Discovery BoxHosea 9:11-14 
Context9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird;
what they value 1 will fly away.
They will not bear children –
they will not enjoy pregnancy –
they will not even conceive! 2
9:12 Even if they raise their children,
I will take away every last one of them. 3
Woe to them!
For I will turn away from them.
9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, 4
so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.
9:14 Give them, O Lord –
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry,
and breasts that cannot nurse! 5
1 tn Heb “their glory” (so NASB); TEV “Israel’s greateness.”
2 tn Heb “no childbearing, no pregnancy, no conception.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to the three parallel nouns functions in a privative sense, indicating deprivation (BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7).
3 tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”
4 tc The MT is corrupt in 9:13. The BHS editors suggest emending the text to follow the LXX reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:250-51.
5 tn Heb “breasts that shrivel up dry”; cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “dry breasts.”
