Bible Strands
Hosea 2:3
Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Hosea to the unfaithful wife of Israel, issuing a conditional warning immediately after commanding her to remove her adultery.
The words — The Hebrew פֶּן (pen-) means "lest" or "otherwise," framing the threat as a direct consequence. אַפְשִׁיטֶנָּה עֲרֻמָּה ('afshiteannah arumah) literally translates to "I will strip her naked."
The thread — The nakedness motif parallels Ezekiel 16:22, while the desolation imagery aligns with Isaiah 32:13 and the judgment context of Jeremiah 13:22.
Why it lands — The text plainly states that covenant unfaithfulness triggers a direct reversal of protection, leaving the recipient exposed and deprived of sustenance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 16:22 And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.
- Isaiah 32:13 and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
- Jeremiah 13:22 And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.
- Ezekiel 19:13 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
- Amos 8:11 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
- Exodus 17:3 But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
- Jeremiah 22:6 For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I will surely turn you into a desert, like cities that are uninhabited.
- Judges 15:18 And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
- Isaiah 33:9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
- Isaiah 47:3 Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”