'Lovers' in the Bible

“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;I have drunk my wine and my milk.Eat, friends;Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”

God says, “If a husband divorces his wifeAnd she goes from himAnd belongs to another man,Will he still return to her?Will not that land be completely polluted?But you are a harlot with many lovers;Yet you turn to Me,” declares the Lord.

And you, O desolate one, what will you do?Although you dress in scarlet,Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,In vain you make yourself beautiful.Your lovers despise you;They seek your life.

“Go up to Lebanon and cry out,And lift up your voice in Bashan;Cry out also from Abarim,For all your lovers have been crushed.

“The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,And your lovers will go into captivity;Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliatedBecause of all your wickedness.

‘All your lovers have forgotten you,They do not seek you;For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy,With the punishment of a cruel one,Because your iniquity is greatAnd your sins are numerous.

She weeps bitterly in the nightAnd her tears are on her cheeks;She has none to comfort herAmong all her lovers.All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;They have become her enemies.

“I called to my lovers, but they deceived me;My priests and my elders perished in the cityWhile they sought food to restore their strength themselves.

Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries.

Thus says the Lord God, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols,

therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from every direction and expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness.

I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare.

They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers.

“Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors,

Therefore, I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.

“Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold I will arouse your lovers against you, from whom you were alienated, and I will bring them against you from every side:

“For their mother has played the harlot;She who conceived them has acted shamefully.For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,Who give me my bread and my water,My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

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

“And then I will uncover her lewdnessIn the sight of her lovers,And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

“I will destroy her vines and fig trees,Of which she said, ‘These are my wagesWhich my lovers have given me.’And I will make them a forest,And the beasts of the field will devour them.

“I will punish her for the days of the BaalsWhen she used to offer sacrifices to themAnd adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

For they have gone up to Assyria,Like a wild donkey all alone;Ephraim has hired lovers.