Hosea 9:11-13

The Fertility Worshipers Will Become Infertile

9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird;

what they value ¹  will fly away.

They will not bear children –

they will not enjoy pregnancy –

they will not even conceive! ² 

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them. ³ 

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, ⁴ 

so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.

[9:11]  ¹ tn Heb “their glory” (so NASB); TEV “Israel’s greateness.”

[9:11]  ² tn Heb “no childbearing, no pregnancy, no conception.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to the three parallel nouns functions in a privative sense, indicating deprivation (BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7).

[9:12]  ³ tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”

[9:13]  ⁴ tc The MT is corrupt in 9:13. The BHS editors suggest emending the text to follow the LXX reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:250-51.