The Good News Translation footnote warns us that there are serious problems for understanding the Hebrew text of this verse. The Hebrew text may be presenting images from farming that are used poetically to describe Yahweh watching over Israel from childhood. But alternative interpretations are possible. In this verse translators must decide whether the figures compare Israel to a child, as in the preceding verses, or to a cow, as in 4.16 and 10.11. Since the text is using farm images, the cow image is more likely. But at the same time, these images describe poetically how one brings up a child. In a country where loving care was applied both to cattle and to raising children, the same idioms may have developed for both.

I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love: Instead of cords of compassion, the Hebrew text reads “cords of a man” (King James Version) or “ropes of humankind” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). These two lines fit with the figure of Israel as a cow that is guided by cords and bands. To strengthen this image the word “reins” can also be used in English. The receptor language may have similar terminology to make the imagery more readily understood. Good News Translation takes the literal “cords of a man” to be a figure for human “affection” as something that binds one person to another. Bands of love is then simply a figure for “love.” So Good News Translation‘s translation of these two lines fits with the figure of Israel as a child, but of course the original image of comparison with a cow is lost. The ability to keep the cattle imagery largely depends on the receptor culture. In societies where cattle play a central role, the imagery may be easily understood. If so, we recommend keeping the imagery of cords and bands. It makes the translation more vivid than Good News Translation‘s nonfigurative rendering.

And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them: This imagery is consistent with the cattle metaphors that are employed in this verse. The picture here seems to be as follows: When it is time to feed the cow, the yoke is removed so the cow can be fed. Yahweh claims to both lift the yoke and feed Israel.

Who eases the yoke on their jaws follows the standard Hebrew text. But a yoke is not on the jaws of an animal, but on its neck and shoulders. The Hebrew word for yoke resembles the word for “baby” or “child.” This word has the same consonants, but a different vowel mark. Good News Translation, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible follow this reading of “baby” or “child.” It is supported by some recent commentators and fits with the figure of Israel as a child. This figure has the advantage of continuing the figure of a child, as used in the preceding verses. But again, this may have been a play on words by which God uses the word yoke, which resembles the Hebrew word for “child,” so that people will think about caring for a child. The original readers or hearers would have had no problem understanding this play on words. But a wordplay is usually very difficult to express in another language. In any case, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends the Hebrew text by reading “yoke” (a {B} decision). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project understands that farmers lift up the yoke in order to let the cattle chew easily, because then the jaws are free to move. If translators follow the other reading, a possible model for lines three and four is “I showed them the same tenderness as a person who picks up a child and holds it to his cheek.” Here “cheek” has been substituted for the jaw of the animal.

I bent down to them and fed them shows the action of a taller person bending over to feed those who are shorter or smaller. Fed them follows the Septuagint and makes good sense. Instead of a word meaning them, the Hebrew text has a word meaning “not,” which is the first word in the next verse, where some scholars believe it does not seem to make sense. Therefore they believe the word belongs at the end of this verse and change it to read “them,” which sounds like the Hebrew word for “not.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project retains the Hebrew word meaning “not” in verse 5 (a {B} decision). After all, in this context of the verb fed, the pronoun them can be implied in Hebrew.

The following literal translation of this verse retains the text decisions of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project:

• With harness-cords for a human I led them,
with ties of love.
And I was to them as those lifting the yoke [from] upon their jaws.
And I bent down to him and fed [him].

A more natural model in English is:

• I guided them with reins of compassion,
with cords of love.
As someone lifting their yoke allowing them to eat,
I even stooped down to feed them.

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 .