Hosea 2:2 (LSB)

Passage

“Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her remove her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,

Nearby Context

Hosea 2:1 Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”

Hosea 2:2 “Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her remove her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,

Hosea 2:3 Lest I strip her naked And set her forth as on the day when she was born And make her like a wilderness And make her like dry land And put her to death with thirst.

Hosea 2:4 Also, I will have no compassion on her children Because they are children of harlotry.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "contend", "mother", "wife", "husband", "remove", "harlotry", and "face". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "contend" and "mother", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "Say to your brothers Ammi and to..." into verse 3's "Lest I strip her naked And set...", so "contend" and "mother" 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 "contend" and "mother" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.