most likely be “to get married” rather than “to arrange a marriage,” or “to buy a wife.” The distinction would not be relevant were it not important to decide whether the implied payment was the original bride-price or the ransom purchase of Gomer from the slave market, mentioned in 3:2. If there was only one payment, then the two passages are a doublet; but the rest of c 1 indicates that Hosea fathered the children one after the other, and did not buy them with their mother. In 3:1, Hosea is told
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