Good News Translation adds the quote frame “The LORD says” at the beginning of this verse in order to make clear who is speaking.
Set the trumpet to your lips is literally “To your [singular] palate a ram’s horn” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). This line is a verbless command to an individual. The Hebrew word for trumpet refers to a ram’s horn (see 5.8, where it is rendered “horn”). Any instrument that can be used for sending alarm signals can be used as a functional equivalent, as long as it fits the historical context of this book. Every language will have its normal way to speak of blowing a horn, whether on the lips, the palate, the mouth, the teeth, the gums, or the tongue. In Hebrew the word for trumpet is usually not used in combination with the word for “palate.” Since in Pro 5.3 and 8.7 “palate” is used in parallel with “lips,” Revised Standard Version‘s use of lips is justified here. The significance of the action here is made clear in Good News Translation‘s “Sound the alarm!” Some scholars believe Yahweh is giving this command to the prophet Hosea, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, which begins this verse with “The LORD said to me.” However, it is also possible that the prophet is speaking for Yahweh to a military officer, since nowhere in Hos 4–14 does the prophet receive commands. In most languages the addressee can be left implicit here, just as in the text.
For a vulture is over the house of the LORD: Instead of for a vulture, the Hebrew text has “[one] like a vulture/eagle,” which Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives an {A} rating, which means that there is little or no doubt that the Hebrew text is correct. It is uncertain which bird exactly is meant by the Hebrew word for vulture. This word can have both a specific meaning (Griffon Vulture) and a generic meaning (large bird of prey). In this context it may refer to an “eagle” (New International Version, New Living Translation, NET Bible), since vultures are usually associated with feeding on dead bodies, and the Israelites are not dead yet. Translators may use the image of a large bird that fiercely and speedily attacks living things. However, if they use a local bird of prey, it should fit the context of the Ancient Near East. It should be clear in translation that this bird is not a symbol of protection here, as in Exo 19.4. Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy emend the Hebrew text to read “like a watchman” (similarly New American Bible), but more recent translations reject that change, including New Jerusalem Bible, which has “Like an eagle.” Some translations replace the simile with a metaphor, such as New International Version: “An eagle is over the house of the LORD” (similarly Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible).
The house of the LORD is most likely not the Temple in Jerusalem. The word house often refers to an entire land in the literature of the Ancient Near East and in the Bible (compare 9.15), and so Good News Translation‘s “my land” is valid (so also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch; Bible en français courant “the land of the Lord”). Another possible interpretation is that house refers to people (in analogy to its use in expressions such as “the house of David”). So New Living Translation and De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling say “the people of the LORD.”
Good News Translation renders this entire line as “Enemies are swooping down on my land like eagles!” The implied idea of “Enemies” is made explicit in order that the significance of the figure will be clear to today’s reader. The third person reference to the LORD is changed to first person (“my”) since he is speaking.
Because they have broken my covenant …: The conjunction because introduces why Yahweh allows enemies to attack his people. It is because of their unfaithfulness to him. The Hebrew verb rendered have broken does not mean to break something apart but “to bypass, to overstep, to transgress” (see 6.7, where it is translated “transgressed”). The word covenant occurs already in 2.18 and 6.7 (see comments there). Here it clearly refers to the covenant between Yahweh and Israel, expressed in the Law (see, for example, Exo 19.5). Good News Translation retains Yahweh as the one who initiated the covenant: “My people have broken the covenant I made with them.”
And transgressed my law is parallel to have broken my covenant, and is a further way of referring to the Israelites’ unfaithfulness. This parallelism is typical of Hebrew poetry, where the second line says almost the same thing but in different words, usually in stronger words. Law renders the Hebrew word torah, which primarily refers to teachings, but in this chapter, especially in the context of verse 12, it refers to written teachings that show how the covenant people are to behave in the sight of their God. It was probably much later than Hosea’s time that the Jews assembled the first five books of the Bible into a single collection called the “Torah,” so that is not the meaning here. Although my law is a legitimate translation, the term torah includes much more than mere rules and regulations (see comments on 4.6). Good News Translation translates “my teaching.” The Hebrew word for transgressed has the idea of rebelling, deliberately acting against (see 7.13, where it is rendered “rebelled”).
A translation model for this verse is:
• The LORD says, “Blow the trumpet!
A scavenging eagle hovers over my people,
because they have overstepped my covenant,
they have rebelled against my instruction.
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 .