Hosea 2:3-5
New Catholic Bible
3 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”
and to your sisters, “You are beloved.”
Repudiation and Return to First Love[a]
I Shall Strip Her Bare[b]
4 Insist that your mother repent,[c]
for she is no longer my wife,
and I am not her husband.
If she does not cease her harlotry
and the use of her breasts in adulterous acts,
5 I shall strip her bare,[d]
leaving her as naked as the day she was born.
I shall make her as barren as the wilderness
and as parched as the desert,
leaving her to die of thirst.
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:4 This passage gives the religious meaning of the history of Hosea. The prophet attributes to God the language of love, passion, jealousy, threats, but also tender love and forgiveness.
- Hosea 2:4 Rich and harsh images are presented here, showing the trial of unfaithful Israel, for whom God had done everything and had drawn her out of wretchedness like an abandoned daughter (see Ezek 16:8). He is now going to bar the way and prevent her from falling back into this wretchedness, because with the false gods, her lovers, she has messed up the country received as a marriage gift. The land will be sacked. Then perhaps the hearts of the ungrateful ones will return, for God cannot bring himself to apply to them what the law calls for—the punishment of death (see Lev 20:1-27).
- Hosea 2:4 Your mother repent: the reference seems to be to amulets or other signs representing Baal.
- Hosea 2:5 I shall strip her bare: this seems to have been a customary punishment for adultery.
Hosea 2:3-5
New International Version
3 Otherwise I will strip(A) her naked
and make her as bare as on the day she was born;(B)
I will make her like a desert,(C)
turn her into a parched land,
and slay her with thirst.
4 I will not show my love to her children,(D)
because they are the children of adultery.(E)
5 Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,(F)
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’(G)
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