Hosea 2:5

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Yes, their mother is promiscuous;she conceived them and acted shamefully.For she thought, “I will follow my lovers,the men who give me my food and water,my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”

Hebrew Names Version
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.'

King James Version
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.

English Standard Version
For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted 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.'

New American Standard Bible
"For their mother has committed prostitution; She who conceived them has acted 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.'

New Century Version
Their mother has acted like a prostitute; the one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully. She said, ‘I will chase after my lovers, who give me my food and water, wool and flax, wine and olive oil.'

Amplified Bible
"For their mother has played the prostitute; She who conceived them has acted shamefully, For she said, 'I will pursue my lovers Who give me my food and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my [refreshing] drinks.'

Geneva Bible (1587)
For their mother hath plaied the harlot: she that conceiued them, hath done shamefully: for shee said, I will goe after my louers that giue me my bread and my water, my wooll and my flaxe, mine oyle and my drinke.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted 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.'

Legacy Standard Bible
For their mother has played the harlot;She who conceived them has acted 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.'

Berean Standard Bible
For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.'

Contemporary English Version
Your mother was unfaithful. She was disgraceful and said, "I'll run after my lovers. Everything comes from them— my food and drink, my linen and wool, my olive oil and wine."

Complete Jewish Bible
Otherwise, I will strip her naked and place her as she was the day she was born, make her like a desert, place her like a dry land and kill her with thirst.

Darby Translation
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.

Easy-to-Read Version
Their mother has acted like a prostitute. She should be ashamed of what she did. She said, ‘I will go to my lovers, who give me food and water, wool and linen, wine and olive oil.'

George Lamsa Translation
For their mother has played the harlot; she that conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my clothes and my linen, my oil and everything that I need.

Lexham English Bible
Because their mother was unfaithful; she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, the ones who give me my bread, my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink."

Literal Translation
For their mother has prostituted herself; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Their mother hath broken hir wedlocke, and she that bare them, is come to cofucion. For she sayde: I wil go after my louers, that geue me my water and my bred, my woll & my flax, my oyle and my drynke.

American Standard Version
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.

Bible in Basic English
For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
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.

King James Version (1611)
For their mother hath played the harlot: shee that conceiued them hath done shamefully: for shee sayd, I will goe after my louers, that giue me my bread and my water, my wooll and my flaxe, mine oyle, and my drinke.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Their mother hath played the harlot, and she that bare them is come to confusion: for she sayde, I wyll go after my louers, that geue me my bread and my water, my wooll and flaxe, my oyle and my drinke.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And their mother went a-whoring: she that bore them disgraced them: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, and my garments, and my linen clothes, my oil and my necessaries.

English Revised Version
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.

World English Bible
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.'

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
for the modir of hem dide fornicacioun, sche is schent that conseyuede hem, for sche seide, Y schal go after my louyeris that yeuen looues to me, and my watris, and my wolle, and my flex, and myn oile, and my drynke.

Update Bible Version
for their mother has prostituted; she that became pregnant with them has done shamefully; 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.

Webster's Bible Translation
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, my oil and my drink.

New English Translation
For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, "I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.

New King James Version
For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, "I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.'

New Living Translation
Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way. She said, ‘I'll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.'

New Life Bible
Their mother has not been faithful. She who gave birth to them has acted in shame. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers. They give me my bread and water, my wool and linen, my oil and my drink.'

New Revised Standard
For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, "I will go after my lovers; they give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For their mother, hath been unchaste, and she that conceived them, hath caused shame, - for she said, Let me go after my lovers! who used to give my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, mine oil, and my drink.

Douay-Rheims Bible
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.

Revised Standard Version
For their mother has played the harlot; she that conceived them has acted 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.'

Young's Literal Translation
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.

