2:8 Yet 1 until now 2 she has refused to acknowledge 3 that I 4 was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;
and that it was I who 5 lavished on her the silver and gold –
which they 6 used in worshiping Baal! 7
2:9 Therefore, I will take back 8 my grain during the harvest time 9
and my new wine when it ripens; 10
I will take away my wool and my flax
which I had provided 11 in order to clothe her. 12
2:13 “I will punish her for the festival days
when she burned incense to the Baal idols; 13
she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but 14 she forgot me!” 15 says the Lord.
1 tn Or “For” (so KJV, NASB); or “But” (so NCV).
2 tn The phrase “until now” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
3 tn Heb “she does not know” (so NASB, NCV); or “she does not acknowledge.”
4 tn The 1st person common singular independent personal pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) is emphatic, since the subject of this verbal clause is already explicit in the verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, Qal perfect 1st person common singular: “I gave”).
5 tn The phrase “that it was I who” does not appear in the Hebrew text here, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
6 sn The third person plural here is an obvious reference to the Israelites who had been unfaithful to the
7 tn Heb “for Baal” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. TEV “in the worship of Baal.”
8 tn Heb “I will return and I will take.” The two verbs joined with vav conjunction form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h): אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי (’ashuv vÿlaqakhti) means “I will take back.”
9 tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).
10 tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).
11 tn The words “which I had provided” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NIV “intended to cover.”
12 tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); TEV “for clothing.”
sn This announcement of judgment is extremely ironic and forcefully communicates poetic justice: The punishment will fit the crime. The Israelites were literally uncovering their nakedness in temple prostitution in the Baal fertility cult rituals. Yahweh will, in effect, give them what they wanted (nakedness) but not in the way they wanted it: Yahweh will withhold the agricultural fertility they sought from Baal which would lead to nakedness caused by impoverishment.
13 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”).
14 tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, vé’oti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.
15 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