'Lovers' in the Bible

“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).