Bible Strands
Hosea 2:5
For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers Yahweh’s declaration against an unfaithful mother figure, situated within a judgment sequence that begins in Hosea 2:2 and continues through the surrounding verses.
The words — The text uses זָֽנְתָה (za.ne.Tah) for "played the harlot" and הֹבִישָׁה (ho.Vi.shah) for "conceived in disgrace," establishing the mother’s actions as both sexually unfaithful and morally shameful.
The thread — Jeremiah 44:17 and Isaiah 1:21 trace the harlotry metaphor to idolatrous worship and the fall of a once-faithful city, while Hosea 2:8 clarifies that the "lovers" she pursues are actually the provisions Yahweh Himself provided.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that idolatry is not spiritual seeking but a misdirected reliance on created things, requiring the reader to identify where they attribute provision to false sources rather than to the giver.
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
For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 44:17 Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.
- Isaiah 1:21 See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!
- Hosea 2:8 For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold—which they crafted for Baal.
- Hosea 3:1 Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”
- Jeremiah 3:1 “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
- Hosea 2:12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them.
- Judges 16:23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”
- Ezra 9:6 and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
- Isaiah 50:1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
- Isaiah 57:7 On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.