Ezekiel 16:13

16:13 You were adorned with gold and silver, while your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidery. You ate the finest flour, honey, and olive oil. You became extremely beautiful and attained the position of royalty.

Deuteronomy 32:14-17

32:14 butter from the herd

and milk from the flock,

along with the fat of lambs,

rams and goats of Bashan,

along with the best of the kernels of wheat;

and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.

Israel’s Rebellion

32:15 But Jeshurun ¹  became fat and kicked,

you ²  got fat, thick, and stuffed!

Then he deserted the God who made him,

and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ³ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ⁴ 

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ⁵  had not known about.

Hosea 2:8-13

Agricultural Fertility Withdrawn from Israel

2:8 Yet ⁶  until now ⁷  she has refused to acknowledge ⁸  that I ⁹  was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;

and that it was I who ¹⁰  lavished on her the silver and gold –

which they ¹¹  used in worshiping Baal! ¹² 

2:9 Therefore, I will take back ¹³  my grain during the harvest time ¹⁴ 

and my new wine when it ripens; ¹⁵ 

I will take away my wool and my flax

which I had provided ¹⁶  in order to clothe her. ¹⁷ 

2:10 Soon ¹⁸  I will expose her lewd nakedness ¹⁹  in front of her lovers,

and no one will be able to rescue her from me! ²⁰ 

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 ²¹ 

that my lovers gave to me!”

I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees ²²  into an uncultivated thicket,

so that wild animals ²³  will devour them.

2:13 “I will punish her for the festival days

when she burned incense to the Baal idols; ²⁴ 

she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but ²⁵  she forgot me!” ²⁶  says the Lord.

[32:15]  ¹ tn To make the continuity of the referent clear, some English versions substitute “Jacob” here (NAB, NRSV) while others replace “Jeshurun” with “Israel” (NCV, CEV, NLT) or “the Lord’s people” (TEV).

[32:15]  ² tc The LXX reads the third person masculine singular (“he”) for the MT second person masculine singular (“you”), but such alterations are unnecessary in Hebrew poetic texts where subjects fluctuate frequently and without warning.

[32:16]  ³ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[2:8]  ⁶ tn Or “For” (so KJV, NASB); or “But” (so NCV).

[2:8]  ⁷ tn The phrase “until now” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[2:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “she does not know” (so NASB, NCV); or “she does not acknowledge.”

[2:8]  ⁹ tn The 1st person common singular independent personal pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) is emphatic, since the subject of this verbal clause is already explicit in the verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, Qal perfect 1st person common singular: “I gave”).

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “that it was I who” does not appear in the Hebrew text here, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:8]  ¹¹ sn The third person plural here is an obvious reference to the Israelites who had been unfaithful to the Lord in spite of all that he had done for them. To maintain the imagery of Israel as the prostitute, a third person feminine singular would be called for; in the interest of literary consistency this has been supplied in some English translations (e.g., NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[2:8]  ¹² tn Heb “for Baal” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. TEV “in the worship of Baal.”

[2:9]  ¹³ 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.”

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).

[2:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:9]  ¹⁶ 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.”

[2:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); TEV “for clothing.”

[2:10]  ¹⁸ 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).

[2:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “her lewdness” (so KJV, NIV); NAB, NRSV “her shame.”

[2:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “out of my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); TEV “save her from my power.”

[2:12]  ²¹ 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.”

[2:12]  ²² tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:12]  ²³ tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18).

[2:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the days of the Baals, to whom she burned incense.” The word “festival” is supplied to clarify the referent of “days,” and the word “idols” is supplied in light of the plural “Baals” (cf. NLT “her images of Baal”).

[2:13]  ²⁵ tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, vé’oti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.

[2:13]  ²⁶ tn The accusative direct object pronoun וְאֹתִי (vé’oti, “me”) is emphatic in the word order of this clause (cf. NIV “but me she forgot”), emphasizing the heinous inappropriateness of Israel’s departure from the Lord.