Hosea 2:5 (DRB)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

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.

Hosea 2:6 Wherefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "mother", "hath", "committed", "fornication", "conceived", "covered", "shame", and "said". 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 on..." into verse 6's "Wherefore 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.