IS ADULTERY FORBIDDEN?

Exodus 20:14  Thou shalt not commit adultery. (KJV)

Note: I'll respond to the 'opposing' passages separately. Hosea 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. (KJV) What's happening here is that God is commanding Hosea to marry a woman who is a prostitute.  Considering that Hosea is not married, and the woman is not married, how is this adultery?  Is the critic assuming that the woman will continue to be a prostitute after the marriage? Numbers 31:18  But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (KJV) What's happening here is that God is commanding the Israelites to slay the Medianites (including male children), but to keep the female children alive.  Considering that these are children, it's somewhat twisted to assume that God was commanding that they be kept alive as some sort of sex slaves.  More likely, God knew (omniscient being that He is) that the male children would grow up to be a threat to the Israelites, but that the female children would not be.  Therefore it would have been cruel and pointless to slay them, so God commanded that they raise the female children as their own. Matthew 1:18  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. (KJV) The suggestion that Mary's immaculate conception is somehow akin to adultery is a huge stretch of the imagination (for one thing, she wasn't married; for another, no sex was involved). No contradictions here.