Hosea 2:4

4 ¹Upon her children also I will have no mercy, ²because they are children of whoredom.

Hosea 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 2:4

And I will not have mercy upon her children
The posterity of the Jews in succeeding ages, until the time of their conversion comes; they persisting in the sins of their forefathers, filling up the measure of their iniquities; remaining in their obstinate rejection of the Messiah, and in the same impenitence and unbelief, and having his blood imprecated upon them: for they be the children of whoredoms;
begotten and born in whoredom, spurious and illegitimate; or that commit whoredoms; imitate their parents; are guilty of the same vices; a generation of vipers. So the Targum,

``for they are children that commit idolatry;''

retain the traditions of the elders; go about to establish their own righteousness, and reject the Messiah.

Hosea 2:4 In-Context

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts;

3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom.

5 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. ’

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.

Cross References

• 1. 2:4 ch. 1:6
• 2. 2:4 ch. 1:2