Text -- Hosea 2:6 (NET)

The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

2:6 Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Hos 2:6

¹ tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hinni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).

² tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; NIV “block her path.”

³ tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (vÿgadarti ’et-gÿderah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The 3rd 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.”

⁴ tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause which can be understood as either purpose or result.

⁵ tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).