Hosea 10:5

The Calf Idol and Idolaters of Samaria Will Be Exiled

10:5 The inhabitants ¹  of Samaria will lament ²  over the calf idol ³  of Beth Aven. ⁴ 

Its people will mourn over it;

its idolatrous priests will wail ⁵  over it, ⁶ 

because its splendor will be taken from them ⁷  into exile.

Isaiah 17:11

17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ⁸ 

the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.

Yet the harvest will disappear ⁹  in the day of disease

and incurable pain.

Isaiah 22:12

22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,

for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹⁰ 

Lamentations 4:21

The Prophet Speaks:

ש (Sin/Shin)

4:21 Rejoice and be glad for now, ¹¹  O people of Edom, ¹² 

who reside in the land of Uz.

But the cup of judgment ¹³  will pass ¹⁴  to you also;

you will get drunk and take off your clothes.

Ezekiel 21:10

21:10 It is sharpened for slaughter,

it is polished to flash like lightning!

“‘Should we rejoice in the scepter of my son? No! The sword despises every tree! ¹⁵ 

Amos 6:6-7

6:6 They drink wine from sacrificial bowls, ¹⁶ 

and pour the very best oils on themselves. ¹⁷ 

Yet they are not concerned over ¹⁸  the ruin ¹⁹  of Joseph.

6:7 Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, ²⁰ 

and the religious banquets ²¹  where they sprawl on couches ²²  will end.

Amos 6:13

6:13 You are happy because you conquered Lo-Debar. ²³ 

You say, “Did we not conquer Karnaim ²⁴  by our own power?”

Amos 8:10

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ²⁵ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ²⁶ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ²⁷ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ²⁸ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ²⁹ 

James 4:16

4:16 But as it is, ³⁰  you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

James 5:1

Warning to the Rich

5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud ³¹  over the miseries that are coming on you.

[10:5]  ¹ tc The MT reads the singular construct noun שְׁכַן (shÿkhan, “the inhabitant [of Samaria]”), while the LXX and Syriac reflect the plural construct noun שְׁכַנֵי (shÿkhane, “the inhabitants [of Samaria]”). The singular noun may be a collective referring to the population of Samaria as a whole (BDB 1015 s.v. שָׁכֵן; e.g., Isa 33:24). Most English translations view this as a reference to the inhabitants of the city as a whole (KJV, RSV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NJPS, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[10:5]  ² tc The MT reads יָגוּרוּ (yaguru, Qal imperfect 3rd person common plural from III גוּר, gur, “to dread”; see BDB 159 s.v. III גוּר 1). This reading is followed by most English versions but is syntactically awkward because III גוּר (“to dread”) is used nowhere else with the preposition לְ (lamed, “they are in dread for…”?). BDB suggests reading יָנוּדוּ (yanudu, Qal imperfect 3rd person common plural from נוּד, nud, “to lament”; BDB 626 s.v. נוּד 2.a) which harmonizes better with the parallelism with אָבַל (’aval, “to mourn”) in the following line. The verb נוּד (“to lament”) is used with the preposition לְ in the idiom “to lament for” (e.g., Isa 51:19; Jer 15:5; 16:5; 48:17; Nah 3:7). This involves simple orthographic confusion between ג (gimel) and נ (nun), as well as ר (resh) and ד (dalet) which were often confused by the scribes.

[10:5]  ³ tc The MT reads the plural לְעֶגְלוֹת (lÿ’eglot, “for the calves”), while some Greek versions (LXX, Theodotion) and the Syriac reflect the singular לְעֵגֶל (“for the calf [calf idol]”). The singular reading is preferred on the basis of internal evidence: the oracle denounces the calf idol worship of Samaria. The plural form probably arose due to the ambiguity of the term “calf” when a scribe did not realize that the term was being used as a metonymy for the worship of the Egyptian calf goddess. Most recent English versions adopt the singular form and relate it to the calf goddess cult (RSV, NASB, NIV, NCV, NJPS, TEV, CEV, NLT); however, older English versions follow the MT plural (KJV, ASV).

[10:5]  ⁴ sn See the note on the place name Beth Aven in 4:15.

[10:5]  ⁵ tc The MT appears to read יָגִילוּ (yagilu, “they will rejoice”; Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from גִּיל, gil, “to rejoice”), but this is likely an example of semantic polarization. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea (AB), 556-67. The BHS editors propose the reading יְיֵלִילוּ (yÿyelilu, “they will lament”; Hiphil imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from יָלַל, yalal, “to lament”), which also appears in Hos 7:14. If this reading is original, the textual variant may be attributed to: (1) orthographic confusion between ל (lamed) and ג (gimel), and (2) haplography or dittography of י (yod). English versions are split; some follow the MT (KJV, ASV, NIV, NJPS), others the proposed emendation (RSV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).

[10:5]  ⁶ tc This line division follows the MT rather than the line division suggested by the BHS editors.

[10:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “from it” (so NAB, NRSV).

[17:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tÿsagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (saga’/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.

[17:11]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”

[22:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[4:21]  ¹¹ tn The phrase “for now” is added in the translation to highlight the implied contrast between the present joy of the Gentiles (4:21a) and their future judgment (4:21b).

[4:21]  ¹² tn Heb “O Daughter of Edom.”

[4:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “the cup.” Judgment is often depicted as a cup of wine that God forces a person to drink, causing him to lose consciousness, red wine drooling out of his mouth – resembling corpses lying on the ground as a result of the actual onslaught of the Lord’s judgment. The drunkard will reel and stagger, causing bodily injury to himself – an apt metaphor to describe the devastating effects of God’s judgment. Just as a cup of poison kills all those who are forced to drink it, the cup of God’s wrath destroys all those who must drink it (e.g., Ps 75:9; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15, 17, 28; 49:12; 51:7; Lam 4:21; Ezek 23:33; Hab 2:16).

[4:21]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verb “will pass” may also be a jussive, continuing the element of request, “let the cup pass…”

[21:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Or shall we rejoice, scepter of my son, it despises every tree.” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned just before this. Alternatively, the line may be understood as “let us not rejoice, O tribe of my son; it despises every tree.” The same word in Hebrew may be either “rod,” “scepter,” or “tribe.” The word sometimes translated as “or” or taken as an interrogative particle may be a negative particle. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:672, n. 79.

[6:6]  ¹⁶ sn Perhaps some religious rite is in view, or the size of the bowls is emphasized (i.e., bowls as large as sacrificial bowls).

[6:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with the best of oils they anoint [themselves].”

[6:6]  ¹⁸ tn Or “not sickened by.”

[6:6]  ¹⁹ sn The ruin of Joseph may refer to the societal disintegration in Israel, or to the effects of the impending judgment.

[6:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they will go into exile at the head of the exiles.”

[6:7]  ²¹ sn Religious banquets. This refers to the מַרְזֵחַ (marzeakh), a type of pagan religious banquet popular among the upper class of Israel at this time and apparently associated with mourning. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 137-61; J. L. McLaughlin, The “Marzeah” in the Prophetic Literature (VTSup). Scholars debate whether at this banquet the dead were simply remembered or actually venerated in a formal, cultic sense.

[6:7]  ²² tn Heb “of the sprawled out.” See v. 4.

[6:13]  ²³ tn Heb “those who rejoice over Lo-Debar.”

[6:13]  ²⁴ sn Karnaim was also located across the Jordan River. The name in Hebrew means “double horned.” Since an animal’s horn was a symbol of strength (see Deut 33:17), the Israelites boasted in this victory over a town whose very name symbolized military power.

[8:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.

[4:16]  ³⁰ tn Grk “but now.”

[5:1]  ³¹ tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”