The Meaning of Hosea 2:3 Explained

Hosea 2:3

KJV: 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.

YLT: 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.

Darby: 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 as a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

ASV: 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.

Discover Hosea 2:3

CONTEXT: What is the Context of Hosea 2:3?

MEANING: What does Hosea 2:3 Mean?

WORDS: What do the individual words in Hosea 2:3 mean?

RELATIONS: What do the major concepts mean in Hosea 2:3?

What is the context of Hosea 2:3?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

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.

What does Hosea 2:3 Mean?

Verse Meaning

If she did not respond appropriately, Hosea threatened to strip her as naked as when she was born, to expose her to shame and helplessness. Stripping naked like a prostitute was a metaphor used to describe the punishment due a covenant breaker in the ancient Near East. ^[1] Gomer had exposed herself to her lovers ( Hosea 2:2), and now her husband would expose her for all to see. He would also make her like a desert wilderness in that she would become sterile and incapable of bearing other children. Her insistence on having sexual relations with many men would result in her not being able to bear the fruit of sexual relations, children. Even though she thirsted for children, she would bear no more.

The threat to Israel involved, first, making the nation an object of shame and ridicule in the world (cf. Hosea 2:10; Ezekiel 16:35-43). Second, Yahweh would remove all her powers of fertility. Her flocks and herds would not flourish, her fields would become unproductive, and her women would be unfruitful.

Context Summary

Hosea 2:1-13 - The Bitter Sin Of Wandering From God

Hosea is represented as having exhausted his expostulations upon his faithless wife. He has tried every arrow in love's quiver, but in vain; so now he sends his children, worse than motherless, to plead with their mother, before she brings upon them all irretrievable retribution.

Almost insensibly our mind passes from the pleadings of the human love to the divine Bridegroom. Often He has to erect thorn hedges about us-not that He takes pleasure in thwarting us, but that we may be diverted from ruin. There was no better method of turning Israel from her idols than by withholding that material prosperity which she thought they gave. Has not this been our experience also? Our mirth has ceased and our prosperity has vanished. We have sat amid the wrecks of a happy past. It is not that God has ceased to care for us, but that He longs to wean us back to Himself. Have we reached the point of saying, "It was better with me then than now?" Then let us be of good cheer! The dawn is already on the hills, and God's coming to us, in restoring grace, is like the breaking glory of the morning! [source]

Chapter Summary: Hosea 2

¹ The idolatry of the people
⁶ God's judgments against them
¹⁴ His promises of reconciliation with them

What do the individual words in Hosea 2:3 mean?

lest I strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born and make her like a wilderness and set her like a land dry and slay her with thirst

פֶּן־ אַפְשִׁיטֶ֣נָּה עֲרֻמָּ֔ה וְהִ֨צַּגְתִּ֔יהָ כְּי֖וֹם הִוָּֽלְדָ֑הּ וְשַׂמְתִּ֣יהָ כַמִּדְבָּ֗ר וְשַׁתִּ֙הָ֙ כְּאֶ֣רֶץ צִיָּ֔ה וַהֲמִתִּ֖יהָ בַּצָּמָֽא

פֶּן־	lest
Parse: Conjunction Root: פֶּן Sense: lest, not, beware lest adv.
אַפְשִׁיטֶ֣נָּה	I strip her
Parse: Verb, Hifil, Imperfect, first person common singular, third person feminine singular Root: פָּשַׁט Sense: to strip, invade, strip off, make a dash, raid, spread out.
עֲרֻמָּ֔ה	naked
Parse: Adjective, feminine singular Root: עָרֹום Sense: naked, bare.
וְהִ֨צַּגְתִּ֔יהָ	and expose her
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hifil, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular, third person feminine singular Root: יָצַג Sense: to place, set, establish.
כְּי֖וֹם	as in the day
Parse: Preposition-k, Noun, masculine singular construct Root: יׄום Sense: day, time, year.
הִוָּֽלְדָ֑הּ	she was born
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Infinitive construct, third person feminine singular Root: יָלַד Sense: to bear, bring forth, beget, gender, travail.
וְשַׂמְתִּ֣יהָ	and make her
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular, third person feminine singular Root: שׂוּמָה Sense: to put, place, set, appoint, make.
כַמִּדְבָּ֗ר	like a wilderness
Parse: Preposition-k, Article, Noun, masculine singular Root: מִדְבָּר Sense: wilderness.
וְשַׁתִּ֙הָ֙	and set her
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular, third person feminine singular Root: שִׁית Sense: to put, set.
כְּאֶ֣רֶץ	like a land
Parse: Preposition-k, Noun, feminine singular construct Root: אֶרֶץ Sense: land, earth.
צִיָּ֔ה	dry
Parse: Adjective, feminine singular Root: צִיָּה Sense: dryness, drought, desert.
וַהֲמִתִּ֖יהָ	and slay her
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hifil, Conjunctive perfect, first person common singular, third person feminine singular Root: מוּת Sense: to die, kill, have one executed.
בַּצָּמָֽא	with thirst
Parse: Preposition-b, Article, Noun, masculine singular Root: צָמָא Sense: thirst.

What are the major concepts related to Hosea 2:3?

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