In this verse there is a kind of parallelism that may be described as placed over the parallelism within 5.3. Lines one and two are a statement that is parallel with line four of 5.3, showing that Israel’s defilement means she cannot approach God. Line three is parallel with line three of 5.3, using the image of harlotry. Line four is parallel with lines one and two of 5.3, since it repeats the theme of “knowing” and thus rounds out and completes this short piece of poetry. The translator needs to observe such parallelism, not in order to reproduce it in the receptor language, but in order to understand the meaning intended by each line as it relates to its corresponding parallel line.
However, the Hebrew shows the prophet speaking about Yahweh in the third person in 5.4-7 rather than Yahweh himself speaking. Good News Translation marks this change by closing God’s quotation at the end of 5.3. Since pronominal shifts are a common feature in Hebrew, this shift of speaker is debatable. Other translations therefore handle this shift differently; for example, Contemporary English Version keeps God as the speaker in 5.1-7 by beginning this verse with “Your evil deeds are the reason you won’t return to me, your LORD God…” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It is possible to regard their God and the LORD as examples of Yahweh referring to himself in the third person, but the regular use of the third person for him in 5.5-7 makes this unlikely, at least in those verses. The change of speaker seems to occur at this verse.
Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God: Their deeds refers to the “misdeeds” of the Israelites, which Good News Translation clarifies by saying “The evil that the people have done.” King James Version understands Their deeds to be the direct object of the main verb here rather than its subject, saying “They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God.” However, Hosea always uses the Hebrew term for deeds to refer to evil actions, so we do not recommend following King James Version here. Do not permit them to return means their wickedness “gives them no opportunity to repent.” Good News Translation expresses this idea clearly and forcefully with “keeps them from returning.”
For the spirit of harlotry is within them: For the spirit of harlotry, see 4.12. This line expresses the prophet’s frustration over what appears to be an unseen power, a spirit, that causes the people to lose their sense of what is right, to rebel, and to be unfaithful to their God. Good News Translation again avoids the figurative language here by translating “Idolatry has a powerful hold on them.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “Because of the lecherous impulse within them,” which also avoids the idea of an unseen spirit. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982) has “They are as if possessed by their filthy impulses.” In some languages a word like spirit may be kept, while expressing “idolatry” rather than keeping the metaphor harlotry; for example, this line may be rendered “because a spirit of idolatry controls them.”
And they know not the LORD includes the idea that the Israelites remain unacquainted with Yahweh’s teachings, since the priests have not taught them properly. But this line also refers to not having an intimate relationship with their God. See the comments on know at 5.3. Good News Translation says “and they do not acknowledge the LORD,” which implies that they no longer regard him as their God or treat him as such.
A translation model for this verse is:
• Your evil deeds don’t allow you to return to me, your God,
because you all are possessed by prostitution.
You do not know me, the LORD.
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 .