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12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
about which she said, ‘These are my wages for prostitution[a]
that my lovers gave to me!’
I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees[b] into an uncultivated thicket,
so that wild animals[c] will devour them.
13 I will punish her for the festival days
when she burned incense to the Baal idols;[d]
she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but[e] she forgot me!”[f] says the Lord.

Future Repentance and Restoration of Israel

14 “However, in the future I will allure her;[g]
I will lead[h] her back into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “my wages.” The words “for prostitution” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied for clarity; cf. CEV “gave…as payment for sex.”
  2. Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18.
  4. Hosea 2:13 tn Heb “the days of the Baals, to whom she burned incense.” The word “festival” is supplied to clarify the referent of “days,” and the word “idols” is supplied in light of the plural “Baals” (cf. NLT “her images of Baal”).
  5. Hosea 2:13 tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, veʾoti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.
  6. Hosea 2:13 tn The accusative direct-object pronoun וְאֹתִי (veʾoti, “me”) is emphatic in the word order of this clause (cf. NIV “but me she forgot”), emphasizing the heinous inappropriateness of Israel’s departure from the Lord.
  7. Hosea 2:14 tn The participle מְפַתֶּיהָ (mefatteha, Piel participle masculine singular + third feminine singular suffix from פָּתָה, patah, “to allure”) following the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “Now!”) describes an event that will occur in the immediate or near future.
  8. Hosea 2:14 tn Following the future-time-referent participle (מְפַתֶּיהָ, méfatteha), there is a string of perfects introduced by vav consecutive that refer to future events.