7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets 1
and your sons and daughters will die violently. 2
Your land will be given to others 3
and you will die in a foreign 4 land.
Israel will certainly be carried into exile 5 away from its land.’”
4:15 Although you, O Israel, commit adultery,
do not let Judah become guilty!
Do not journey to Gilgal!
Do not go up to Beth Aven! 10
Do not swear, “As surely as the Lord lives!”
10:8 The high places of the “House 11 of Wickedness” 12 will be destroyed;
it is the place where Israel sins.
Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
10:15 So will it happen to you, O Bethel, 13
because of your great wickedness!
When that day dawns, 14
the king of Israel will be destroyed. 15
1 tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”
2 tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”
3 tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”
4 tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).
5 tn See the note on the word “exile” in 5:5.
6 sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”
7 tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.
8 tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”
9 tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”
10 sn Beth Aven means “house of wickedness” in Hebrew; it is a polemic reference to “Bethel,” which means “house of God.” Cf. CEV “at sinful Bethel.”
11 tn Alternately, “Aven” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) for the city name “Beth Aven.” The term “Beth” (house) does not appear in the Hebrew text here, but is implied (e.g., Hos 4:15). It is supplied in the translation for clarity.
12 tc The MT reads בָּמוֹת אָוֶן (bamot ’aven, “high places of Aven”); however, several Hebrew
13 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
14 tn Heb “when the dawn is cut off” or “when the day ceases.” Cf. NLT “When the day of judgment dawns.”
15 tn The root דָמָה (damah, “to be cut off, cease to exist, be destroyed”; BDB 198 s.v. דָמָה; HALOT 225 s.v. דמה) is repeated in the Hebrew text. The form נִדְמֹה (nidmoh, Niphal infinitive absolute) appears in the first colon, and the form נִדְמָה (nidmah, Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular) appears in the second colon. This striking repetition creates a dramatic wordplay which, for stylistic reasons, cannot be reproduced in English translations: “The moment the dawn ceases to exist (i.e., at the break of dawn), the king of Israel will cease to exist.”