'Lovers' in the Bible

My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague;And my neighbors stand far away.

Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the prostitute’s song:

That is to say, “If a man divorces his wifeAnd she goes [away] from himAnd becomes another man’s [wife],Will he return to her again? [Of course not!]Will not that land [where such a thing happened] be completely desecrated?But you [rebelled against Me and you] are a prostitute with many lovers;Yet you turn to Me.” says the Lord.

“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see;Where have you not been violated?You sat by the road waiting [eagerly] for them [those man-made gods]Like an Arab [tribesman who waits to attack] in the desert,And you have desecrated the landWith your [vile] prostitution and your wickedness (disobedience to God).

And you, O desolate one, what will you do?Though you clothe yourself in scarlet,Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,Though you enlarge your eyes with paint,You make yourself beautiful in vain.Your lovers (allies) despise you;They seek your life.

“What will you say [O Jerusalem] when the Lord appoints [foreign nations to rule] over you—Those former friends and allies whom you have encouraged [to be your companions]—Will not pain seize youLike [that of] a woman in childbirth?

“Go up [north] to Lebanon and cry out,And raise your voice in [the hills of] Bashan [across the Jordan];Cry out also from Abarim,For all your lovers (allies) have been destroyed.

“The wind [of adversity] will carry away all your shepherds (rulers, statesmen),And your lovers (allies) will go into exile.Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated and disgracedBecause of all your wickedness.

‘All your lovers (allies) have forgotten you;They do not seek and long for you.For I have injured you with the wound of an enemy,With the punishment of a cruel and merciless foe,Because your guilt is greatAnd your sins are glaring and innumerable.

She weeps bitterly in the nightAnd her tears are [constantly] on her cheeks;Among all her lovers (political allies)She has no one to comfort her.All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;They have become her enemies.

“I [Jerusalem] called to my lovers (political allies), but they deceived me.My priests and my elders perished in the cityWhile they looked for food to restore their strength.

Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, bribing the pagan nations to come to you [as allies] from every direction for your obscene immoralities.

Thus says the Lord God, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your obscene immoralities with your lovers (pagan allies), and with all your [repulsive] idols, and because of the blood of your sons that you gave to them,

therefore, listen, I will gather all your lovers (pagan allies) with whom you took pleasure, and all those whom you loved with all those whom you hated; I will even gather them against you from every direction and will expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness [making you, Israel, an object of loathing and of mockery, a spectacle among the nations].

“Oholah played the prostitute while she was Mine; and she adored and lusted after her lovers (allies), the Assyrians, her neighbors,

Therefore, I placed her in the hand of her lovers (allies), into the hand of the Assyrians whom she adored.

“Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will stir up your lovers (allies) against you, from whom you turned away in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:

“For their mother has played the prostitute;She who conceived them has acted shamefully,For she said, ‘I will pursue my loversWho give me my food and my water,My wool and my flax, my oil and my [refreshing] drinks.’

“She will [passionately] pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;And she will seek them, but will not find them.Then she will say, ‘Let me go and return to my first husband,For it was better for me then than now!’

“And now I will uncover her lewdness and shameIn the sight of her lovers,And no one will rescue her from My hand.

“I will destroy her vines and her fig treesOf which she has said, ‘These are my wagesWhich my lovers have given me.’And I will make them a forest,And the animals of the open country will devour them.

“And I will punish her for the [feast] days of the Baals,When she used to offer sacrifices and burn incense to themAnd adorn herself with her earrings and nose rings and her jewelry,And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” says the Lord.

For they have gone up to Assyria,Like a wild donkey wandering alone and taking her own way;Ephraim has hired lovers (pagan allies).