2:4 I will have no pity on her children, 1
because they are children conceived in adultery. 2
4:2 There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.
They resort to violence and bloodshed. 3
4:8 They feed on the sin offerings of my people;
their appetites long for their iniquity!
7:5 At the celebration 4 of their king, 5
his princes become inflamed 6 with wine;
they conspire 7 with evildoers.
7:15 Although I trained and strengthened them, 8
they plot evil against me!
9:10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness.
I viewed your ancestors 9 like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season.
Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame –
they became as detestable as what they loved.
1 tn Heb “her sons.” English versions have long translated this as “children,” however; cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT.
sn The word order is rhetorical: the accusative וְאֶת־בָּנֶיהָ (vé’et-baneha, “her sons”) is moved forward for emphasis.
2 tn Heb “sons of adulteries”; KJV “children of whoredoms.”
sn The word order is rhetorical: the construct clause בְנֵי זְנוּנִים (vÿne zÿnunim, “sons of adulteries”), which functions as the predicate nominative, is moved forward, before the independent personal pronoun הֵמָּה (hemma, “they”) which functions as the subject, to focus on the immoral character of her children.
3 tn Heb “they break out and bloodshed touches bloodshed.” The Hebrew term פָּרַץ (parats, “to break out”) refers to violent and wicked actions (BDB 829 s.v. פָּרַץ 7; HALOT 972 s.v. פרץ 6.c). It is used elsewhere in a concrete sense to describe breaking through physical barriers. Here it is used figuratively to describe breaking moral barriers and restraints (cf. TEV “Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another”).
4 tn Heb “the day of” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “On the day of the festival of our king”; NLT “On royal holidays.”
5 tc The MT preserves the awkward 1st person common plural suffix reading מַלְכֵּנוּ (malakenu, “our king”). The BHS editors suggest reading the 3rd person masculine plural suffix מַלְכָּם (malkam, “their king”; so CEV), as reflected in the Aramaic Targum.
6 tc The MT vocalizes the consonants החלו as הֶחֱלוּ a Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from I חָלָה (“to become sick”). However, this is syntactically awkward. The BHS editors suggest revocalizing it as Hiphil infinitive construct + 3rd person masculine singular suffix from חָלַל (khalal, “to begin”) or Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from חָלַל. For a discussion of this textual problem, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:240.
tn Heb “when their king began [to reign].”
7 tn Heb “he joined hands”; NCV “make agreements.”
8 tn Heb “their arms” (so NAB, NRSV).
9 tn Heb “fathers”; a number of more recent English versions use the more general “ancestors” here.