Passage

Hosea 2.5

Book: Hosea · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

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 like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4. Yea, upon her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of whoredom;

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.

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths. 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. (Hosea 2:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. 4. Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;

5. For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way. 7. She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’ (Hosea 2:3-7, WEB)

KJV

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 like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4. And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

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. ^{drink: Heb. drinks}

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. ^{make: Heb. wall a wall} 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. (Hosea 2:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as [in] 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. 4. And her sons I do not pity, For sons of whoredoms [are] they,

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.

Therefore, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find. 7. And she hath pursued her lovers, And she doth not overtake them, And hath sought them, and doth not find, And she hath said: I go, and I turn back unto My first husband, For, better to me then than now. (Hosea 2:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: YHWH speaking through Hosea son of Beeri (1:1). Most scholars trace the oracles to Hosea himself, while many hold that the book received its final shape later in Judah, where it was preserved after Samaria fell
Audience: the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim after its leading tribe
Location: the northern kingdom
Time period: c. 750-722 BC, from the last years of Jeroboam II through the dynastic chaos that followed to the eve of Samaria's fall to Assyria (1:1; 2 Kings 15-17)
Literary context: the marriage lawsuit (2:2-13), in which the children are summoned to plead with their mother. Hebrew numbering runs two verses higher in this chapter (2:7 in the Hebrew Bible).

Theological reading

"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 2:5, ASV)

The lovers are the Baals. The "lovers" are the Baal deities (2:13, 17), worshipped as the givers of rain and harvest. The list in her mouth, bread and water, wool and flax, oil and drink, covers food, clothing and luxury: everything a household needed.

Credit wrongly given. Verse 8 supplies the answer: "she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil". The sin is not only infidelity but misattribution, crediting another with what YHWH provided. That is why the judgment in verse 9 is to take the gifts back, so that she learns where they came from.

A theme of the book. Knowing God is Hosea's central demand (4:1, 6; 6:6). This verse shows its opposite: a people who enjoy the gifts and forget the giver.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.