Hosea 2:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hosea 2:5
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.
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
give
נֹתְנֵ֤יno.te.Nei
H5414
to give · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
bread
לַחְמִי֙lach.Mi
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 1st person masculine singular
water
וּמֵימַ֔יu.mei.Mai
H4325
water · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
wool
צַמְרִ֣יtzam.Ri
H6785
wool · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
flax
וּפִשְׁתִּ֔יu.fish.Ti
H6593
linen (i.e. the thread · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
oil
שַׁמְנִ֖יsham.Ni
H8081
grease · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
drink
וְשִׁקּוּיָֽיve.shi.ku.Yai
H8250
a beverage · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 44:17-18 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink…
Isaiah 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Hosea 2:8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Hosea 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the chil…
Jeremiah 3:1-9 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be…
Hosea 2:12-13 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make th…
Judges 16:23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said,…
Ezra 9:6-7 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our tresp…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 2:1-5
The first words of this chapter some make the close of the foregoing chapter, and add them to the promises which we have here of the great things God would do for them. When they shall have appointed Christ their head, and centered in him, then let them say to one another, with triumph and exultation (let the prophets say it to them, so the Chaldee - Comfort you, comfort you, my people, is now their commission), "say to them, Ammi, and Ruhamah; call them so again, for they shall no longer lie under the reproach and doom of Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah; they shall now be my people again, and shall obtain mercy." God's spiritual Israel, made up of Jews and Gentiles without distinction, shall call on…
I will go after--The Hebrew expresses a settled determination.
lovers--the idols which Israel fancied to be the givers of all their goods, whereas God gave all these goods (Hos 2:8-13; compare Jer 44:17-19).
bread and . . . water--the necessaries of life in food.
wool . . . flax--clothing.
oil . . . drink--perfumed unguents and palatable drinks: the luxuries of Hebrew life.
John Gill on Hosea 2:5
For their mother hath played the harlot,.... Or committed idolatry; which is the reason why she is to be pleaded with, and why the Lord will not own her as his wife, or be a husband to her; and why she is to be exhorted to put away her whoredoms from her; and was in danger of all the above evils coming upon her, continuing in the same practice; and why her children were children of whoredoms. Though the connection may be with the verse following, "for" or "because their mother hath played the harlot", &c. "therefore I will hedge up her way", &c.
She that conceived them hath done shamefully; all sin is shameful and scandalous, especially adultery; it brings a reproach and a blot upon a perso…
Hosea 2:4-5
4. And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
4. Et filiorum ejus non miserabor, quia filii adulterini sunt.
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.
5. Quia scortata est mater eorem, probriis foedata est quae concepit ipsos, (vel, genitrix ipsorum:) dixit enim, Ibo post amatores meos, datores panis mei (vel, qui dant panem meum) et aquas meas, lanam meam et linum meum, et oleum meum et potum meum.
The Lord now comes close to each individual, after having spoken in ge…
The Church Fathers
Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea points out, who said, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me?" Let us grant that we may understand this also of the people of the Jews that went astray; yet whom else are the false Christians (such as are all heretics and schismatics) wont to imitate, except false Israelites?
They, therefore, who are wicked, evildoers, carnal, fleshly, devilish, think that they receive at the hands of their seducers what are the gifts of God alone, whether sacraments, or any spiritual workings about present salvation. But these men have not love towards God, but are busied about those by whose pride they are led astray, and are compared to the adulterous woman, whom the prophet introduces as saying, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and my oil, and everything that befits me." For thus arise heresies and schisms, when the fleshly people which is not founded on the love of God says, "I will go after my lovers," with whom, either by corruption of her faith, or by the puffing up of her pride, she shamefully commits adultery. But for the sake of those who, having undergone the difficulties, and straits, and barriers of the empty reasoning of those by whom they are led astray, afterwards feel the prickings of fear, and return to the way of peace, to seeking God in all sincerity,—for their sake He goes on to say, "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she 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." Then, that they may not attribute to their seducers what they have that is sound, and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions; that they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately added, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Flax — (Heb. pishtah, i.e., “peeled”, in allusion to the fact that the stalks of flax when dried were first split or peeled before being steeped in water for the purpose of destroying the pulp). This plant…
Fornication — In every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See ADULTERY.) But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in…
Wool — One of the first material used for making woven cloth (Lev. 13:47, 48, 52, 59; 19:19). The first-fruit of wool was to be offered to the priests (Deut. 18:4). The law prohibiting the wearing of a…
Flax · Linen ma — Linen ma
Israel, Prophecies Concerning · .Of — .Of
Oil · Used for food — Used for food
Valleys · Mentioned in scripture: Achor — Mentioned in scripture: Achor
Water · Was used by Jews: As their principal beverage — Was used by Jews: As their principal beverage
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
"For their mother hath committed whoredom; she that bare them hath practised shame: 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." By kı̄ (for) and the suffixes attached to 'immâm (their mother) and hōrâthâm (that bare them), the first clauses are indeed introduced as though simply explanatory and confirmatory of the last clause of Hos 2:4; but if we look at the train of thought generally, it is obvious that Hos 2:5 is not merely intended to explain the expression sons of whoredom, but to explain and vindicate the main thought, viz., that the children of whoredom, i.e., the idolatrous Israelites, will find no mercy…
The only evidence needed to prove Israel’s unfaithfulness comes from her own words: I’ll run after other lovers. Israel’s lovers were the Canaanite fertility deities, especially the baals (local representations of Baal). The Israelites worshiped them because they believed that these gods controlled the reproductive forces in nature. The Israelites attributed to them the basic necessities of life, food and water, their clothing of wool and linen, and oil, used for both sacred and secular purposes.
Rashi on Hosea 2:5
as [on] the day she was born Like the day that I found her in Egypt, as is delineated in Ezekiel (16: 4, 5): “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel was not cut etc. No eye took pity on you etc. with a loathing of your body.”
like a desert This alludes to the decrees that I decreed upon you (Parshandatha: them) in the desert, viz. that there they should perish and there they would die (Num. 14:35).
and [I will] cause her to die Jonathan renders: And I will kill her.
