Hosea 2:5

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said,“I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

‫פֶּן־אַפְשִׁיטֶ֣נָּה עֲרֻמָּ֔ה וְהִ֨צַּגְתִּ֔יהָ כְּי֖וֹם הִוָּֽלְדָ֑הּ וְשַׂמְתִּ֣יהָ כַמִּדְבָּ֗ר וְשַׁתִּ֙הָ֙ כְּאֶ֣רֶץ צִיָּ֔ה וַהֲמִתִּ֖יהָ בַּצָּמָֽא׃‬

Transliteration

Lest-ʾapšîṭennāh ʿărummāh and hiṣṣagtîhā like-yôm hiwwāldāh, and śamtîhā like-the-midbār and šattihā like-ʾereṣ ṣiyyāh, and hamittîhā with-the-ṣāmāʾ.

Grammar Details

• *ʾapšîṭennāh*: hiphil imperfect, 1st singular + object suffix, 3rd singular, feminine - I will strip her
• *ʿărummāh*: adjective, feminine, singular - naked
• *hiṣṣagtîhā*: hiphil perfect, 1st singular + object suffix, 3rd singular, feminine - I will set/place her
• *yôm*: noun, masculine, singular - day
• *hiwwāldāh*: niphal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd singular, feminine - her being born
• *śamtîhā*: qal perfect, 1st singular + object suffix, 3rd singular, feminine - I will make her
• *midbār*: noun, masculine, singular - wilderness
• *šattihā*: qal perfect, 1st singular + object suffix, 3rd singular, feminine - I will set her
• *ʾereṣ*: noun, feminine, singular - land
• *ṣiyyāh*: noun, feminine, singular - drought/dryness
• *hamittîhā*: hiphil perfect, 1st singular + object suffix, 3rd singular, feminine - I will kill her
• *ṣāmāʾ*: noun, masculine, singular - thirst

Word Meanings

• *ʾapšîṭennāh*: I will strip/undress/remove clothing from her
• *ʿărummāh*: naked/bare/exposed
• *hiṣṣagtîhā*: I will set/place/establish her
• *yôm*: day/time
• *hiwwāldāh*: her being born/her birth
• *śamtîhā*: I will make/place/establish her
• *midbār*: wilderness/desert/uninhabited land
• *šattihā*: I will set/place/establish her
• *ʾereṣ*: land/earth/ground
• *ṣiyyāh*: drought/dryness/parched land
• *hamittîhā*: I will kill/put to death/cause to die
• *ṣāmāʾ*: thirst/dryness

