Hosea 2:5 (DBY)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Hosea 2:3 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 as a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

Hosea 2:4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms.

Hosea 2:5 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.

Hosea 2:6 Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence [her] in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

Hosea 2:7 And she shall pursue after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them: and she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "mother", "hath", "played", "harlot", "conceived", "done", and "shamefully". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "mother" and "hath", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "And I will not have mercy upon..." into verse 6's "Therefore behold I will hedge up thy...", so "mother" and "hath" belong inside that flow. In Hosea context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "mother" and "hath" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.