Contextual Overview

¹ "Rename your brothers ‘God's Somebody.' Rename your sisters ‘All Mercy.' ²"Haul your mother into court. Accuse her! She's no longer my wife. I'm no longer her husband. Tell her to quit dressing like a whore, displaying her breasts for sale. If she refuses, I'll rip off her clothes and expose her, naked as a newborn. I'll turn her skin into dried-out leather, her body into a badlands landscape, a rack of bones in the desert. I'll have nothing to do with her children, born one and all in a whorehouse. Face it: Your mother's been a whore, bringing bastard children into the world. She said, ‘I'm off to see my lovers! They'll wine and dine me, Dress and caress me, perfume and adorn me!' But I'll fix her: I'll dump her in a field of thistles, then lose her in a dead-end alley. She'll go on the hunt for her lovers but not bring down a single one. She'll look high and low but won't find a one. Then she'll say, ‘I'm going back to my husband, the one I started out with. That was a better life by far than this one.' She didn't know that it was I all along who wined and dined and adorned her, That I was the one who dressed her up in the big-city fashions and jewelry that she wasted on wild Baal-orgies. I'm about to bring her up short: No more wining and dining! Silk lingerie and gowns are a thing of the past. I'll expose her genitals to the public. All her fly-by-night lovers will be helpless to help her. Party time is over. I'm calling a halt to the whole business, her wild weekends and unholy holidays. I'll wreck her sumptuous gardens and ornamental fountains, of which she bragged, ‘Whoring paid for all this!' They will soon be dumping grounds for garbage, feeding grounds for stray dogs and cats. I'll make her pay for her indulgence in promiscuous religion— all that sensuous Baal worship And all the promiscuous sex that went with it, stalking her lovers, dressed to kill, And not a thought for me." God 's Message!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

their mother: Hosea 2:2, Hosea 3:1, Hosea 4:5, Hosea 4:12-15, Isaiah 1:21, Isaiah 50:1, Jeremiah 2:20, Jeremiah 2:25, Jeremiah 3:1-9, Ezekiel 16:15, Ezekiel 16:16, Ezekiel 16:28-34, Ezekiel 23:5-11, Revelation 2:20-23, Revelation 17:1-5

hath done: Hosea 9:10, Ezra 9:6, Ezra 9:7, Jeremiah 2:26, Jeremiah 2:27, Jeremiah 11:13, Daniel 9:5-8

I will: Hosea 2:13, Hosea 8:9, Isaiah 57:7, Isaiah 57:8, Jeremiah 3:1-3, Ezekiel 23:16, Ezekiel 23:17, Ezekiel 23:40-44

give: Hosea 2:8, Hosea 2:12, Judges 16:23, Jeremiah 44:17, Jeremiah 44:18

drink: Heb. drinks

Reciprocal: Genesis 38:24 - played the harlot Leviticus 20:5 - whoring Joshua 15:7 - the valley Jeremiah 2:33 - Why Jeremiah 30:14 - lovers Ezekiel 16:13 - thou didst Ezekiel 16:35 - O harlot Ezekiel 19:10 - mother Ezekiel 23:25 - they shall take thy Hosea 10:11 - and loveth Micah 1:7 - the hires Galatians 4:26 - mother

Cross-References

Genesis 3:23
So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.

Genesis 4:2
Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 person, that will not be wiped off; and so idolatry, worshipping stocks and stones instead of the living God; and particularly the sin of the Jewish church, in rejecting the true Messiah and his righteousness, and setting up their own, and tenaciously adhering to the traditions of the elders; and so departing from the true God, and his word and worship, which is no other than spiritual adultery or idolatry. The Targum is,

"because their congregation hath erred after the false prophets, their teachers are confounded;''

and which Jarchi interprets of the wise men that teach doctrines, who are ashamed because of the people of the earth; to whom they say, ye shall not steal, and yet they steal themselves; see Romans 2:21. Or, "she hath made ashamed" f; her husband, and her children: or, "she is confounded" g, and "ashamed" herself, for what she has done.

For she said, I will go after my lovers; her idols, as the ten tribes did after the calves at Dan and Bethel. So Kimchi's father interprets it of the sun, moon, and stars, they worshipped: though he himself understands it of the Assyrians and Egyptians they were in alliance with, and trusted in. Some join together the Gentile nations and their gods. Or else it may be understood of the Jews seeking to the Romans, and courting their favour and friendship; desiring to be governed not by their own kings, but by the Romans h; declaring they had no king but Caesar, and rejecting Christ as such, John 19:12 or rather of their beloved tenets, concerning traditions, the rites and ceremonies of the law, self-righteousness, c.: the words are expressive of impudence, obstinacy, and self-will resolving to pursue their own fancies and have their own wills, be it as it would.

