Hosea 3:3

Hosea 3:3. And I said, Thou shalt abide for me many days The Vulgate renders this, Dies multos expectabis me, non fornicaberis, Thou shalt wait for me many days; thou shalt not commit fornication. The meaning is, that she should remain in a state of separation from the prophet, and every other man, sequestered and solitary, for many days, that there might be proof of her reformation. Thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee As there is nothing in the Hebrew for the word another, so the sentence may be more accurately translated thus, Thou shalt not have a husband, neither will I have thee, namely, for a wife. Bishop Horsley renders it, And thou shalt not have to do with a husband, neither will I with thee; that is, thou shalt continue for some time in a state of widowhood, or without commerce with man. The Hebrew phrase here used, לא תהיו לאישׁ , properly means, Thou shalt not have a husband, and is so rendered by our interpreters, Ezekiel 44:25. And to the same sense, without the negative particle, Ruth 1:12. Thus the LXX. render it, ουδε μη γενη ανδρι ; (compare Romans 7:3;) and so also the Vulgate, et non eris viro. By these conditions, which the prophet makes with the woman whom he takes, that she should humble herself and not go after other men, as formerly, but remain separate from every man, must be meant, with respect to Israel, that though God should separate himself from them for a long time, and humble them by reducing them to a low condition, and restraining them from their idolatry and former luxury; yet he would not so utterly reject them, but that he would, in due time, upon their conversion, again receive them. This was intended, 1st, To be an emblem of the state of the Jews during the Babylonish captivity; when snatched, as it were by force, from the objects of their impure love, they continued in their exile equally separated from their God and their idols; but with this difference, that their God retained toward them sentiments of affection, expecting on their part true repentance. And, 2d, “The condition of the woman, restrained from licentious courses, owned as a wife, but without conjugal rites, admirably represents also the present state of the Jews, manifestly owned as a peculiar people, withheld from idolatry, but as yet without access to God, through the Saviour.” Horsley.