Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, Neither am I her husband; And let her put away her prostitution from her face, And her adulteries from between her breasts;
"Her whoredoms ... and her adulteries ..." Whoredoms is a reference to licentiousness generally, but "adulteries" refers to Israel's having broken their marriage covenant with the Lord by the committing of idolatry. This figure is used extensively in the Old Testament  (Exodus 34:14,15;  Leviticus 17:7; 20:5,6;  Numbers 14:33; 15:39;  Deuteronomy 31:16; 32:16,21, etc.).  Of course, in the background of these remarks was Hosea's consciousness of Gomer's infidelity.