That give me my bread and any water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink; "or drinks" i; wine and other liquors, as Kimchi; these take in everything belonging to food and raiment, and all the necessaries, and even delights and pleasures, of life: bread and water; all sorts of food: wool and flax; all sorts of clothing, both woollen and linen, for outward or inward covering: and oil, and drinks, or liquors; everything for pleasure and delight; all which she ascribed not to God, from whence all good things come; but, which was an aggravation of her sin, to her lovers, her allies, or her idols; as the Jews did their plenty of victuals to the queen of heaven, and their worship of her, Jeremiah 44:17 and as, in the times of Christ, they ascribed not only their enjoyment of temporal good things, but their righteousness, life, and salvation, to their observance of traditions, rites, and ceremonies, and the externals of religion.

f הובישה "pudefecit", Junius apud Rivet. g "Confusa, [vel] pudefacta", Pagninus, Montanus; "pudore suffusa est", Gussetius. h Joseph. Antiqu. l. 17. c. 13, sect. 2. i שקויי "potationes meas", Montanus, "potiones meas", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "potus meos", Cocceius, Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

She that conceived them hath done shamefully, literally, hath made shameful - The silence as to “what” she “made shameful” is more emphatic than any words. She “made shameful” everything which she could “make shameful,” her acts, her children, and herself.

I will go after my lovers - (:iterally let me go, I would go). The Hebrew word “Meahabim” denotes intense passionate love; the plural form implies that they were sinful loves. Every word aggravates the shamelessness. Amid God’s chastisements, she encourages herself, “Come, let me go,” as people harden and embolden, and, as it were, lash themselves into further sin, lest they should shrink back, or stop short in it. “Let me go after.” She waits not, as it were, to be enticed, allured, seduced. She herself, uninvited, unbidden, unsought, contrary to the accustomed and natural feeling of woman, follows after those by whom she is not drawn, and refuses to follow God who would draw her (see Ezekiel 16:31-34). The “lovers” are, whatever a man loves and courts, out of God. They were the idols and false gods, whom the Jews, like the pagan, took to themselves, besides God. But in truth they were devils. Devils she sought; the will of devils she followed; their pleasure she fulfilled, abandoning herself to sin, shamefully filled with all wickedness, and travailing with all manner of impurity. These she professed that she loved, and that they, not God, loved her. For whoever receives the gifts of God, except from God and in God’s way, receives them from devils. Whoso seeks what God forbids, seeks it from Satan, and holds that Satan, not God, loves him; since God refuses it, Satan encourages him to possess himself of it. Satan, then, is his lover.

That gave me my bread and my water - The sense of human weakness abides, even when divine love is gone. The whole history of man’s superstitions is an evidence of this, whether they have been the mere instincts of nature, or whether they have attached themselves to religion or irreligion, Jewish or Pagan or Muslim, or have been practiced by half-Christians. “She is conscious that she hath not these things by her own power, but is beholden to some other for them; but not remembering Him (as was commanded) who had “given her power to get wealth, and richly all things to enjoy,” she professes them to be the gifts of her lovers.” “Bread and water, wool and flax,” express the necessaries of life, food and clothing; “mine oil and my drink” (Hebrew, drinks), its luxuries. Oil includes also ointments, and so served both for health, food and medicine, for anointing the body, and for perfume. In perfumes and choice drinks, the rich people of Israel were guilty of great profusion; from where it is said, “He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich” Proverbs 21:17. For such things alone, the things of the body, did Israel care. Ascribing them to her false gods, she loved these gods, and held that they loved her. In like way, the Jewish women shamelessly told Jeremiah, “we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine” Jeremiah 44:17-18.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 2:5. That give me my bread — See the note on Jeremiah 44:17-18, where nearly the same words are found and illustrated.