PROMISCUITY, harlotries — an abstract plural from zanah, and NOT the same as zonah, 'a prostitute.' Hosea 1:2 has 'a woman of zenunim' and 'children of zenunim,' which is why the command is so hard to pin down: it describes a quality, not a profession. ⚠ Four readings of the marriage are all ancient and all still held — literal and she was already promiscuous; literal but described retrospectively; a vision or parable never enacted (a long rabbinic and patristic tradition); or a reference to Canaanite fertility cult (now largely abandoned). The text shows no discomfort with the command and offers no explanation of it. → first discussed at Hosea 1:2