12:8 The people I call my own 1 have turned on me
like a lion 2 in the forest.
They have roared defiantly 3 at me.
So I will treat them as though I hate them. 4
1 tn See the note on the previous verse.
2 tn Heb “have become to me like a lion.”
3 tn Heb “have given against me with her voice.”
4 tn Or “so I will reject her.” The word “hate” is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to being neglected, i.e., treated as though unloved. In these contexts it does not have the same emotive connotations that a typical modern reader would associate with hate. See Gen 29:31, 33 and E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 556.