adultery, they went a whoring after other gods (AV, RV), or they played the harlot after other gods (RSV). Israel, called to be the bride of the Lord, had forsaken him to follow other lovers, i.e. the fertility gods of Canaan. This graphic imagery of the violated covenant of marriage provides the background for the entire book of the eighth-century prophet to Israel, Hosea, and is also applied by Jeremiah to the equally desperate situation in Judah a century and a half later (Jer. 3:1ff.). 19. A
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