as well as can be fitting for a harlot. It also has the connotation of "digging", so the Vulgate Latin version renders it "I dug her", which may refer to the "digging" or "boring" the ears of a slave that chose to continue with his master (Exodus 21:6). "Fifteen shekels of silver": was half the price of a slave (Exodus 21:32), or may allude to the dowry for a bride (1 Samuel 18:25). A shekel was about 0.4 ounce or 11 grams. "A homer" of barley: was about 6 bushels or 220 liters or ten ephahs. "A lethech" of barley: was "half homer", about 3 bushels or 110 liters or five ephahs, so in total: "one and a half homer" would equal "fifteen ephahs". Verse 3 Then I said to her, “You will remain with me many days. You will not play the whore, and you will not belong to another man. And also I will be with you." "You will remain with me many days": Literally, "you will sit," solitary like widow (Deuteronomy 21:13), not going after others, as before, but waiting only for him (Exodus 24:14; Jeremiah 3:2), for an undefined, long period, until he comes and takes her to himself. Verse 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: "Ephod": generally refers to a linen garment wore by Israelite high priests according to Torah, and was equipped with Urim and Thummim; it was missing since the destruction of the second temple, so the people of Israel have been long without it and without the means of inquiry of God about future (cf. Ezra 2:63). Lacking the temple and the ephod, the whole Israelite priesthood now ceased in a proper sense, that the Septuagint renders with a phrase, "without a priesthood". Verse 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. "David their King": This cannot refer to David himself, because he was long dead, so it must be referring to "the Son of David," of whom God says, "I will set up One Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My servant David, and He shall be their Shepherd, and