Hosea 3:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Beloved of her friend, &c.— Given to wickedness, and an adulterer. A different woman is here meant from that which he had before espoused. The first denoted the infidelity of the kingdom of Israel, and God's divorce of them. He abandoned them to the enemy, and permitted them to be carried into captivity. This marks out the state of this spouse, divorced, but not continuing in the practice of idolatry. This was the disposition of the Jews during the Babylonish captivity; snatched, as it were, by force, from the objects of their impure love, they continued in their exile, almost equally separated from their God and their idols: but with this difference, that their God did in some sense retain towards them as a nation sentiments of affection, expecting on their part true repentance. It has generally been thought, that the ancient idolaters used to offer flaggons of wine to the gods, and that the prophet alludes to this at the end of the verse. The words seem in general to express their leaving the service of God, and making themselves like idolatrous people, in following after bodily delights and pleasures; as drunkenness, gluttony, and the like, which the service of those idols did not only permit, but require. See Calmet, and Pococke.