2:9 Therefore, I will take back 1 my grain during the harvest time 2
and my new wine when it ripens; 3
I will take away my wool and my flax
which I had provided 4 in order to clothe her. 5
9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly 6 like the nations,
for you are unfaithful 7 to your God.
You love to receive a prostitute's wages 8
on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
10:11 Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain;
I myself put a fine yoke 9 on her neck.
I will harness Ephraim.
Let Judah plow! 10
Let Jacob break up 11 the unplowed ground for himself!
14:7 People will reside again 12 in his shade;
they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. 13
They will blossom like a vine,
and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
1 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.”
2 tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).
4 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.”
5 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.
6 tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”
7 tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”
8 tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”
9 tc The MT is unintelligible: עַל־טוּב (’al-tuv, “upon a fine [thing]”?). Cf. KJV “I passed over upon her fair neck”; NRSV “I spared her fair neck.” The BHS editors suggest the revocalization עֹל־טוּב (’ol-tuv, “a fine yoke”), followed by many modern English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT). The noun עֹל (’ol, “yoke”) also appears in 11:4 in a metaphor which compares Israel to a young heifer as well.
10 tn Or “Judah will plow” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV, CEV “Judah must plow.”
11 tn Or “Jacob will break up.”
12 tn Hosea uses the similar-sounding terms יָשֻׁבוּ יֹשְׁבֵי (yashuvu yoshve, “the dwellers will return”) to create a wordplay between the roots שׁוּב (shuv, “to return”) and יָשַׁב (yashav, “to dwell; to reside”).
13 tn Heb “they will cause the grain to live” or “they will revive the grain.” Some English versions treat this as a comparison: “they shall revive as the corn” (KJV); “will flourish like the grain” (NIV).