Hosea 3:4 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

For — Now the parable is unfolded, it shall be with Israel as with such a woman, they and she were guilty of adultery, both punished long, both made slaves, kept hardly, and valued meanly, yet in mercy at last pardoned, and re — accepted tho' after a long time of probation. Without a king — None of their own royal line shall sit on the throne. A prince — Strangers shall be princes and governors over them. Without a sacrifice — Offered according to the law. An image — They could carry none of their images with them, and the Assyrians would not let them make new ones. Ephod — No priest as well as no ephod. And without teraphim — Idolatrous images kept in their private houses, like the Roman household gods; in one word, such should be the state of their captives; they should have nothing of their own either in religious or civil affairs, but be wholly under the power of their conquering enemies.