Hosea 3:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

So I bought her; as I was commanded, I procured, or, as we read it, bought her: which exactly answers to the state of the Jews when in Egypt, tainted with Egyptian idolatry, and poor, without a portion; bought or redeemed to be affianced to God. Fifteen pieces of silver; whatever was the exact quantity and value of these pieces we need not here curiously inquire; but note, it was half the value of a slave, Exodus 21:32, and was some 37s. 6d. An homer: this measure might be about fourteen bushels; so the whole will, for her diet, amount to twenty-one bushels, no great provision for her diet; and it is barley in both places, the meanest kind of provision, and suited to a low condition, Judges 7:13 Ezekiel 4:9,12: all this the fuller to set forth Israel's indigence and ingratitude to God, and God's bounty to Israel.