4:6 You have destroyed 2 my people
by failing to acknowledge me!
Because you refuse to acknowledge me, 3
I will reject you as my priests.
Because you reject 4 the law of your God,
I will reject 5 your descendants.
6:9 The company of priests is like a gang of robbers,
lying in ambush to pounce on a victim.
They commit murder on the road to Shechem;
they have done heinous crimes!
7:16 They turn to Baal; 6
they are like an unreliable bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because their prayers to Baal 7 have made me angry.
So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. 8
8:7 They sow the wind,
and so they will reap the whirlwind!
The stalk does not have any standing grain;
it will not produce any flour.
Even if it were to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it all up.
8:10 Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, 9
I will soon gather them together for judgment. 10
Then 11 they will begin to waste away
under the oppression of a mighty king. 12
14:3 Assyria cannot save us;
we will not ride warhorses.
We will never again say, ‘Our gods’
to what our own hands have made.
For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!” 13
14:8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do 14 with idols anymore!
I will answer him and care for him.
I am like 15 a luxuriant cypress tree; 16
your fruitfulness comes from me! 17
1 tn Heb “and you will not be for”; NIV “be intimate with.”
2 tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”
4 tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”
5 tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”
6 tc The MT reads the enigmatic יָשׁוּבוּ לֹא עָל (yashuvu lo’ ’al) which is taken variously: “they turn, but not upward” (NASB); “they do not turn to the Most High” (NIV); “they return, but not to the most High” (KJV). The BHS editors suggest יָשׁוּבוּ לַבַּעַל (yashuvu labba’al, “they turn to Baal”; so RSV) or יָשׁוּבוּ לַבְּלִיַּעַל (yashuvu labbÿliyya’al, “they turn to Belial”) which is reflected by the LXX.
7 tn Heb “because their tongue.” The term “tongue” is used figuratively, as a metonymy of cause (tongue) for the effect (prayers to Baal).
8 tn Heb “this [will] be for scorn in the land of Egypt”; NIV “they will be ridiculed (NAB shall be mocked) in the land of Egypt.”
9 tn Or “they have hired themselves out to lovers”; cf. NASB “they hire allies among the nations.”
10 tn The Piel stem of קָבַץ (qavats) is often used in a positive sense, meaning “to regather” a dispersed people (HALOT 1063 s.v. קבץ 3.a; BDB 868 s.v. קָבַץ 1.α). However, in Hosea 8:10 it is used in a negative sense, meaning “to assemble (people) for judgment” (e.g., Ezek 20:34; Hos 9:6; HALOT 1063 s.v. 3.e.i). Cf. JPS “I will hold them fast” (in judgment, see the parallel in 9:6).
11 tn The vav consecutive + preterite וַיָּחֵלּוּ (vayyakhellu, Hiphil preterite 3rd person common plural from חָלַל, khalal, “to begin”]) denotes temporal subordination to the preceding clause: “then…” (so NLT); cf. TEV, CEV “Soon.”
12 tn Heb “a king of princes” (cf. KJV, NASB); TEV “the emperor of Assyria.”
13 tn Heb “For the orphan is shown compassion by you.” The present translation takes “orphan” as a figurative reference to Israel, which is specified in the translation for clarity.
14 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).
15 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).
16 tn Cf. KJV “a green fir tree”; NIV, NCV “a green pine tree”; NRSV “an evergreen cypress.”
17 tn Heb “your fruit is found in me”; NRSV “your faithfulness comes from me.”