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Hosea 2:4-6
New English Translation
Hosea 2:4-6
New English Translation
4 I will have no pity on her children,[a]
because they are children conceived in adultery.[b]
5 For their mother has committed adultery;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will seek out[c] my lovers;[d]
they are the ones who give me my bread and my water,
my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.[e]
The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back
6 “Therefore, I will soon[f] fence her in[g] with thorns;
I will wall her in[h] so that[i] she cannot find her way.[j]
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 2:5 tn Heb “I will go after” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).
- Hosea 2:5 sn This statement alludes to the practice of sexual rites in the Canaanite fertility cult that attempted to secure agricultural fertility from the Canaanite gods (note the following reference to wool, flax, olive oil, and wine).
- Hosea 2:5 tn Heb “my drinks.” Many English versions use the singular “drink” here (but cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “wine”).
- 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).
New English Translation (NET)
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