Hosea 3:2
New International Version
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.

New Living Translation
So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

English Standard Version
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

Berean Standard Bible
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

King James Bible
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

New King James Version
So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.

New American Standard Bible
So I purchased her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and a homer and a lethech of barley.

NASB 1995
So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

NASB 1977
So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Legacy Standard Bible
So I bargained for her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Amplified Bible
So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley [the price of a common slave].

Christian Standard Bible
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and nine bushels of barley.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley.

American Standard Version
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And I bought her for myself for fifteen silver pieces and for a cor and a half cor of barley

Brenton Septuagint Translation
So I hired her to myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer of barley, and a flagon of wine.

Contemporary English Version
So I paid 15 pieces of silver and about 150 kilograms of grain for such a woman.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.

English Revised Version
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So I bought her for 23 ounces of silver and 10 bushels of barley.

Good News Translation
So I paid fifteen pieces of silver and seven bushels of barley to buy her.

International Standard Version
So I bought her back for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and one and a half omers of barley.

JPS Tanakh 1917
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley;

Literal Standard Version
And I buy her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a lethech of barley;

Majority Standard Bible
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

New American Bible
So I acquired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

NET Bible
So I paid fifteen shekels of silver and about seven bushels of barley to purchase her.

New Revised Standard Version
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine.

New Heart English Bible
So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Webster's Bible Translation
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley:

World English Bible
So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Young's Literal Translation
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Hosea Redeems His Wife
1Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and offer raisin cakes to idols.” 2So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3Then I said to her, “You must live with me for many days; you must not be promiscuous or belong to another, and I will do the same for you.”…

Cross References
Ruth 4:10
Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, to raise up the name of the deceased through his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his brothers or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today."

Hosea 3:3
Then I said to her, "You must live with me for many days; you must not be promiscuous or belong to another, and I will do the same for you."


Treasury of Scripture

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

I bought.

Genesis 31:41
Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

Genesis 34:12
Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.

Exodus 22:17
If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

an homer.

Leviticus 27:16
And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

Isaiah 5:10
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

Ezekiel 45:11
The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.

half homer.

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Barley Bought Buy Fifteen Half Homer Pieces Shekels Silver Silverlings
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Barley Bought Buy Fifteen Half Homer Pieces Shekels Silver Silverlings
Hosea 3
1. The Lord's intended future kindness to Israel, not withstanding their wickedness,
2. illustrated by the emblem of Hosea's conduct toward his adulterous wife.
4. The desolation of Israel before their restoration.














(2) Pieces of silver.--Shekels.

So I bought her.--Gomer was treated as no longer a wife, but requiring to be restored to such a position. The purchase of wives is still a very common practice in the East (See Henderson's Commentary, and Deut. xxi 14.)

Half homer of barley.--Half a homer is the translation given to the Hebrew word lethekh, which occurs only in this passage. This rendering is founded on the interpretation half a cor (cor = homer), which is given in all the Greek versions except the LXX. The latter read "and a nebhel of wine," the nebhel being probably a skin bottle of a certain liquid capacity. This pre-supposes a different Hebrew text. From 2Kings 7:1 we may infer that an ephah of barley at ordinary times would cost one shekel (comp. Amos 8:5), and since a homer contains ten ephahs, the price paid by the prophet was thirty shekels altogether. Reckoning a shekel as = two drachms (so LXX.), or 2s. 6 d., the price paid by Hosea was about 3 15s. According to Exodus 21:32, this was the compensation enacted for a slave gored to death by a bull, and is a hint of the degradation to which Gomer had sunk.

Verse 2. - So I bought (acquired) her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley and an half-homer (margin, lethech) of barley. In narrating the prophet's compliance with the Divine command, the word אֶכְּרֶהָis connected by Aben Ezra with וֶכַר in the sense of making acquaintance with; but it is more correctly referred by Kimchi to כָרָה with daghesh euphonic in the caph as in יִקְּרֵך shall meet thee. "The daghesh of the caph is for euphony as in miqdush, and the root is כַרה (Kimchi). The meaning is then simply and naturally traced as follows: to dig, obtain by digging, acquire. The price paid for the acquisition in this case was either the purchase money paid to the parents of the bride, as to Laban in the case of Rachel and Leah by Jacob, or the marriage present paid (mohar) to the bride herself. Another view represents the prophet paying the price to the woman's husband to whom she had been unfaithful, and who in consequence resigned her for so small a sum. It remains for us to attend to the amount thus paid. Fifteen pieces of silver or shekels would be about one pound fifteen shillings, or one pound seventeen and six-pence; while the price of the barley would he somewhere about the same. There were fifty or sixty shekels in a mana, Greek mina, and Latin ulna; while the maneh was cue-sixtieth of a talent (kikteer); and thus three thousand or three thousand six hundred shekels in a talent. The homer, the largest of the Hebrew dry measures, contained one cor or ten ephahs ( = ten baths of liquids = ten Attic μέδιμνοι), and the half-homer or lethec (haemi-coros in LXX.) was half a cop or five ephahs. These fifteen ephahs, at a shekel each - for under extraordinary circumstances (2 Kings 7:1) we read of" two measures of barley for a shekel" - would be equivalent to one pound fifteen or seventeen shillings and sixpence. Both together - the silver and the barley - would amount to thirty shekels, or three pounds and ten or fifteen shillings. Why this exact amount? and why such particularity in the reckoning? By turning to Exodus 21:32 we learn that thirty shekels were the estimated value of a manservant or maidservant; for it is there stated that "if the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver." The price paid by the prophet partly in money and partly in kind was exactly the price of an ordinary maidservant. The barley (שְׂעֹרִים, plural, equivalent to "grains of barley") may hint the woman's unchastity, as it was the offering for a woman suspected of adultery (Numbers 5.) The low estate of the person purchased is a legitimate inference kern all this. The wife, for whom such a paltry sum should be paid, and paid in such a way, or to whom such a petty gift would be offered, must be supposed to be in a condition of deep depression or in circumstances of great distress. Thus the sum paid by the prophet for his partner symbolizes the servile state of Israel when Jehovah chose them for his peculiar people.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
So I bought her
וָאֶכְּרֶ֣הָ (wā·’ek·kə·re·hā)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - first person common singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 3739: To trade, get by trade

for fifteen [shekels]
בַּחֲמִשָּׁ֥ה (ba·ḥă·miš·šāh)
Preposition-b, Article | Number - masculine singular
Strong's 2568: Five

of silver
כָּ֑סֶף (kā·sep̄)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3701: Silver, money

and a homer
וְחֹ֥מֶר (wə·ḥō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 2563: A bubbling up, of water, a wave, of earth, mire, clay, a heap, a chomer, dry measure

and a lethek
וְלֵ֥תֶךְ (wə·lê·ṯeḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3963: A measure for, things dry

of barley.
שְׂעֹרִ֖ים (śə·‘ō·rîm)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 8184: Barley


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OT Prophets: Hosea 3:2 So I bought her for myself (Ho Hs Hos.)
Hosea 3:1
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