She shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them is semantically parallel with and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. These four lines are two ways of saying the same thing, and some languages may prefer combining them into one statement; for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982) says “Then she will no longer be able to find her lovers, no matter how much she may seek them.” However, if the translation aims at maintaining the poetic nature of the passage, appropriate literary devices have to be used in the receptor language. The allegorical nature of the text may require a more poetic or elevated style of language. The grammatical structure of lines one and two is identical to the grammatical structure of lines three and four. This repetitive element strengthens the point that the author wants to make. Translators should try to maintain this emphasis.

In this allegory Israel’s lovers are symbols of pagan gods (see 2.5). The verbs pursue and seek describe Israel’s eager worship of these gods. Pursue shows an eager chase and indicates again that Israel is like a woman taking the initiative. Similarly, the verb seek shows that the lovers definitely did not initiate this adulterous relationship. The Hebrew verb for seek appears in 5.6 and 5.15 as a technical term for visiting a shrine. The phrases not overtake them and not find them are figures indicating that Israel will fail to receive the prosperity she is seeking by worshiping the pagan gods. All this is the result of the thorny hedge and the wall of 2.6 that prevent Israel from going wherever she wishes.

Then she shall say: This quote frame introduces her thoughts; she does not necessarily say the following words aloud (compare the comments on “For she said” in 2.5).

I will go and return to my first husband: This expression implies repentance, although it may not be sincere. Go and return uses two verbs for one action. Good News Translation says “I am going back,” and New International Version has “I will go back.” My first husband is Yahweh. It was not legal for her to be remarried to her first husband if a second marriage had taken place (Deut 24.1-4). However, if no second marriage actually took place, it seems she could return to husband even if she had acted as a prostitute. Apart from that, it is not clear if Deuteronomy was known at the time this text was written. The context does not suggest that she was married for a second time. No divorce has been mentioned. The Hebrew word for first can also refer to the “original” husband.

For it was better with me then than now: Israel recognizes that she was “better off” (Good News Translation) when she was true to Yahweh. It was better refers to general well-being in life. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders this line as “With him it was better for me!”

A translation model for this verse is:

• She will chase after her lovers, but not catch up with them.
She will look for them, but not find them.
She will say to herself, “I will go back to my own husband,
for then I was better off than I am now.”

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 .

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 .

This verse begins with the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And” [King James Version]), which Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most other versions omit. Here it may be left untranslated.

The pride of Israel witnesses against him: In Hebrew this line is identical to the first line of 5.5 (see comments there). However, there Revised Standard Version translates “The pride of Israel testifies to his face,” but the meaning is the same. Translators should use the same words in both places. The imagery here is from a law court, where pride (Good News Translation “arrogance”) is a witness testifying against Israel. Israel showed pride by trying to manage things by her own strength and by joining with other nations instead of by seeking God’s guidance and help. The Hebrew verb translated witnesses can also be rendered “has been humbled” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), but the word translated against him favors the meaning witnesses. New Jerusalem Bible says “Israel’s arrogance is his own accuser.”

Yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this: Yet renders the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “and”). Here it may introduce how the Israelites are proud: by refusing to return to Yahweh. Revised Standard Version understands this conjunction as contrastive here, which is also possible. The Israelites’ arrogance works against them, but in spite of this they do not want to return to the LORD. Revised English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible use the connector “but” to express the contrast.

In the first line the Israelites are referred to in the singular as a nation (Israel and him), but here there is a switch to the plural to refer to the people (they). Good News Translation consistently uses plural forms for them throughout 7.8-10, and that may be the best way to translate in many languages.

For return to the LORD their God and seek him, see the comments on 3.5. Do not return to the LORD their God includes a refusal to repent. Nor seek him includes a refusal to come and worship him. Bible en français courant includes the idea of not seeking counsel from Yahweh, which was a part of Israelite activity at holy places: “no one has consulted me.” Both returning and seeking were necessary. Good News Translation combines the two clauses and perhaps loses some of the meaning: “they have not returned to me.”

The LORD their God emphasizes that Yahweh has a special relation to Israel out of all the nations because he is their God. Since Yahweh himself is speaking, Good News Translation adds the pronoun “me.”

For all this refers to Israel’s problems described in 7.8-9. For English the logic of the last two lines requires that this phrase be mentioned first. Thus Good News Translation begins these lines with “In spite of everything that has happened.” This phrase can also be translated “In spite of all these disorders.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• Although the pride of the Israelites testifies against them,
they do not return to the LORD their God,
nor do they look for him in all these troubles.

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 .

This verse has several problems for interpreters and translators. The original text probably had some wordplays or other poetic devices that were not understood, or were wrongly understood, by later copyists. For example, in the first line of the Hebrew, the first word of the second half-line resembles the name of the city Tyre, or an Arabic word for a young palm tree, or a rock. The Hebrew of the first line seems to say “Ephraim, as I see, (goes) to Tyre, planted in the pasture” (Wolff). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh follows this understanding of the Hebrew text: “It shall go with Ephraim as I have seen it go with Tyre, which was planted in a meadow” (similarly New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). But there is no known reason for a reference to the city of Tyre. Furthermore, Tyre was not in a meadow but on a rocky island off the coast of Phoenicia, now Lebanon. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project decides to retain the Hebrew (a {B} decision), but it reads the noun for “Tyre” as “a palm tree.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests the following translation: “(Ephraim), when I saw it (that is, the land and the people of Ephraim), [it seemed to be destined] to [be] a grove of palm trees, planted in a pasture.” New Revised Standard Version follows this reading, rendering the whole verse as “Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow, but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.” English Standard Version is similar: “Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Like a young palm, planted in fruitful soil, so once was Ephraim to me, and this Ephraim now must lead his sons out to the slaughterer!” This reading of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, New Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is attractive since it remains fairly close to the Hebrew text and fits the context well. In 9.10 is a similar contrast: the LORD found delight in Ephraim, but saw it soon engaged in shameful idolatrous relations.

Many versions simply abandon the Hebrew of the first line, which they question, and follow the Septuagint. For example, