In 10.1-8 Hosea speaks about Israel. But in the beginning of this verse Yahweh speaks directly to Israel. Good News Translation, New Living Translation, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch make the speaker explicit by adding the quote frame “The LORD says.”

From the days of Gibe-ah, you have sinned, O Israel: Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew order here. Good News Translation follows the usual English order, saying “The people of Israel have not stopped sinning against me since the time of their sin at Gibeah.” The sin at Gibeah was the raping and killing of the Levite’s concubine (see comments on 9.9).

The Israelites are addressed directly in this line with the pronoun you and the vocative O Israel. In the rest of this section God refers to them in the third person (they, them). Good News Translation changes the second person references to third person for naturalness. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers keeping the second person references with a {B} rating, but like Good News Translation, many languages will use third person. Contemporary English Version and New Living Translation use second person for Israel throughout this section. In most languages a translation without a switch from second to third person will sound somewhat more natural. The choice of using second or third person is up to the translator, but it is suggested to carry it through consistently.

There they have continued does not refer to remaining in Gibeah, but to remaining in sin. Good News Translation expresses this clearly with “have not stopped sinning.” The Hebrew verb for have continued refers to taking a firm stand, as in battle, or as in loyalty to an idea or principle. The Israelites began their wrongdoing in Gibeah and continued in it steadfastly. They were determined to sin.

Shall not war overtake them in Gibe-ah?: Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew with this rhetorical question. It expects the answer “Yes.” Good News Translation expresses the same idea more directly and clearly with a statement: “So at Gibeah war will catch up with them.” Other translations put this rhetorical question in the past tense as an implicit threat that what happened then will happen again now; for example, New International Version and NET Bible say “Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah.”

In Gibe-ah expresses two ideas: First, the Israelites will be attacked in the very place where their ancestors sinned. Second, since Gibeah is in the south of Israel, the invader from the north, Assyria, will sweep through all of Israel from north to south.

In Hebrew this verse ends with an expression that is literally “on sons/people of injustice.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation include this phrase in the next verse (see comments there). However, some versions include it here by rendering it “the evildoers” (New International Version, NET Bible) or “the wicked men” (New Living Translation).

A translation model for this verse is:

• Israel has been sinning ever since that time in Gibeah,
and they have persisted in it.
Were they not overtaken by war in Gibeah?

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 .