Discovery BoxHosea 3:3 
Context3:3 Then I told her, “You must live with me many days; you must not commit adultery or have sexual intercourse with 1 another man, and I also will wait for you.”
Hosea 5:13
Context5:13 When Ephraim saw 2 his sickness
and Judah saw his wound,
then Ephraim turned 3 to Assyria,
and begged 4 its great king 5 for help.
But he will not be able to heal you!
He cannot cure your wound! 6
Hosea 7:4
Context7:4 They are all like bakers, 7
they 8 are like a smoldering oven;
they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire
until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.
Hosea 8:13
Context8:13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me,
and eat the meat,
but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. 9
Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,
he will punish their sins,
and they will return to Egypt.
Hosea 9:1
Context9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly 10 like the nations,
for you are unfaithful 11 to your God.
You love to receive a prostitute's wages 12
on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
Hosea 9:16
Context9:16 Ephraim will be struck down 13 –
their root will be dried up;
they will not yield any fruit.
Even if they do bear children,
I will kill their precious offspring.
Hosea 14:3
Context14:3 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!” 14
Hosea 14:8
Context14:8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do 15 with idols anymore!
I will answer him and care for him.
I am like 16 a luxuriant cypress tree; 17
your fruitfulness comes from me! 18
1 tn Heb “and you will not be for”; NIV “be intimate with.”
2 tn Hosea employs three preterites (vayyiqtol forms) in verse 13a-b to describe a past-time situation.
3 tn Heb “went to” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); CEV “asked help from.”
4 tn Heb “sent to” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
5 tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a contentious king”). This is translated as a proper name (“king Jareb”) by KJV, ASV, NASB. However, the stative adjective יָרֵב (“contentious”) is somewhat awkward. The words should be redivided as an archaic genitive-construct מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “great king”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) which preserves the old genitive hireq yod ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 10:6.
6 tn Heb “your wound will not depart from you.”
sn Hosea personifies Ephraim’s “wound” as if it could depart from the sickly Ephraim (see the formal equivalent rendering in the preceding tn). Ephraim’s sinful action in relying upon an Assyrian treaty for protection will not dispense with its problems.
7 tc The MT reads מְנָאֲפִים (mÿna’afim, “adulterers”; Piel participle masculine plural from נָאַף, na’af, “to commit adultery”), which does not seem to fit the context. The original reading was probably אוֹפִים (’ofim, “bakers”; Qal participle masculine plural from אָפַה, ’afah, “to bake”), which harmonizes well with the baker/oven/fire motif in 7:4-7. The textual deviation was caused by: (1) confusion of נ (nun) and ו (vav), (2) metathesis of נ/ו (nun/vav) and א (alef), and (3) dittography of מ (mem) from the preceding word. Original כֻּלָּם אוֹפִים (kullam ’ofim, “all of them are bakers”) was confused for כֻּלָּם מְנָאֲפִים (“all of them are adulterers”). In spite of this most English versions follow the reading of the MT here.
8 tc The MT preserves the enigmatic כְּמוֹ תַנּוּר בֹּעֵרָה מֵ (kÿmo tannur bo’erah me, “Like a burning oven, from…?”). The adjectival participle בֹּעֵרָה (“burning”) is feminine while the noun תַנּוּר (tannur, “oven”) that it modifies is masculine. The BHS editors solve this problem by simply redividing the words: כְּמוֹ תַנּוּר בֹּעֵר הֵם (cÿmo tannur bo’er hem, “they are like a burning oven”). This solution is followed by many English versions (e.g., NCV, NRSV, NLT).
9 tn Heb “does not accept them”; the referent (their sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”
11 tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”
12 tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”
13 tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).
14 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.
15 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).
16 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).
17 tn Cf. KJV “a green fir tree”; NIV, NCV “a green pine tree”; NRSV “an evergreen cypress.”
18 tn Heb “your fruit is found in me”; NRSV “your faithfulness comes from me.”