Referenced Verses

• Jer 44:17-18 : 17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. 18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.”
• Isa 1:21 : 21 Purifying Judgment How tragic that the once-faithful city has become a prostitute! She was once a center of justice, fairness resided in her, but now only murderers.
• Hos 2:8 : 8 Agricultural Fertility Withdrawn from Israel Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold– which they used in worshiping Baal!
• Hos 3:1 : 1 An Illustration of God’s Love for Idolatrous Israel The LORD said to me,“Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the LORD loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”
• Hos 2:12-13 : 12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said,“These are my wages for prostitution that my lovers gave to me!” I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket, so that wild animals will devour them. 13 “I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols; she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but she forgot me!” says the LORD.
• Judg 16:23 : 23 Samson’s Death and Burial The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said,“Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”
• Ezra 9:6-7 : 6 I prayed,“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens. 7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and priests, have been delivered over by the local kings to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment– right up to the present time.
• Isa 50:1 : 1 This is what the LORD says:“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate by which I divorced her? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold because of your sins; because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother.
• Isa 57:7-8 : 7 On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed; you go up there to offer sacrifices. 8 Behind the door and doorpost you put your symbols. Indeed, you depart from me and go up and invite them into bed with you. You purchase favors from them, you love their bed, and gaze longingly on their naked bodies.
• Jer 2:20 : 20 The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry“Indeed, long ago you threw off my authority and refused to be subject to me. You said,‘I will not serve you.’ Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill and under every green tree, like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers.
• Jer 2:25-27 : 25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out and your throats become dry. But you say,‘It is useless for you to try and stop me because I love those foreign gods and want to pursue them!’ 26 Just as a thief has to suffer dishonor when he is caught, so the people of Israel will suffer dishonor for what they have done. So will their kings and officials, their priests and their prophets. 27 They say to a wooden idol,‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image,‘You gave birth to me.’ Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. Yet when they are in trouble, they say,‘Come and save us!’
• Jer 3:1-9 : 1 “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, he may not take her back again. Doing that would utterly defile the land. But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. So what makes you think you can return to me?” says the LORD. 2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. Where have you not been ravished? You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the wilderness. You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. 3 That is why the rains have been withheld, and the spring rains have not come. Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done. 4 Even now you say to me,‘You are my father! You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young. 5 You will not always be angry with me, will you? You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’ That is what you say, but you continually do all the evil that you can.” 6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the LORD said to me,“Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. 7 Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me. But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did. 8 She also saw that, because of wayward Israel’s adulterous worship of other gods, I sent her away and gave her divorce papers. But still her unfaithful sister Judah was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. 9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.
• Jer 11:13 : 13 This is in spite of the fact that the people of Judah have as many gods as they have towns and the citizens of Jerusalem have set up as many altars to sacrifice to that disgusting god, Baal, as they have streets in the city!’
• Ezek 16:15-16 : 15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your clothing and made for yourself decorated high places; you engaged in prostitution on them. You went to him to become his.
• Ezek 16:28-34 : 28 You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians because your desires were insatiable; you prostituted yourself with them and yet you were still not satisfied. 29 Then you multiplied your promiscuity to the land of merchants, Babylonia, but you were not satisfied there either. 30 “‘How sick is your heart, declares the Sovereign LORD, when you perform all of these acts, the deeds of a bold prostitute. 31 When you built your chamber at the head of every street and put up your pavilion in every public square, you were not like a prostitute, because you scoffed at payment. 32 “‘Adulterous wife, who prefers strangers instead of her own husband! 33 All prostitutes receive payment, but instead you give gifts to every one of your lovers. You bribe them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors! 34 You were different from other prostitutes because no one solicited you. When you gave payment and no payment was given to you, you became the opposite!
• Ezek 23:5-9 : 5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians– warriors 6 clothed in blue, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired– with all their idols. 8 She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men went to bed with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. 9 Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted. 10 They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious among women, and they executed judgments against her. 11 “Her sister Oholibah watched this, but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister.
• Ezek 23:16-17 : 16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 The Babylonians crawled into bed with her. They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.
• Ezek 23:40-44 : 40 “They even sent for men from far away; when the messenger arrived, those men set out. For them you bathed, painted your eyes, and decorated yourself with jewelry. 41 You sat on a magnificent couch, with a table arranged in front of it where you placed my incense and my olive oil. 42 The sound of a carefree crowd accompanied her, including all kinds of men; even Sabeans were brought from the desert. The sisters put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 Then I said about the one worn out by adultery,‘Now they will commit immoral acts with her.’ 44 They slept with her the way someone sleeps with a prostitute. In this way they slept with Oholah and Oholibah, promiscuous women.
• Dan 9:5-8 : 5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well. 7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day– the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 8 O LORD, we have been humiliated– our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors– because we have sinned against you.
• Hos 2:2 : 2 Idolatrous Israel Will Be Punished Like a Prostitute Plead earnestly with your mother(for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.
• Hos 4:5 : 5 You stumble day and night, and the false prophets stumble with you; You have destroyed your own people!
• Hos 4:12-15 : 12 They consult their wooden idols, and their diviner’s staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution blows them astray; they commit spiritual adultery against their God. 13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and burn offerings on the hills; they sacrifice under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery! 14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men consort with harlots, they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. It is true:“A people that lacks understanding will come to ruin!” 15 Warning to Judah: Do Not Join in Israel’s Apostasy! Although you, O Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty! Do not journey to Gilgal! Do not go up to Beth Aven! Do not swear,“As surely as the LORD lives!”
• Hos 8:9 : 9 Israel’s Hired Lovers They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.
• Hos 9:10 : 10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame– they became as detestable as what they loved.
• Rev 2:20-23 : 20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, unless they repent of her deeds. 23 Furthermore, I will strike her followers with a deadly disease, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve.
• Rev 17:1-5 : 1 The Great Prostitute and the Beast Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me.“Come,” he said,“I will show you the condemnation and punishment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness, and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 Now the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality. 5 On her forehead was written a name, a mystery:“Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”