What Does Hosea 2:17 Mean in the King James?
For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The rival masters lose their hold when their names are removed from both speech and memory.
THE MEANING
The LORD removes the names of rival masters from your mouth and memory. Their names no longer give voice to claims that shape your identity. The release reaches inward too: those masters lose their place in what you remember.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A past claim does not own the present merely because its name once lived on your tongue; the verse pictures that hold being removed even from memory.
THE ROOT
הַבְּעָלִים
habbeʿālîm
GROWS FROM
בעל
To own, possess, be master of, or be husband to.
Baalim is plural: baʿal can mean owner, master, or husband, so these are rival claims of possession rather than bare labels. The verse calls them shemot (שְׁמוֹת, shemōt, “names”); shem (שֵׁם, shem, “name as nature or identity”) means their claimed nature is removed from the speech that gave it voice.
ALSO GROWS
baʿal: Owner, master, or husband.
בַּעַל
This branch makes the force of Baalim concrete: the names belong to figures claiming mastery or possession.
bəʿūlāh: A married woman.
בְּעוּלָה
This form carries the same root into the relation of husband and wife, showing how בעל can express a claim within a bond.
יִזָּכְרוּ
yizzāḵərû
GROWS FROM
זכר
To remember, recall, or mention.
“remembered” in this verse is yizzāḵərû. The same root gives both recollection and remembrance kept alive as a memorial. The removal reaches beyond what is spoken aloud: the old masters also lose their place in memory.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārôn: Remembrance or memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
This branch shows that what is remembered can be kept present as a memorial; the verse says that presence ends.
hizkîr: To mention or bring to remembrance.
הִזְכִּיר
This form links recollection with speech, echoing the verse’s movement from the mouth to memory.
והסרתי
wahasîrōtî
GROWS FROM
סור
To turn aside or depart; in the causative form, to remove.
“take away” in this verse is wahasîrōtî. The Hebrew depicts an active removal: the names are made to turn aside from her mouth. The movement is away from the place where rival mastery is voiced.
ALSO GROWS
sûr: To turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This basic form gives the movement beneath “take away”: something leaves its former place.
hēsîr: To remove or cause to turn aside.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shows the verse’s removal as an act that shifts the names out of her mouth.
THE PATTERN
Rival powers lose their hold as their names are removed from speech and remembrance.
And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.THE THREAD
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.Zechariah uses the same Hebrew roots for “names” (שְׁמוֹת, shemōt) and “remembered” (יִזָּכְרוּ, yizzāḵərû), making the parallel unusually close. Both verses show rival names being removed and losing their place in what is remembered.
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