2:13 “I will punish her for the festival days
when she burned incense to the Baal idols; 1
she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but 2 she forgot me!” 3 says the Lord.
4:12 They consult their wooden idols,
and their diviner’s staff answers with an oracle.
The wind of prostitution blows them astray;
they commit spiritual adultery 4 against their God.
14:8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do 5 with idols anymore!
I will answer him and care for him.
I am like 6 a luxuriant cypress tree; 7
your fruitfulness comes from me! 8
1 tn Heb “the days of the Baals, to whom she burned incense.” The word “festival” is supplied to clarify the referent of “days,” and the word “idols” is supplied in light of the plural “Baals” (cf. NLT “her images of Baal”).
2 tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, vé’oti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.
3 tn The accusative direct object pronoun וְאֹתִי (vé’oti, “me”) is emphatic in the word order of this clause (cf. NIV “but me she forgot”), emphasizing the heinous inappropriateness of Israel’s departure from the
4 tn Heb “adultery.” The adjective “spiritual” is supplied in the translation to clarify that apostasy is meant here.
5 tn The Hebrew expression מַה־לִּי עוֹד (mah-li ’od) is a formula of repudiation/emphatic denial that God has anything in common with idols: “I want to have nothing to do with […] any more!” Cf., e.g., Judg 11:12; 2 Sam 16:10; 19:23; 1 Kgs 17:18; 2 Kgs 3:13; 2 Chr 35:21; Jer 2:18; Ps 50:16; BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d.(c).
6 tn The term “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity, as in the majority of English versions (including KJV).
7 tn Cf. KJV “a green fir tree”; NIV, NCV “a green pine tree”; NRSV “an evergreen cypress.”
8 tn Heb “your fruit is found in me”; NRSV “your faithfulness comes from me.”