Hosea 2:5
For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Hosea, whose name means salvation, was the last of the great prophets of the northern kingdom, with the first three chapters of his book written about 785 or 748 and chapters 4-14 about 734. He used his own painful and pathetic personal history to symbolize the separation between Jehovah and His people. The mother in the verse is Israel, the nation pictured as a mother, portrayed as an unfaithful wife who turns from God. The Maker is the husband of His people, so every backsliding from God and every transgression of His holy law is adultery.
Playing the harlot means pursuing idols, and depicts conformity to the world, idolatry, and all departures from God. Such unfaithfulness is an attempt to mix heaven with earth, righteousness with sin, and good with evil, which is dangerous adulteration and spiritual adultery. The lovers she says she will go after are claimed to give bread and water, wool and flax, oil and drink — food, clothing and clothing materials, oil, and drink, the necessities of life — and this is a shameful reliance on other sources for what God provides. Her claim is false, for God had given her these provisions, as well as silver and gold, which she then used for Baal.
The book exposes the sad moral condition and degeneration and decay of the people, including the gross iniquity of priests and princes, and foretells the desolation of the nation and the coming captivity of the tribes. The prophecy warns against wicked alliances, including alliance with Egypt. Beyond apostasy and judgment, it looks to the restoration of His people, with hopeful remonstrance, tender appeals, and prophecy of the future.