Hos 1:2, 2:5-7 | ESV | STEP | When the Lord first spoke through Hosea , the Lord said to Hosea , Go , take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom , for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord .

Hosea 1:2

Hosea’s Wife and Children

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ^a“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have ^bchildren of whoredom, for ^cthe land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

Hosea 2:5-7

5 For ^dtheir mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For ^eshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who ^fgive me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore ^gI will hedge up her ^{▼▼Hebrew your} way with thorns,
and ⁱI will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
^jThen she shall say,
‘I will go and return to ^kmy first husband,
^lfor it was better for me then than now.’