Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Israel's Harlotry
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Nehemiah 9:15-17
Nehemiah's prayer to God shows a legal description of what literally happened in real life and real times. He uses an economy of words. There are many things he could have gone into in great and specific detail, but he gives an overview of how they turned away from the one way that God showed to them. This is what modern nations have done. This is what Israel has given the world to drink, influencing them through the power of our example, because we have had the wealth to enable us to provide it for them to consume, and thus they desire too to emulate us in our gross idolatry. The sexual designation of what is written of her sin is used because sexual sins are the most common and the most disgusting way that unfaithfulness in marriage is shown to the public. Everybody can relate to it. However, the real spiritual sin behind all of these sexual terms is gross idolatry—idolatry on a massive, nationwide scale of people who should have known better. Israel simply did whatever it wanted to do, when and as it wanted to do it. Its harlotry is clearly the breaking of the terms of the marriage covenant. The harlotry is unfaithfulness, disloyalty. It is spiritual in nature. It is primarily idolatry, but all other sins are encompassed within the term "idolatry."
John W. Ritenbaugh
Where Is the Beast? (Part Seven)
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Hosea 1:2
Hosea's dominant theme is Israel's faithlessness in contrast to God's patience, mercy, and faithfulness. The prophet is especially creative in metaphorically describing Israel's spiritual condition and relationship with God. He introduces two dominant ones in the book's second verse. The primary metaphor is Israel as a faithless wife, and the second is Israel as a child of adultery or faithlessness. A child is the fruit or product of a relationship. Hosea implies that Israel, as a child of an adulterous relationship, manifests its characteristics because the next generation tends to continue the traits of the former and perhaps even increase their effects. A primary characteristic of adultery is faithlessness. In the first metaphor, God is a faithful husband, and in the second, a loving and long-suffering parent. Israel is faithless in carrying out her responsibilities in both cases. God bluntly calls her actions adultery, harlotry, or whoredom because she did not fulfill the duties she had promised in a contract, a covenant. In more intimate terms, this contract is a marriage.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Seventh Commandment (1997)
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Hosea 1:2
The book of Hosea's dominant theme is Israel's faithlessness. Hosea is especially creative in his use of metaphors to describe the relationship between Israel and God, but the two dominant ones are suggested in this verse. The primary one is Israel as a faithless wife, and the secondary one is Israel as a rebellious child (rebelling against God's law). Harlotry indicates sexual wantonness. If the person committing harlotry were married, it would suggest extreme faithlessness to his or her vows of marriage. In a spiritual covenant relationship with God, however, it indicates idolatry. In tandem with the metaphors regarding Israel, the prophet uses two main family-relationship themes. In the first, God is shown as a faithful Husband, and in the second, as a loving and longsuffering Parent. In each case, Israel is faithless in carrying out responsibilities within the relationship, which God calls adultery and harlotry. God's judgment was occasioned by Israel departing from duties agreed to in a contract, the Covenant.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Seventh Commandment
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