The interval of 'many days' is to be characterized by a mutual

'abiding' or 'waiting'.  The woman was to 'abide' without further

unfaithfulness, the man would abide and wait also.  This waiting negative

attitude is explained by the sixfold negation of verse 4.  Israel has had no

'king' since the days of their captivity.  On the other hand, their very

scattering among the nations had made it impossible for any foreign 'prince'

to rule over them.  Since the destruction of Jerusalem, Israel has been

deprived of the right to offer sacrifice, but, since the days of their

captivity, they have never again fallen under the old spell of idolatry; they

have had no priest in the true sense of the word, but neither have they

teraphim.  The Bible student needs no explanation of these terms, except

perhaps the last.

Teraphim. -- This word is variously explained, but always with a

consciousness that much to do with its origin and intention is unknown.  Dr.

J. E. Shelley contributed a suggestive article to the Bible League Quarterly

in 1939 in which he speaks of the 'Generations' which compose the bulk of the

book of Genesis, and suggests that these 'ancestral tablets' were called

teraphim by association with Terah the father of Abraham, and says that

'certain Jewish legends represent Terah as actually a maker of idols'.  The

word 'teraphim' occurs but six times in the English of the Authorized

Version, all the references apart from Hosea 3 being in Judges 17 and 18.

The word occurs, however, fifteen times altogether in the Old Testament,

being translated 'image', 'idolatry' and 'idol'.  It was the teraphim that

Rachel stole and hid (Gen. 31:19 -35).  It was the teraphim that Michal

placed in the bed vacated by David (1 Sam. 19:13,16).  In 1 Samuel 15:23,

Ezekiel 21:21 and Zechariah 10:2, it will be seen that the teraphim were

consulted and associated with witchcraft and divination:

'When the temple in Jerusalem was burned in a.d. 70 all the

genealogical records of Israel's tribes were utterly destroyed.  There

is no man among the Jews today who can prove definitely of what tribe

he is, by giving his genealogical records' (Dr. J. E. Shelley).

Israel had long been without a king when they entered their lo -ammi

condition at Acts 28.  The last thing to go at the destruction of the temple

would have been the genealogical records.  Since that date Israel has

'waited' and must wait until a priest stands up with Urim and Thummim -- in

other words, until the Lord Himself returns.  The words of Hosea 6:1,2

suggest that the period covered by this 'abiding' will be 'two days', which

in the symbolic use of the term covers the two thousand years that may

intervene before their complete restoration.  As we have no certain knowledge

as to when this period actually started, it is useless to attempt to compute

the date of Israel's restoration.  The return of Israel, with the confession

that they will make, constitutes the closing chapters of this prophecy.  All

is graciously reversed.  Instead of being lo -ammi and lo -ruhamah, the

fatherless find mercy (14:3).  Their backsliding is healed, and this restored

people grow as the lily, have the beauty of the olive, the odour of Lebanon,

with their fruit derived alone from the Lord.

The reader will be as conscious as the writer of these notes that the

bulk of prophecy has been left unexplored.  To attempt a fuller exposition

would demand a lengthy presentation, but sufficient, we trust, has been

lifted out to provide a guide to the reader who supplements the comments

given here, by his own Berean -like studies.