Discovery BoxHosea 8:5-10
Context8:5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol!
My anger burns against them!
They will not survive much longer without being punished, 1
even though they are Israelites!
8:6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God!
The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
8:7 They sow the wind,
and so they will reap the whirlwind!
The stalk does not have any standing grain;
it will not produce any flour.
Even if it were to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it all up.
8:8 Israel will be swallowed up among the nations;
they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.
8:9 They have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey that wanders off.
Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers. 2
8:10 Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, 3
I will soon gather them together for judgment. 4
Then 5 they will begin to waste away
under the oppression of a mighty king. 6
[8:5] 1 tn Heb “How long will they be able to be free from punishment?” This rhetorical question affirms that Israel will not survive much longer until God punishes it.
[8:9] 2 tn Or “has hired herself out to lovers”; cf. NIV “has sold herself to lovers.”
[8:10] 3 tn Or “they have hired themselves out to lovers”; cf. NASB “they hire allies among the nations.”
[8:10] 4 tn The Piel stem of קָבַץ (qavats) is often used in a positive sense, meaning “to regather” a dispersed people (HALOT 1063 s.v. קבץ 3.a; BDB 868 s.v. קָבַץ 1.α). However, in Hosea 8:10 it is used in a negative sense, meaning “to assemble (people) for judgment” (e.g., Ezek 20:34; Hos 9:6; HALOT 1063 s.v. 3.e.i). Cf. JPS “I will hold them fast” (in judgment, see the parallel in 9:6).
[8:10] 5 tn The vav consecutive + preterite וַיָּחֵלּוּ (vayyakhellu, Hiphil preterite 3rd person common plural from חָלַל, khalal, “to begin”]) denotes temporal subordination to the preceding clause: “then…” (so NLT); cf. TEV, CEV “Soon.”
[8:10] 6 tn Heb “a king of princes” (cf. KJV, NASB); TEV “the emperor of Assyria.”
