Hosea 2:3 (DRB)

Passage

Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through and will kill her with drought.

Nearby Context

Hosea 2:1 Say ye to your brethren: You are my people: and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

Hosea 2:2 Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

Hosea 2:3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through and will kill her with drought.

Hosea 2:4 And I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of fornications.

Hosea 2:5 For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "lest", "strip", "naked", "born", "make", "wilderness", "land", and "none". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "lest" and "strip", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "Judge your mother judge her because she..." into verse 4's "And I will not have mercy on...", so "lest" and "strip" 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 "lest" and "strip" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.