Hosea 7:16

They turn to Baal; ¹  they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal ²  have made me angry. So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. ³ 

Ps 12:4; Ps 52:2; Ps 57:4; Ps 73:9; Ps 78:37; Ps 78:57; Isa 3:8; Jer 3:10; Jer 18:18; Eze 23:32; Eze 36:20; Ho 6:4; Ho 7:13; Ho 8:13; Ho 8:14; Ho 9:3,6; Ho 11:7; Mt 12:36; Lu 8:13; Lu 11:24-26; Jas 3:5; 2Pe 2:8; Re 13:5

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “because their tongue.” The term “tongue” is used figuratively, as a metonymy of cause (tongue) for the effect (prayers to Baal).

³ 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.”