Hosea 2:13
“And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The Lord names the heart of the offense: His people adorned themselves for idols and forgot Him.
What Does Hosea 2:13 Mean?
God sums up the indictment. On the 'days of Baalim' Israel burned incense to false gods, dressed herself in finery like a bride going to meet a lover, and chased after them. The whole sad portrait ends with the quiet, piercing words: 'and forgat me, saith the LORD.'
Forgetting is the root of every unfaithfulness. The jewels and incense are only symptoms; the wound is a heart that no longer remembers its God. This verse exposes how worship misdirected becomes betrayal, and how the Lord feels it personally -- as a husband forgotten. It calls the reader to the opposite of forgetting: to remember, daily, the One to whom every love is owed.
In the Original Language
Baalim (בְּעָלִים), 'Baals' -- the plural for the local fertility gods Israel wrongly credited and served.