Discovery BoxHosea 4:5-7
Context4:5 You stumble day and night,
and the false prophets stumble with you;
You have destroyed your own people! 1
4:6 You have destroyed 2 my people
by failing to acknowledge me!
Because you refuse to acknowledge me, 3
I will reject you as my priests.
Because you reject 4 the law of your God,
I will reject 5 your descendants.
4:7 The more the priests increased in numbers,
the more they rebelled against me.
They have turned 6 their glorious calling
into a shameful disgrace!
[4:5] 1 tc The MT reads וְדָמִיתִי אִמֶּךָ (vÿdamiti ’immekha, “and I will destroy your mother”), and is followed by most English versions; however, the text should probably be emended to וְדָמִית עַמֶּךָ (vÿdamit ’ammekha, “and you have destroyed your own people”). The 2nd person masculine singular form וְדָמִית (vÿdamit, “and you have destroyed”) is preserved in several medieval Hebrew
[4:6] 2 tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
[4:6] 3 tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”
[4:6] 4 tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”
[4:6] 5 tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”
[4:7] 6 tc The MT reads אָמִיר (’amir, “I will change, exchange”; Hiphil imperfect 1st person common singular from מוּר, mur, “to change, exchange”). However, an alternate scribal tradition (tiqquneh sopherim, that is, an intentional scribal change when the Masoretes believed that the received consonantal reading was corrupt) preserves the reading הֵמִירוּ (hemiru, “they have exchanged”; Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from מוּר). This alternate scribal tradition is also found in the Targum and reflected in the Syriac Peshitta. Several translations follow the MT: KJV, RSV, NASB “I will change their glory into shame” and TEV “I will turn your honor into disgrace”; however, others adopt the alternate tradition: NRSV “they changed their glory into shame” and NIV “they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.” For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.
