Hosea 1:2, “When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of HARLOTRY And children of HARLOTRY, For the land has COMMITTED GREAT HARLOTRY By departing from the Lord.” (NKJV)

Amplified Bible: “When the Lord first spoke with and through Hosea, the Lord said to him, Go, take to yourself a WIFE OF HARLOTRY and have children of [her] HARLOTRY, for the land COMMITS GREAT WHOREDOM by departing from the Lord.” (AMPC)

(Heb. zanah) Strong’s #2181

The verb ‘zanah’ refers to having illicit sexual relations, especially involving prostitution.

Two forms of prostitution were practiced in the ancient world: common prostitution and ritual, or ‘sacred,’ prostitution, which involved pagan fertility rites. Both forms were strictly forbidden in God’s law (Leviticus 19:29, “DO NOT PROFANE your daughter by causing her to BE A HARLOT, lest the land fall into HARLOTRY and become full of wickedness.” (AMPC); Deuteronomy 23:17, “There shall be NO CULT PROSTITUTE among the daughters of Israel, NEITHER SHALL THERE BE A CULT PROSTITUTE (a sodomite) among the sons of Israel.” (AMPC).

The Old Testament frequently uses prostitution as an image of the sin of idolatry.

Israel was pledged to serve one God (Exodus 20:3, “YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE OR BESIDES ME.” AMPC), so idolatry was like marital unfaithfulness against the Lord.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel develop this image in graphic detail (Jeremiah 3; Ezekiel 16; 23), and Hosea actually married a prostitute as a living symbol of God’s patience with Israel’s infidelities (Chapter 1).

Hosea 5:3-4, “I know Ephraim, and Israel is NOT HID from Me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the HARLOT and have worshiped idols; Israel is DEFILED. Their doings will not permit them to return to their God, for the SPIRIT OF HARLOTRY is within them and they know not the Lord [they do not recognize, appreciate, give heed to, or cherish the Lord].” AMPC): “…NOT HIDDEN…” (vs. 3), God’s people could NOT HIDE their HARLOTRY, for it had DEFILED them. According to the Law of Moses, adultery made a person spiritually unclean or DEFILED (Leviticus 18:20, 24, “Moreover, you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to DEFILE yourself with her…Do not DEFILE yourselves in any of these ways, for in all these things the nations are DEFILED which I am casting out before you.” (AMPC); Numbers 5:20, 27-28, “But if you have gone astray and you are DEFILED, some man having lain with you beside your husband…And when he has made her drink the water, then if she is DEFILED and has committed a trespass against her husband, the curse water which she drank shall be bitterness and cause her body to swell and her thigh to fall away, and the woman shall be a curse among her people .But if the woman is not DEFILED and is clean, then she shall be free [from the curse] and be able to have children.” AMPC). “…SPIRIT OF HARLOTRY…” (vs. 4), The people had an uncontrollable desire to worship other gods.

MAIN INGREDIENT: Today, Make Sure You Remain Faithful to God, Do Not Commit Harlotry Against Your God. No Idolatry; No Adultery; No Harlotry!

Jeremiah 3:2-3, “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see. Where have you not been ADULTEROUSLY lain with? By the wayside you have sat waiting for lovers [eager for idolatry], like an Arabian [desert tribesman who waits to plunder] in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your vile HARLOTRY and your wickedness (unfaithfulness and disobedience to God). Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no spring rain. Yet you have the brow of a PROSTITUTE; you refuse to be ashamed.” (AMPC)

Jeremiah 13:27, “I have seen your detestable acts, even your ADULTERIES and your lustful neighings [after idols], and the lewdness of your HARLOTRY on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! For how long a time yet will you not [meet My conditions and] be made clean?” (AMPC)

Ezekiel 16:34-35, “And you are different [the reverse] from other women in your HARLOTRIES, in that nobody follows you to lure you into HARLOTRY and in that you give hire when no hire is given you; and so you are different. Therefore, O HARLOT [Israel], hear the word of the Lord!” (AMPC)

2 Chronicles 21:13, “But have walked in the ways of Israel’s kings, and made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem play the HARLOT like the [spiritual] HARLOTRY of Ahab’s house, and also have slain your brothers of your father’s house, who were better than you,” (AMPC)

2 Peter 2:4, “They have eyes full of HARLOTRY, insatiable for sin. They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in covetousness (lust, greed), [they are] children of a curse [exposed to cursing]!” (AMPC)

Revelation 19:2, “Because His judgments (His condemnation and punishment, His sentences of doom) are true and sound and just and upright. He has judged (convicted, pronounced sentence, and doomed) the great and notorious HARLOT (IDOLATRESS) who corrupted and demoralized and poisoned the earth with her lewdness and ADULTERY (IDOLATRY). And He has avenged (visited on her the penalty for) the blood of His servants at her hand.” (AMPC)

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