Hosea 2:10 kjv
And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
Hosea 2:10 nkjv
Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
Hosea 2:10 niv
So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.
Hosea 2:10 esv
Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
Hosea 2:10 nlt
I will strip her naked in public,
while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able
to rescue her from my hands.
Hosea 2 10 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference (Note) |
|---|---|---|
| Lev 18:7-8 | "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother...nakedness of your father’s wife..." | God’s law regarding forbidden "uncovering nakedness" and sexual sin. |
| Lev 20:17 | "If a man takes his sister...and sees her nakedness and she sees his, it is a disgraceful thing..." | Act of revealing nakedness as a form of disgrace/shame. |
| Isa 3:17 | "Therefore the Lord will afflict the crown of the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their private parts." | Prophetic judgment involving exposure and public humiliation. |
| Jer 13:26 | "I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen." | Direct imagery of public exposure of Judah’s disgrace. |
| Ez 16:37 | "therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all whom you loved...and will uncover your nakedness before them..." | Parallel and extended depiction of God exposing Israel's shame to her "lovers." |
| Ez 23:29 | "I will deal with you in hatred...and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your prostitution will be exposed..." | Reinforces the theme of divine exposure of spiritual harlotry. |
| Lam 1:8 | "Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness..." | Jerusalem's fall linked to exposure of her shame to those who previously admired her. |
| Nah 3:5 | "Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make you a spectacle to the nations..." | God exposes the harlotry of Nineveh as a judgment. |
| 1 Sam 2:6 | "The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up." | God’s ultimate control over life and death, and ability to humble. |
| Deut 32:39 | "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand." | Directly echoes the "none shall rescue out of My hand" – emphasis on God's unique sovereignty. |
| Job 10:7 | "though you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand?" | Acknowledgment that God's power allows no escape for the guilty. |
| Psa 50:21-22 | "These things you have done...I will put them in order before your eyes. Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!" | Warning against forgetting God and facing an inescapable tearing apart. |
| Psa 76:7 | "You, even you, are to be feared; and who can stand before you when once your anger is roused?" | No one can withstand God’s roused anger or power. |
| Isa 2:22 | "Stop trusting in man, in whose nostrils is breath, for what account is he to be?" | Futility of trusting in human alliances, often linked to false worship. |
| Isa 30:1-3 | "Ah, stubborn children, declares the LORD, who carry out a plan, but not mine...and take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!" | Rebuke for trusting foreign alliances instead of God, echoing Hosea's theme. |
| Jer 2:13 | "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and dug out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." | The folly of abandoning God for empty sources, represented by "lovers" or idols. |
| Amos 2:4 | "Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD..." | Divine judgment on those who reject God’s laws. |
| Hab 1:6-7 | "For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans...They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves." | God raising up an external power to bring judgment on His people, illustrating His hand. |
| Heb 10:31 | "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." | New Testament warning about the inescapable judgment of God. |
| Rom 1:24 | "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves." | God’s judicial abandonment leading to further public exposure of sin. |
| Rev 17:16 | "And the ten horns that you saw, and the beast—these will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked..." | Eschatological imagery of Babylon the Harlot being exposed and judged by those she allied with. |
Hosea 2 verses
Hosea 2 10 Meaning
Hosea 2:10 speaks of the LORD's judgment against unfaithful Israel, portrayed as a harlotrous wife. God declares His intention to publicly expose Israel's spiritual adultery and disgraceful actions before the very nations and idols she has pursued, emphasizing that her false lovers and political alliances will be utterly powerless to deliver her from divine judgment. This act serves to highlight His sovereign power and to underscore the futility of forsaking Him for other dependencies.
Hosea 2 10 Context
Hosea chapter 2 continues the allegorical portrayal of God’s relationship with Israel as a marriage, introduced in chapter 1. Here, Israel is depicted as an unfaithful wife who has chased after "lovers" (representing foreign gods and political alliances), mistakenly believing they were the source of her prosperity. The chapter describes God's threatened disciplinary judgment as a means to bring her to repentance, including stripping away her perceived blessings and making her desolate. Verse 10 specifically describes one aspect of this disciplinary judgment: the public humiliation and exposure of Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness, rendering her without refuge from any of her false dependencies. Historically, this points to Israel's consistent turn to pagan deities like Baal and Asherah, as well as their political treaties with powerful nations like Egypt and Assyria, instead of trusting in the covenant God who had delivered and provided for them.
Hosea 2 10 Word analysis
Now I will uncover her lewdness
- Now I will uncover (וְעַתָּה אֲגַלֶּה, wəʿattāh ʾagalleh):
- "Now" (וְעַתָּה, wəʿattāh): Introduces a decisive, immediate action as a consequence of previous behavior. It signifies a turning point where divine patience ends and judgment begins.
