This verse is generally interpreted as a description of the Israelites’ unfaithfulness in their relationship with the LORD shortly after they were chosen as his people. They betrayed the LORD immediately when they encountered Baal worship, just as Hosea was betrayed by his wife.

Good News Translation, New Living Translation, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch begin this verse with the quote frame “The LORD says” to identify the speaker here (similarly Bible en français courant). Contemporary English Version identifies the speaker in a different way by beginning with “Israel, when I, the LORD, found you….” We believe the LORD speaks to the end of verse 13 (so also Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), but Good News Translation ends his words at the end of verse 12.

Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel: Grapes are unexpected and rare in the wilderness, and to find them there is a surprise as well as a joy. So God was delighted with Israel in the wilderness. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “I found Israel [as pleasing] as grapes in the wilderness,” and Bijbel in Gewone Taal has “Long ago I was happy with the Israelites. They were just as special to me as grapes in the desert.” Contemporary English Version refers to Israel in the second person throughout this verse (see also model below), which other languages may find helpful. It depends on what pronouns have been used earlier for Israel in this chapter.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your fathers: The first figs on a tree are especially prized (Isa 28.4), so God prized the ancestors of the Israelites in the wilderness. New International Version says “when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree” (similarly Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). For the fig tree and its fruit, see 2.12.

Translators should not ignore the expression in its first season (literally “in its beginning”). Although the Peshitta omits it, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project does not deal with it as a textual problem, and therefore it is considered a normal part of the ancient text. This expression refers to the first season after the fig tree has been planted, when it produces the first figs that have ever grown from it. So NET Bible says “I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season.” This special moment of finding the first figs ever to grow on the tree compares with the special joy of finding grapes in the wilderness.

Good News Translation renders fathers as “ancestors” for clarity. In the first five lines of this verse Good News Translation follows some commentators in seeing a reference to the beginning of God’s dealing with the organized nation of Israel, and so it has “I first found” and “I first saw.” This verse is one of a small group of poetic sayings that speak of God discovering his people for the first time in the wilderness (Deut 32.10; Jer 2.2-3).

But they came to Baal-peor: In Hebrew this line begins with an independent pronoun rendered they. This pronoun is emphatic and marks contrast, because it comes in addition to a verb that is already marked for third person plural. This pronoun refers to Israel’s ancestors. Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew with the name Baal-peor as a place name. Since Peor was a mountain (Num 23.28), Good News Translation uses “Mount Peor” as the place where the god Baal was worshiped.

And consecrated themselves to Baal: The Hebrew verb rendered consecrated themselves comes from the same root as the term for “nazirite,” who is someone dedicated to Yahweh by a special vow. Hosea thus uses irony to point out that after the Israelites dedicated themselves to Yahweh at Mount Sinai, some of them dedicated themselves to Baal at Mount Peor. Israelite men had sexual relations with Midianite women as part of fertility rituals during the worship of Baal there, as described in Num 25.1-5.

Instead of Baal, the Hebrew text actually has the word bosheth meaning “shame” (Revised Standard Version footnote), which was often used as a pejorative substitute for the name “Baal” by people who were loyal to Yahweh. For example, one of King Saul’s sons was very likely named “Ishbaal” originally, meaning “man of Baal,” but he is regularly called “Ishbosheth,” meaning “man of shame,” in 2 Samuel. It is possible that Hosea was the first to use the word “shame” in place of “Baal.” Compare Jer 11.13, where “shame” is used in parallel with “Baal.” Native speakers of Hebrew would have known about this custom of substituting “shame” wherever “Baal” appears, but today’s readers will not know this, so it may have to be made explicit in translation by rendering Baal as “Baal-the-Shame” (Bible en français courant), “the Shame-god [Baal]” (Zürcher Bibel), or “the shameful god Baal.”

And became detestable like the thing they loved: The Israelites became disgusting like Baal whom they worshiped. The Hebrew word for detestable refers not only to something ceremonially unclean, but abhorrent and disgusting as well. The Hebrew word rendered the thing they loved is singular, referring to Baal. This word is parallel with Baal in the previous line. So instead of Good News Translation‘s plural “the gods they loved,” it is better to say “what they loved” ( NET Bible) or “the god they loved” (similarly New Living Translation).

A translation model for this verse is:

• I, the LORD, was thrilled and amazed
when I found you Israelites as grapes in the desert,
when I saw your ancestors as the early fruit of the fig tree!
But as soon as you came to Mount Peor,
you dedicated yourselves to the shameful Baal,
you became as disgusting as the god you loved.

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 .