How does Osee’s purchase accompany the announcement of waiting?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A specified purchase and mutual waiting precede Israel’s deprivation and later return.

Chapter breakdown

The Lord again commands Osee to love a woman beloved of her friend and an adulteress, comparing this with his love for Israel while they look to strange gods and love grape husks. Osee buys her for fifteen pieces of silver, a core of barley and half a core. He tells her to wait for him many days, not play the harlot or be any man's, while he also waits for her. No bondage, household seclusion or private motive is described.

The children of Israel will sit many days without king, prince, sacrifice, altar, ephod or theraphim. The edition explains theraphim as images or representations. Afterward they will return, seek the Lord their God and David their king, and fear the Lord and his goodness in the last days. The note identifies David their king as Christ of David's house. The editorial argument frames the act as God's love for the synagogue and the people's prolonged deprivation before conversion; its interpretation is distinguished from the short narrated purchase and instructions.

The story inside

The price is fifteen silver pieces and one-and-a-half cores of barley. Israel’s waiting lacks six named offices or institutions. The edition identifies David their king as Christ.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The price is fifteen silver pieces and one-and-a-half cores of barley.
2
Israel’s waiting lacks six named offices or institutions.
3
The edition identifies David their king as Christ.

Test your recall

Which six things are absent during Israel’s many days?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 99389–99395
3:1. And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress: as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, and they look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes. 3:2. And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.
Lines 99397–99405
3:3. And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt be no man’s, and I also will wait for thee. 3:4. For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim. Theraphim.... Images or representations.
Lines 99407–99411
3:5. And after this the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord, their God, and David, their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness, in the last days. David their king.... That is, Christ, who is of the house of David.