Hosea 3:2

Hosea 3:2. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver That is, according to the ancient custom, I paid her dower. It was usual among the Hebrews for men to purchase, or pay a consideration for, their wives, either by money or labour; thus Jacob agreed to serve Laban seven years for Rachael. And for a homer of barley, &c. Sir John Chardin observed in the East, that, in their contracts for temporary wives, there is always the formality of a measure of corn mentioned, over and above the stipulated sum of money. Harmer, vol. 2:513. The low price at which the prophet purchased this woman, was significative how base and of little value the Israelites were, since their apostacy from the worship of God to idolatry. Or, according to Calvin, “the parsimonious gift, a sum of money which was but half the price of a female slave, and a pittance of black barley bread, typified the hard fare which the Israelites were to expect at the hand of God in their state of exile.”