2:4 I will have no pity on her children, 1
because they are children conceived in adultery. 2
8:9 They have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey that wanders off.
Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers. 3
2:12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
about which she said, “These are my wages for prostitution 4
that my lovers gave to me!”
I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees 5 into an uncultivated thicket,
so that wild animals 6 will devour them.
8:13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me,
and eat the meat,
but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. 7
Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,
he will punish their sins,
and they will return to Egypt.
9:10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness.
I viewed your ancestors 8 like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season.
Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame –
they became as detestable as what they loved.
1 tn Heb “her sons.” English versions have long translated this as “children,” however; cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT.
2 tn Heb “sons of adulteries”; KJV “children of whoredoms.”
3 tn Or “has hired herself out to lovers”; cf. NIV “has sold herself to lovers.”
5 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.”
6 tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18).
7 tn Heb “does not accept them”; the referent (their sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “fathers”; a number of more recent English versions use the more general “ancestors” here.