Book of Hosea Chapter 2 Vs. 3

Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished 

Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. Hos. 2:3

set her as... (Eze. 16:4; 23:25-26, 28-29). The day of her political "birth" was when God delivered her from the bondage of Egypt, and set up the theocracy.

make her as... (Jer. 6:8; Zeph. 2:13). Translate, "make her as the wilderness," namely, that in which she passed forty years on her way to her goodly possession of Canaan. With this agrees the mention of "thirst" (compare Jer. 2:6).

The house of Jacob was in this condition, when God sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. They had nothing. They became the wife of God when they made covenant with Him to keep His commandments. This was also, the condition of a sinner, before he was saved. We make covenant, when we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

The righteous do not hunger and thirst, they are filled. Those who wander away from God do not benefit from the things of God, because He withdraws from them. This is what this is saying here. They must repent or God will let them get back into the condition He found them in.

The Lord’s appeal (Hos. 2:2) was strengthened by a severe threat containing three solemn warnings to Israel (I will occurs three times in Hos. 2:3-4). First, the Lord threatened to strip her naked, making her an object of shame and ridicule (cf. Hos. 2:10; Eze. 16:35-43). The punishment fit the crime. She who had exposed her nakedness to her lovers would be exposed publicly for all to see. This public act apparently preceded the execution of an adulteress (cf. Eze. 16:38-40).

Second, the Lord threatened to make her like an arid desert, deprived of water (cf. slay her with thirst), incapable of producing or sustaining life. All her powers of fertility would be removed. Again the punishment fit the crime. She who had engaged in illicit sexual behavior would become incapable of reproduction.