Hosea 2:11-13

2:11 I will put an end to all her celebration:

her annual religious festivals,

monthly new moon celebrations,

and weekly Sabbath festivities –

all her appointed festivals.

2:12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,

about which she said, “These are my wages for prostitution

that my lovers gave to me!”

I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket,

so that wild animals will devour them.

2:13 “I will punish her for the festival days

when she burned incense to the Baal idols;

she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but she forgot me!” says the Lord.


tn Heb “my wages.” The words “for prostitution” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied for clarity; cf. CEV “gave…as payment for sex.”

tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18).

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”).

tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, oti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.

tn The accusative direct object pronoun וְאֹתִי (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 Lord.