In this verse God makes it clear that the Israelites cannot claim that they have not been warned, so there is no excuse for their failure to live up to the standards he gave them.

This verse begins with the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”), which Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most other versions leave untranslated. Here it introduces a shift in focus, which may be indicated by a blank line (so Revised Standard Version) or a paragraph break (so Good News Translation).

I spoke to the prophets: God sent prophets to give messages to his people. For prophets see the comments on 4.5.

It was I who multiplied visions: God not only spoke to the prophets, but also gave them many visions, which are somewhat like dreams except that the prophet who sees a vision does not have to be asleep when he sees what God is revealing to him. Although prophets are not mentioned in this line, it is understood that all three lines of this verse are about how God revealed messages to the prophets. This is quite clear in Good News Translation. I renders an independent Hebrew pronoun, which emphasizes that Yahweh is the one who did this, not any other god (compare verse 9). Good News Translation omits this emphasis. NET Bible keeps the emphasis by saying “I myself.” Multiplied visions means Yahweh did this many times, so the people of Israel could not pretend that they did not know about Yahweh and the things he wanted his people to know and to do. Wolff says “vision upon vision.”

And through the prophets gave parables is literally “and by the hand of the prophets I gave parables.” This line makes it clear that the messages, visions, and parables were not for the benefit of the prophets but were for the people of Israel, and the prophets were the message carriers.

Gave parables renders a Hebrew verb whose root means “to be like” or “to resemble.” A message that shows how one thing resembles another is often a parable, which is a short story designed to teach some truth or religious principle. The word used for parables in both the Old and New Testaments is appropriate here (see, for example Matt 13.3). Some scholars connect the verb rendered gave parables with the proclamation of God’s plans, and this may be why Good News Translation uses “gave … warnings.” Wolff suggests “make proclamation.” But gave parables seems to be the better translation in this context. New Revised Standard Version is significantly different, rendering this line as “and through the prophets I will bring destruction.” Although the Hebrew verb for “to destroy” comes from the same root as the verb for “to resemble,” the verb “destroy” is not parallel with the idea in the first two lines in this verse.

A translation model for this verse is:

• I spoke to the prophets,
I myself showed them one vision after the other,
I have disclosed parables through the prophets.

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 .