2:9 Therefore, I will take back 1 my grain during the harvest time 2
and my new wine when it ripens; 3
I will take away my wool and my flax
which I had provided 4 in order to clothe her. 5
2:10 Soon 6 I will expose her lewd nakedness 7 in front of her lovers,
and no one will be able to rescue her from me! 8
2:11 I will put an end to all her celebration:
her annual religious festivals,
monthly new moon celebrations,
and weekly Sabbath festivities –
all her appointed festivals.
2:12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
about which she said, “These are my wages for prostitution 9
that my lovers gave to me!”
I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees 10 into an uncultivated thicket,
so that wild animals 11 will devour them.
1 tn Heb “I will return and I will take.” The two verbs joined with vav conjunction form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h): אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי (’ashuv vÿlaqakhti) means “I will take back.”
2 tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).
4 tn The words “which I had provided” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NIV “intended to cover.”
5 tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); TEV “for clothing.”
6 tn The particle עַתָּה (’attah) often refers to the imminent or the impending future: “very soon” (BDB 774 s.v. עַתָּה 1.b). In Hosea it normally introduces imminent judgment (Hos 2:12; 4:16; 5:7; 8:8, 13; 10:2).
7 tn Heb “her lewdness” (so KJV, NIV); NAB, NRSV “her shame.”
8 tn Heb “out of my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); TEV “save her from my power.”
9 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.”
10 tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18).