Bible Strands
Hosea 2:4
I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Hosea to declare judgment against the symbolic unfaithful wife. This pronouncement immediately follows the threat to strip her naked and leave her to die of thirst in Hosea 2:3.
The words — The Hebrew אֲרַחֵם ('arachem) means "I will have compassion" and is negated by לֹא (lo') for "not." The phrase בְנֵי זְנוּנִים (benei zenunim) translates literally to "children of prostitution."
The thread — This refusal to show mercy aligns with the divine decrees in Jeremiah 13:14 and Jeremiah 16:5, which command the cessation of pity and mourning. Ezekiel 8:18 similarly records God's vow to respond with wrath and withhold compassion.
Why it lands — The text states that the offspring will receive no compassion because they are born of adultery. It requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant unfaithfulness produces a lineage defined by disgrace rather than protection.
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
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 13:14 I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”
- Jeremiah 16:5 Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the LORD.
- Ezekiel 8:18 Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”
- Ezekiel 9:10 But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”
- Hosea 1:2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”
- Hosea 1:6 Gomer again conceived and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.
- James 2:13 For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- 2 Kings 9:22 When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
- Isaiah 27:11 When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
- Isaiah 57:3 “But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!