 28:6-14. It was a sleeveless coat of splendid and costly material, and with two ouches of onyx on the shoulders, bound by a rich girdle. Over it was worn the so-called choshen, a jewelled breastplate, with the Urim and Thummim. But what connexion had this coat with the sacred -pillar" and the teraphim? It is as difficult to answer as the question with regard to Gideon's ephod in Judges 8:24-27. The root-meaning of ephod is simply to overlay, and the feminine form of the word ephod (aphuddâh) is used in Isaiah 30:22 of the gold plating of images. The easiest supposition is that both in Judg. l.c.and here -ephod" means, not an article of sacerdotal dress but an image of Jehovah overlaid with gold or silver (so in Judges 17, 18; 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 23:6; 1Sa 23:9; 1 Samuel 30:7-8, but not 1 Samuel 2:18; 1 Samuel 22:18). It is no doubt strange to find this idolatry of Jehovah still prevalent among the larger section of the Israelites. But the fact is in harmony with all that Hosea tells us of the religious state of his country elsewhere.

and without teraphim Ephod and teraphim were evidently used for similar purposes (see Judges 17, 18). The latter word only occurs in the plural form; the teraphim seem to have been household gods (see Genesis 31:19; Genesis 31:34; 1 Samuel 19:13; 1 Samuel 19:16), and regarded as the protectors of domestic happiness (if we may derive from root tarafto fare well). Very possibly they were representations of the animals worshipped by the Semitic clans of Syria in primitive times survivals of a fetishistic period in Semitic heathenism (see Prof. Robertson Smith's article in the Journal of Philology, 1880, and compare, on the general question of fetishism in the Old Testament, Max Müller, Hibbert Lectures, p. 60). If so, we may connect them with the -creeping things and beasts and idols (gillûlîm) of the house of Israel" which Ezekiel saw -pourtrayed upon the wall" in the -chambers of imagery" (Ezekiel 8:10-12). Josiah indeed had attempted to put away -the teraphim and the gillûlîm" (2 Kings 23:24), but in vain; the Jews took them with them into exile. Ezekiel represents the king of Babylon as seeking an oracle from his teraphim (Ezekiel 21:21); at any rate, this was the principal use of the teraphim to the Israelites to divine by (Zechariah 10:2). The meaning of -ephod and teraphim" was already forgotten in the time of the Septuagint translator of Hosea, who renders οὐδὲ ἱερατείας οὐδὲ δήλων (he identifies the teraphim with the Thummim, comp. Sept. Deuteronomy 33:8; elsewhere δῆλα or δήλωσις = the Urim).