4:10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine;
the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice!
“Yes, 3 my son smells
like the scent of an open field
which the Lord has blessed.
45:8 All your garments are perfumed with 4 myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
From the luxurious palaces 5 comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy. 6
14:7 People will reside again 7 in his shade;
they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. 8
They will blossom like a vine,
and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
1 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “and he smelled the smell”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “see.”
4 tn The words “perfumed with” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tn Heb “the palaces of ivory.” The phrase “palaces of ivory” refers to palaces that had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. Such decoration with ivory was characteristic of a high level of luxury. See 1 Kgs 22:39 and Amos 3:15.
6 tn Heb “from the palaces of ivory stringed instrument[s] make you happy.”
7 tn Hosea uses the similar-sounding terms יָשֻׁבוּ יֹשְׁבֵי (yashuvu yoshve, “the dwellers will return”) to create a wordplay between the roots שׁוּב (shuv, “to return”) and יָשַׁב (yashav, “to dwell; to reside”).
8 tn Heb “they will cause the grain to live” or “they will revive the grain.” Some English versions treat this as a comparison: “they shall revive as the corn” (KJV); “will flourish like the grain” (NIV).