For 12.7-14 Good News Translation has the heading “Further Words of Judgment.” Verse 6 speaks about how things ought to be. The following verses are like earlier ones, for they again speak about the sins the people have committed and how God will punish them.
Verses 7-8 contrast with the theme of verse 6, since they describe how the people do not show steadfast love and justice toward each other.
At the beginning of this verse Good News Translation adds the quote frame “The LORD says” to indicate the speaker in verses 7-11. However, it is not until verse 9 that Yahweh is clearly speaking. This is why we prefer to begin a new section with its heading at verse 7.
Some translations make the addressees explicit here by adding the vocative “Ephraim” (Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “Israel” (Contemporary English Version), or “Israelites” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal). All the people of the northern kingdom of Israel are addressed here.
A trader, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress: The Hebrew word for trader is virtually the same as the name for “Canaan.” Good News Translation assumes that this is a play on words, and that Israel is being compared with the Canaanites. This is probably true, but a play on words can seldom be translated into another language. Mays comments that this “is a scornful nickname hurled at Ephraim.” But the basic meaning for the Hebrew word here is trader, referring to a typical merchant in the nation of Israel. His cheating is an example of the way the people of Israel treat each other. Translators who use footnotes to the text may wish to insert one here, for example, “The Hebrew words for ‘trader’ and ‘Canaan’ are spelled the same way, and the prophet may be comparing the Israelites to their pagan Canaanite neighbors.” New International Version uses the following footnote: “merchant. As Hosea had played on the meaning of Jacob in v. 2, he here uses a wordplay on Canaan (the Hebrew for ‘merchant’ sounds like Canaan) to charge that Israel was no better than a Canaanite.”
False balances (Good News Translation “false scales”), which is literally “balance scales of deceit,” refers to the scales the merchant is using as he measures out the things he is buying or selling. By moving the scales in a certain way, or by using weights that are too heavy or too light, he can cheat his customers by giving them less than what they are paying for. In the Old Testament false scales became symbolic for dishonesty (Pro 11.1; 20.23; Amos 8.5).
In whose hands are false balances means the merchant carries these dishonest scales with him; they are his property.
He loves to oppress means he enjoys cheating people. Oppress is one meaning of the Hebrew verb here, but it also means to “wrong” people, or to “extort” from them, especially those who are poor and cannot help themselves against the person doing wrong. In this context of the false scales, the idea of cheating people seems to be the main thought. Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “they love to cheat their customers with false scales.”
Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders this verse as “The LORD says: ‘You have become a merchant-people, Ephraim, after the example of the Canaanites! With falsified weights you deceive the people.’ ” Another possible model is:
• The LORD says, “Ephraim, you are a trader using false scales!
You love ripping off your people.”
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 .