Hosea 3:3

3:3 Then I told her, “You must live with me many days; you must not commit adultery or have sexual intercourse with ¹  another man, and I also will wait for you.”

Hosea 4:3

4:3 Therefore the land will mourn,

and all its inhabitants will perish. ² 

The wild animals, ³  the birds of the sky,

and even the fish in the sea will perish.

Hosea 4:6

4:6 You have destroyed ⁴  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ⁵ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ⁶  the law of your God,

I will reject ⁷  your descendants.

Hosea 7:9

7:9 Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, ⁸ 

but he does not recognize it!

His head is filled with gray hair,

but he does not realize it!

Hosea 9:12

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them. ⁹ 

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

Hosea 9:16

9:16 Ephraim will be struck down ¹⁰  –

their root will be dried up;

they will not yield any fruit.

Even if they do bear children,

I will kill their precious offspring.

Hosea 10:6

10:6 Even the calf idol ¹¹  will be carried to Assyria,

as tribute for the great king. ¹² 

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be put to shame because ¹³  of its wooden idol. ¹⁴ 

Hosea 12:11

12:11 Is there idolatry ¹⁵  in Gilead? ¹⁶ 

Certainly its inhabitants ¹⁷  will come to nothing! ¹⁸ 

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

[3:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and you will not be for”; NIV “be intimate with.”

[4:3]  ² tn Or “languish” (so KJV, NRSV); NIV “waste away.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so NAB, NIV).

[4:6]  ³ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

[7:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “foreigners consume his strength”; NRSV “devour (sap NIV) his strength.”

[9:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”

[9:16]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).

[10:6]  ⁷ tn The antecedent of the 3rd person masculine singular direct object pronoun אוֹתוֹ (’oto, “it”) is probably the calf idol of Beth Aven mentioned in 10:5a. This has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. TEV, NLT).

[10:6]  ⁸ tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a king who contends”?) which is syntactically awkward: מֶלֶךְ (“king”) followed by יָרֵב (“let him contend!”; Qal jussive 3rd person masculine singular from רִיב, riv, “to contend”). Note that KJV, ASV, NASB treat this as a proper name (“king Jareb”). The MT reading is probably the result of faulty word division. As the BHS editors suggest, the original reading most likely is מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “the great king”). The suffixed י (yod) on מַלְכִּי is the remnant of the old genitive ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 5:13.

[10:6]  ⁹ tn The preposition מִן (min) functions in a causal sense specifying the logical cause: “because of” or “on account of” (e.g., Exod 2:23; Deut 7:7; Nah 3:4; BDB 580 s.v. מִן 2.f; HALOT 598 s.v. מִן 6).

[10:6]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the root of מֵעֲצָתוֹ (me’atsato, preposition מִן, min, + feminine singular noun עֵצָה, ’etsah, + 3rd person masculine singular suffix) is debated. There are three options: (1) “its counsel” from I עֵצָה (“counsel; advice; plan”; BDB 420 s.v. עֵצָה; HALOT 867 s.v. I עֵצָה 3.a); (2) “its disobedience” from II עֵצָה (“disobedience,” but the existence of this root is debated; see HALOT 867 s.v. II עֵצָה); and (3) “its wooden idol” from III עֵצָה (“wood”; cf. Jer 6:6) referring to the wooden idol/effigy (the calf idol in 10:5), a stick of wood covered with gold (HALOT 867 s.v.). The last option is favored contextually: (a) the idol is called “a stick of wood” in Hos 4:12, and (b) the calf idol (probably the referent) of the cult is mentioned in 10:5. The English versions are divided: (1) “his idol” (RSV, NRSV), “its wooden idols” (NIV), “image” (NJPS margin), “that idol” (CEV), “this idol” (NLT); and (2) “his own counsel” (KJV, ASV), “its own counsel” (NASB), “his plans” (NJPS), “his schemes” (NAB), “the advice” (TEV).

[12:11]  ⁸ tn The noun אָוֶן (’aven) has a broad range of meanings which includes: (1) “wickedness, sin, injustice” (2) “deception, nothingness,” and (3) “idolatry, idolatrous cult” (HALOT 22 s.v. אָוֶן; BDB 19 s.v. אָוֶן). While any of these meanings would fit the present context, the second-half of the verse refers to cultic sins, suggesting that Hosea is denouncing Gilead for its idolatry. Cf. NLT “Gilead is filled with sinners who worship idols.”

[12:11]  ⁹ tn The introductory deictic particle אִם (’im) functions as an interrogative and introduces an interrogative clause: “Is there…?” (see HALOT 60 s.v. אִם 5; BDB 50 s.v. אִם 2). The LXX assumed that אִם was being used in its more common function as a conditional particle: “If there….”

[12:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the inhabitants of Gilead) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:11]  ¹¹ tn The noun שָׁוְא (shav’, “emptiness, nothing”), which describes the imminent judgment of the people of Gilead, creates a wordplay in Hebrew with the noun אָוֶן (’aven, “nothingness” = idolatry). Because Gilead worshiped “nothingness” (idols), it would become “nothing” (i.e., be destroyed).