- "uncover" (אֲגַלֶּה, ʾagalleh from the root גָּלָה, gālāh): Literally means "to lay bare," "reveal," "uncover," or "expose." In biblical usage, particularly in contexts of judgment for sexual misconduct or spiritual harlotry, it refers to exposing nakedness or shame (cf. Ez 16:37, Nah 3:5). Here, it's a divine, active, and intentional act of stripping away Israel's facade and revealing her inner corruption and disgrace for all to see. It’s a punitive act, often associated with public humiliation and vulnerability in ancient Near Eastern legal and social contexts for unfaithful wives.
- her lewdness (נַבְלֻתָהּ, naḇlūtāh):
- Derived from the root נָבָל (nabal), which signifies folly, disgraceful conduct, moral depravity, and shamelessness, particularly of a spiritual or wicked nature. It goes beyond mere sexual impropriety to denote spiritual and ethical corruption, a despicable state of being. Israel's "lewdness" is her spiritual prostitution, her abandonment of the LORD for idolatry and foreign alliances, which God views as utterly shameful and reprehensible.
- Now I will uncover (וְעַתָּה אֲגַלֶּה, wəʿattāh ʾagalleh):
in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
- in the sight of her lovers (לְעֵינֵי כָּל־מְאַהֲבֶיהָ, ləʿêney kol-məʾahăveihā):
- "in the sight of" (לְעֵינֵי, ləʿêney): Indicates public exposure. The judgment will not be private but before all who observed or were involved in Israel’s unfaithfulness.
- "her lovers" (מְאַהֲבֶיהָ, məʾahăveihā): These are the false gods (Baals, Asherahs, etc.) whom Israel worshipped and the foreign nations (like Egypt or Assyria) with whom she formed idolatrous or self-serving political alliances. The emphasis here is on the bitter irony: the very entities Israel relied upon will witness her humiliation and be powerless to help her. This constitutes a direct polemic against the efficacy of false gods and human strength.
- and no one shall rescue her (וְאִישׁ לֹא־יַצִּילֶנָּה, wəʾîš lōʾ-yaṣṣîlennāh):
- "no one" (וְאִישׁ, wəʾîš): Emphasizes the utter helplessness. Not a single person, no nation, no idol, no earthly power will be able to intervene.
- "shall rescue her" (לֹא־יַצִּילֶנָּה, lōʾ-yaṣṣîlennāh from נָצַל, naṣal): To deliver, save, snatch away from danger or power. It highlights the absolute finality and inescapability of God’s judgment once His hand moves. This negates any hope of external deliverance.
- out of my hand. (מִיָּדִי, mîyādî):
- "My hand" (מִיָּדִי, mîyādî): A powerful anthropomorphism for God's ultimate authority, sovereign power, control, and irresistible judgment. When something is "out of God's hand," it signifies an outcome that God has determined and executed, which no force can reverse or impede (Deut 32:39). It underscores that this judgment is not random, but an act of divine power.
- in the sight of her lovers (לְעֵינֵי כָּל־מְאַהֲבֶיהָ, ləʿêney kol-məʾahăveihā):
Hosea 2 10 Bonus section
The phrase "uncover her lewdness" or "nakedness" in the Bible often carries a strong legal and moral connotation, representing a complete loss of honor, dignity, and protection. It is the antithesis of the covenant promise where God was Israel’s shield and glory. By exposing her, God withdraws His divine covering and allows the natural consequences of her choices—trusting false lovers—to manifest fully. The public nature of this exposure underscores the cosmic significance of Israel’s sin: it was not merely a private affair but a breach of a sacred covenant with the Creator, witnessed by the very "lovers" who represent rival cosmic claims to devotion. This also serves as a warning against spiritual syncretism, showing that divided loyalties ultimately lead to judgment and destitution.
Hosea 2 10 Commentary
Hosea 2:10 powerfully articulates the severity and nature of God's judgment upon His covenant people for their spiritual infidelity. The imagery of "uncovering her lewdness" is deeply rooted in ancient Near Eastern legal and social practices, where an adulterous woman’s public exposure was the ultimate humiliation and a visual sign of her shame and unworthiness. By applying this to Israel, God declares His intent to reveal the depth of her moral and spiritual depravity, not subtly, but openly "in the sight of her lovers." This means the very false deities and political allies, from whom Israel sought security and prosperity, will be witnesses to her disgrace, unable to provide aid or protection. This demonstrates the impotence of idols and human schemes against the sovereign power of the LORD. The declaration that "no one shall rescue her out of My hand" is a categorical statement of God's unchallenged authority and the inescapability of His just judgment. This severe action, however, is not merely punitive but redemptive within Hosea's broader message. The goal is to strip Israel of her self-deceptions and false securities, ultimately bringing her to a point where she realizes that only the LORD is her true provider and redeemer (as hinted in Hosea 2:7). This exposure serves to purify and restore the covenant relationship, echoing themes of divine discipline for restoration.