4:1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites! 8
For the Lord has a covenant lawsuit 9 against the people of Israel. 10
For there is neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land,
nor do they acknowledge God. 11
4:6 You have destroyed 12 my people
by failing to acknowledge me!
Because you refuse to acknowledge me, 13
I will reject you as my priests.
Because you reject 14 the law of your God,
I will reject 15 your descendants.
4:12 They consult their wooden idols,
and their diviner’s staff answers with an oracle.
The wind of prostitution blows them astray;
they commit spiritual adultery 16 against their God.
11:9 I cannot carry out 17 my fierce anger!
I cannot totally destroy Ephraim!
Because I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you –
I will not come in wrath!
13:16 (14:1) 18 Samaria will be held guilty, 19
because she rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their infants will be dashed to the ground –
their 20 pregnant women will be ripped open.
1 tn Heb “house”; cf. NCV, TEV, NLT “the people of Judah.”
2 tn The word order in this line is rhetorical, emphasizing the divine decision to withhold pity from Israel but to bestow it on Judah. The accusative direct object, which is introduced by a disjunctive vav (to denote contrast), appears before the verb: וְאֶת־בֵּית יְהוּדָה אֲרַחֵם (vé’et-bet yéhudah ’arakhem, “but upon the house of Judah I will show pity”).
3 tn Heb “by war” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); KJV, NASB, NIV “battle.”
4 sn These military weapons are examples of the metonymy of adjunct (the specific weapons named) for subject (warfare).
5 tn Heb “David their king”; cf. NCV “the king from David’s family”; TEV “a descendant of David their king”; NLT “David’s descendant, their king.”
6 tn Heb “his goodness”; NLT “his good gifts.”
7 tn Heb “in the end of the days.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT “in the last days.”
9 tn Heb “sons of Israel” (so NASB); KJV “children of Israel”; NAB, NRSV “people of Israel.”
10 tn The noun רִיב (riv, “dispute, lawsuit”) is used in two contexts: (1) nonlegal contexts: (a) “dispute” between individuals (e.g., Gen 13:7; Isa 58:1; Jer 15:10) or (b) “brawl; quarrel” between people (e.g., Exod 17:7; Deut 25:1); and (2) legal contexts: (a) “lawsuit; legal process” (e.g., Exod 23:3-6; Deut 19:17; 21:5; Ezek 44:24; Ps 35:23), (b) “lawsuit; legal case” (e.g., Deut 1:12; 17:8; Prov 18:17; 25:9), and (c) God’s “lawsuit” on behalf of a person or against his own people (Hos 4:1; 12:3; Mic 6:2; HALOT 1225-26 s.v. רִיב). The term in Hosea refers to a covenant lawsuit in which Yahweh the suzerain lodges a legal case against his disobedient vassal, accusing Israel and Judah of breach of covenant which will elicit the covenant curses.
11 tn Heb “with the inhabitants of the land” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “against the inhabitants of the land.”
12 tn Heb “there is no truthfulness nor loyalty nor knowledge of God in the land.” Here “knowledge of God” refers to recognition of his authority and obedience to his will.
13 tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
14 tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”
15 tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”
16 tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”
17 tn Heb “adultery.” The adjective “spiritual” is supplied in the translation to clarify that apostasy is meant here.
21 tn The three imperfect verbs function as imperfects of capability, similar to the imperfects of capability in 11:8. See IBHS 564 §34.1a.
25 sn Beginning with 13:16, the verse numbers through 14:9 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 13:16 ET = 14:1 HT, 14:1 ET = 14:2 HT, etc., through 14:9 ET = 14:10 HT. Thus ch. 14 in the Hebrew Bible has 10 verses.
26 tn Or “must bear its guilt” (NIV similar); NLT “must bear the consequences of their guilt”; CEV “will be punished.”
27 tn Heb “his.” This is a collective singular, as recognized by almost all English versions.