Hosea 3:2

Bought her. Evidently Gomer had fallen into some type of debt or slavery after she had left Hosea (see ch. 2:7).

Fifteen pieces. About half the price of a manservant (see on Ex. 21:32).

Homer. An homer is 6.24 bu. (220 liters); thus the total barley paid was 9.36 bu. (330 liters) (see Vol. I, p. 167). The price paid by the prophet, partly in money and partly in barley (counted an inferior cereal in Palestine), was approximately that of a common maidservant. Thus was set forth strikingly the low, degraded estate of Hosea’s wife. The use of barley as part payment may itself have reflected this degradation by suggesting the “barley meal” offered when a wife was suspected of adultery (see Num. 5:11-15). Could any symbol show more pointedly the debased state to which Israel had fallen?