Hosea 4:14

"I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart with harlots, and they sacrifice with the prostitutes; and the people that doth not understand shall be overthrown."

"I will not punish your daughters ... nor your brides ..." This does not mean that God would allow such conduct, justifying it upon the basis of their husbands and fathers also being sinners; but it has the effect of saying, "I will not punish them apart from you, but I will overthrow all of you in total destruction." This clause should therefore be read in conjunction with the last, "The people that doth not understand shall be overthrown."

"With harlots ... with prostitutes ..." The two classes here are to distinguish between ordinary women who were immoral and the "cult prostitutes" who were the devotees and attendants of the pagan shrines, such female panderers to human lust being designated "holy ones" in the perverted pagan culture. Both male and female prostitutes were employed at the pagan shrines and high places; and these were called "[~qadesh]," usually translated "sodomites," and "[~qedeshah]," translated "prostitutes" in this passage.[37] These words actually mean "holy ones," after the ancient meaning of the term holy, dedicated to a god. In the same sense, Christians are called "holy"; "But of course, moral and ethical values enter when one is dedicated to the true God."[38]