… in Israel?: Revised Standard Version follows Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Septuagint by including these words on the same poetic line as the last one of verse 5. Instead of in Israel, the Hebrew reads “For [or, Surely] from Israel and he/it.” The Hebrew word ki begins this verse. It can be a causal conjunction (“For”) or an emphatic particle (“Surely”). We prefer the latter sense here.

King James Version begins this verse with “For from Israel was it also,” which means the calf-idol originated in Israel, that is, the Israelites were responsible for it. The Hebrew preposition meaning “from” used in connection with “Israel” supports this translation. A similar idea is expressed by the adjective “Israelite” in Good News Translation. New English Bible follows an emended text, saying “For what sort of a god is this bull?” but there is no textual support for this reading. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project favors linking this phrase with what follows in this verse: “for from Israel he also” (a {B} decision). This decision also helps to see a balance in the mention of Israel at the beginning of the verse, and Samaria at the end. Wolff suggests linking the phrase “For [or, Surely] from Israel” with verse 5, but as an exclamation: “But they are from Israel!” (similarly New International Version). In other words, it expresses a feeling typical of Hosea’s book, in which Yahweh moves between condemning his people and hoping for their change of heart. Translators may decide to follow either the interpretation of King James Version or that of Wolff since both reflect the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project decision.

A workman made it; it is not God is literally “a craftsman made it, and it is not a god.” The first pronoun it is used with emphasis, as if in derision, contrasting the idol with Yahweh. It is assumed that anything requiring human assistance before coming into being is certainly not a god. The idol lacks life and divine power.

The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces: In Hebrew this clause begins with the word ki, which may be an emphatic marker or a logical connector here. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling render it as an emphatic marker by beginning this clause with “No, the calf of Samaria….” New Living Translation uses the logical connector “Therefore” to express it, and Contemporary English Version is similar with “And so.” In many versions it is left untranslated (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). All these possibilities are acceptable in this context, but we express a slight preference for the emphatic function of ki here, especially in view of the unusual word order of this clause, which is literally “ki splinters it will become the calf of Samaria.” Here the default word order in Hebrew would have been to put the subject at the beginning of the sentence.

Again, Samaria probably refers to the country of Samaria, in which Bethel was a city, where the calf-idol was located (see 8.5). Shall be broken to pieces is literally “will become splinters.” As mentioned earlier, the image was made of wood. The Hebrew word for pieces occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, and it seems to be a word used in the dialect of northern Israel, where it can mean either “splinters” or “sparks.” It is possible that the prophet thought of the craftsman cutting off chips of wood to form the image, only to have his work continue in an ironic fashion by having the entire image reduced to such splinters. The Revised Standard Version footnote indicates that “shall go up in flames” (Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem) is also a possible translation of the Hebrew. New American Bible says “Destined for the flames.” However, most translations seem to favor the idea of “splinters.” Revised English Bible has “will be reduced to splinters” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), and New Jerusalem Bible says “will be broken to pieces” (similarly New International Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible).

A translation model for this verse is:

• Surely, this calf-idol is from Israel!
It is made by a craftsman, it is no god.
Yes, it will be chopped to pieces,
this calf-idol of Samaria.

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 .