Good News Translation explicitly identifies the speaker here by beginning with the quote frame “The LORD says.” Although this verse continues the LORD’s speech in the previous verses, it may be helpful to follow this model, especially if a section heading is inserted before this verse.

By their wickedness they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery: Revised Standard Version arranges these two lines into a chiasmus, but the Hebrew text has a parallel structure, which is literally “With their wickedness they make glad [the] king, and with their treacheries [they make glad] princes.” The choice for chiasmus or parallelism depends on the receptor language. What is the most effective way to express the meaning?

The meaning of the Hebrew text here is ambiguous. It is unclear whether the Israelites are deceiving the rulers by their evil plots or convincing them to join in their evil plans. However, the context and history seem to favor the first option: the act of making the king and other leaders rejoice is done deceitfully. Good News Translation has made this meaning explicit: “People deceive the king and his officers by their evil plots.” However, this model loses the parallel structure that is present in the Hebrew text.

Wickedness renders a general Hebrew term for “evil” (translated “evil deeds” in 7.1 and “evil works” in 7.2), and the word for treachery refers to a form of lying or deception to bring harm to someone. These words are combined by Good News Translation into “evil plots.” However, in order to maintain thematic coherence, it is recommended to use the same lexical item for wickedness that was used in 7.1-2.

The English word princes may wrongly imply that these are children or relatives of the king. The Hebrew word for princes can refer to government officials or army commanders (see comments on 3.4). Here it probably refers to highly positioned civil servants who served in the palace. Good News Translation says “officers,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses “ministers.”

Bible en français courant restructures this verse, saying “They hide their evil purposes while amusing king and ministers.” A model that keeps the parallelism is:

• People make the king happy with their wickedness,
and the [other] leaders with their lies.

Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .