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 done shamefully - literally, hath made shameful. The silence as to what she made shameful is more emphatic than any words. She made shameful everything that she could make shameful,-her acts, her children, and herself (Pusey). A reproach upon one's mother is calculated to rouse the most apathetic. God desires to rouse them from their spiritual torpor.
I will go after - [the Hebrew paragogic he (h) in 'eelªkaah, elongating the future, expresses a settled determination] (Henderson). Pusey translates it, 'let me go,' 'I would go.'
My lovers - the idols which Israel fancied to be the givers of all their goods, whereas God gave all these goods (Hosea 2:8-13: cf. Jeremiah 44:17-19, " We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn incense unto the queen of heaven ... as we have done ... for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil"). The Hebrew х mª'ahªbay (H157)] implies intense, passionate, and shameless loves.
That give me my bread and my water - the necessaries of life in food.
My wool and my flax - the necessaries of life, clothing. My wool and my flax - the necessaries of life, clothing.
Mine oil and my drink - perfumed unguents and palatable drinks; the luxuries of Hebrew life. Instead of regarding all these as altogether belonging to God, and at His sole disposal, she regards them as her own, to which she has a right as a matter of course: "My bread, my water, my wool, my flax, mine oil, my drink." A sad but true picture of the tendency of us all, in respect to God's gifts to us.