Hosea 2:3
New English Translation
3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked,
and expose her like she was when she was born.
I will turn her land into a wilderness
and make her country a parched land,
so that I might kill[a] her with thirst.
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:3 tn Heb “and kill her with thirst.” The vav prefixed to the verb (וַהֲמִתִּיהָ, vahamittiha) introduces a purpose/result clause: “in order to make her die of thirst” (purpose), or “and thus make her die of thirst” (result).
Hosea 2:4
New English Translation
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:4 tn Heb “her sons.” English versions have long translated this as “children,” however; cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, and NLT.sn The word order is rhetorical: the accusative וְאֶת־בָּנֶיהָ (veʾet baneha, “her sons”) is moved forward for emphasis.
- Hosea 2:4 tn Heb “sons of adulteries”; cf. KJV “children of whoredoms.”sn The word order is rhetorical: the construct clause בְנֵי זְנוּנִים (vene zenunim, “sons of adulteries”), which functions as the predicate nominative, is moved forward, before the independent personal pronoun הֵמָּה (hemmah, “they”), which functions as the subject, to focus on the immoral character of her children.
Hosea 2:6
New English Translation
The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back
6 “Therefore, I will soon[a] fence her in[b] with thorns;
I will wall her in[c] so that[d] she cannot find her way.[e]
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:6 tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hineni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time-reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).
- Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; cf. NIV “block her path.”
- Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (vegadarti ʾet-gederah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The third person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means: “I will build a wall to bar her way” (cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in”).
- Hosea 2:6 tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause that can be understood as either purpose or result.
- Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).
Hosea 2:7
New English Translation
7 Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch[a] them;
she will seek them, but she will not find them.[b]
Then she will say,
‘I will go back[c] to my husband,[d]
because I was better off then than I am now.’[e]
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “overtake” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); cf. NLT “be able to catch up with.”
- Hosea 2:7 tn In the Hebrew text the accusative direct-object pronoun אֹתָם (ʾotam, “them”) is omitted/elided for balanced poetic parallelism. The LXX supplies αὐτούς (autous, “them”); but it is not necessary to emend the MT because this is a poetic literary convention rather than a textual problem.
- Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “I will go and return” (so NRSV). The two verbs joined with vav form a verbal hendiadys. Normally, the first verb functions adverbially, and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h). The Hebrew phrase אֵלְכָה וְאָשׁוּבָה (ʾelekhah veʾashuvah, “I will go and I will return”) connotes, “I will return again.” As cohortatives, both verbs emphasize the resolution of the speaker.
- Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “to my man, the first.” Many English translations (e.g., KJV, NAB, NRSV, TEV) take this as “my first husband,” although this implies that there was more than one husband involved. The text refers to multiple lovers, but these were not necessarily husbands.
- Hosea 2:7 tn Or “because it was better for me then than now” (cf. NCV).
Hosea 2:9-13
New English Translation
9 Therefore, I will take back[a] my grain during the harvest time[b]
and my new wine when it ripens;[c]
I will take away my wool and my flax
that I had provided[d] in order to clothe her.[e]
10 Soon[f] I will expose her lewd nakedness[g] in front of her lovers,
and no one will be able to rescue her from me![h]
11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her annual religious festivals,
monthly new moon celebrations,
and weekly Sabbath festivities—
all her appointed festivals.
12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
about which she said, ‘These are my wages for prostitution[i]
that my lovers gave to me!’
I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees[j] into an uncultivated thicket,
so that wild animals[k] will devour them.
13 I will punish her for the festival days
when she burned incense to the Baal idols;[l]
she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but[m] she forgot me!”[n] says the Lord.
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “I will return and I will take.” The two verbs joined with vav conjunction form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h): אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי (’ashuv velaqakhti) means: “I will take back.”
- Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).
- Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).
- Hosea 2:9 tn The words “which I had provided” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NIV “intended to cover.”
- Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); cf. TEV “for clothing.”sn This announcement of judgment is extremely ironic and forcefully communicates poetic justice: the punishment will fit the crime. The Israelites were literally uncovering their nakedness in temple prostitution in the Baal fertility cult rituals. Yahweh will, in effect, give them what they wanted (nakedness) but not in the way they wanted it: Yahweh will withhold the agricultural fertility they sought from Baal, which will lead to nakedness caused by impoverishment.
- Hosea 2:10 tn The particle עַתָּה (ʿattah) often refers to the imminent or the impending future: “very soon” (BDB 774 s.v. עַתָּה 1.b). In Hosea it normally introduces imminent judgment (Hos 2:12; 4:16; 5:7; 8:8, 13; 10:2).
- Hosea 2:10 tn Heb “her lewdness” (so KJV, NIV); cf. NAB, NRSV “her shame.”
- Hosea 2:10 tn Heb “out of my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); cf. TEV “save her from my power.”
- 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.”
- Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18.
- 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”).
- Hosea 2:13 tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, veʾoti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.
- 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.
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