Hosea 2:3 (YLT)

Passage

Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as <FI>in<Fi> the day of her birth, And have made her as a wilderness, And have set her as a dry land, And have put her to death with thirst.

Nearby Context

Hosea 2:1 `Say ye to your brethren--Ammi, And to your sisters--Ruhamah.

Hosea 2:2 Plead ye with your mother--plead, (For she <FI>is<Fi> not My wife, and I <FI>am<Fi> not her husband,) And she turneth her whoredoms from before her, And her adulteries from between her breasts,

Hosea 2:3 Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as <FI>in<Fi> the day of her birth, And have made her as a wilderness, And have set her as a dry land, And have put her to death with thirst.

Hosea 2:4 And her sons I do not pity, For sons of whoredoms <FI>are<Fi> they,

Hosea 2:5 For gone a-whoring hath their mother, Acted shamefully hath their conceiver, For she hath said, I go after my lovers, Those giving my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "lest", "strip", "naked", "birth", "wilderness", "land", "death", and "thirst". 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 "Plead ye with your mother--plead For she..." into verse 4's "And her sons I do not pity...", 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.