Passage

Hosea 3.5

Book: Hosea · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be any man's wife: so will I also be toward thee. 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim:

5. afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and shall come with fear unto Jehovah and to his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3:3-5, ASV)

WEB

3. I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.” 4. For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.

5. Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days. (Hosea 3:3-5, WEB)

KJV

3. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee. 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: ^{image: Heb. a standing, or, statue, or, pillar}

5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3:3-5, KJV)

YLT

3. and I say unto her, 'Many days thou dost remain for Me, thou dost not go a-whoring, nor become any one's; and I also [am] for thee.' 4. For many days remain do the sons of Israel without a king, and there is no prince, and there is no sacrifice, and there is no standing pillar, and there is no ephod and teraphim.

5. Afterwards turned back have the sons of Israel, and sought Jehovah their God, and David their king, and have hastened unto Jehovah, and unto His goodness, in the latter end of the days. (Hosea 3:3-5, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: Hosea, reporting the outcome of the sign
Audience: the northern kingdom of Israel, repeatedly called Ephraim after its dominant tribe
Location: the northern kingdom, with the Davidic house in the south in view
Time period: c. 750-722 BC, from the last years of Jeroboam II through the dynastic chaos that followed to the eve of Samaria's fall to Assyria

Theological reading

A northern prophet naming "David their king" as the object of a future northern return is a pointed thing to say, since the northern kingdom's founding act was the rejection of the Davidic house (1 Kings 12). The restoration envisaged therefore undoes the political schism and not merely the idolatry.

The verbs stack deliberately: return, seek, and come trembling toward "his goodness," combining fear and attraction rather than treating them as alternatives. "In the latter days" (be'acharit hayyamim) places fulfillment beyond the immediate political horizon, which is why the verse has been read messianically in both Jewish and Christian tradition.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H7725 - shuv, shuv, Strong's H7725
H0430 - elohim, elohim, Strong's H0430
H1121 - ben, ben, Strong's H1121
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Lexicon:

H1121 - ben

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.