What Does Hosea 2:4 Mean in the King James?

And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

Hosea 2:4 · KJV

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 verse names the children by their mother’s unfaithfulness and withholds racham, a compassion whose Hebrew root also names the womb.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks a severe judgment: the children are identified through their mother’s whoredoms, and compassion is withheld from them. They are placed inside a rupture named through her conduct; the compassion withheld carries the sense of protective, womb-like tenderness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the assumption that a parent’s betrayal remains confined to the parent: here, the children are named within its reach.

THE ROOT

אֲרַחֵם

ʾaraḥēm

GROWS FROM

רחם

raḥam

To show compassion; the related noun ⁨רֶחֶם⁩ (reḥem) means womb.

“have mercy” in this verse is ʾaraḥēm. The Hebrew word for compassion grows from the same consonants as the word for womb. So the verse withholds more than a favorable judgment: it withholds a word associated with protective, womb-like tenderness.

ALSO GROWS

reḥem: Womb

רֶחֶם

This related noun makes the protective tenderness carried by the root more visible.

raḥamim: Compassion

רַחֲמִים

This plural form names compassion directly and shares the root consonants ⁨רחם⁩.

raḥum: Compassionate

רַחוּם

This related form describes one who shows the compassion that is withheld here.

זְנוּנִים

zenunim

GROWS FROM

זנה

zanah

To commit prostitution or sexual unfaithfulness.

“whoredoms” in this verse is zenunim. The word carries the root of sexual unfaithfulness into the phrase used to identify the children. The verse thus places the mother’s conduct in the children’s description before stating that compassion is withheld from them.

ALSO GROWS

zanah: To commit prostitution or be sexually unfaithful

זָנָה

This verb shares the root ⁨זנה⁩ and names the conduct underlying the phrase.

zonah: A prostitute

זוֹנָה

This related noun shares the root consonants and shows the concrete sense of the family of words.

THE PATTERN

The text portrays covenantal unfaithfulness as a rupture whose consequences can reach a household across generations.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exodus 20:5 · KJVThe verse describes the iniquity of fathers reaching children across generations.

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

Hosea 1:6 · KJVThe name Lo-ruhamah, meaning “not shown compassion,” makes the withdrawal of compassion a judgment upon the household.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Matthew 23:31-32 · KJVThe saying links a community’s identity as children of the prophet-killers with its completion of their measure.

THE THREAD

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

Psalm 103:13 · KJV

Psalm 103 uses the same Hebrew root, ⁨רחם⁩ (raḥam, compassion), for a father’s pity and the LORD’s pity toward those who fear him. Hosea uses that root for what is withheld from the children, making the loss specific: it is familial tenderness and protection.

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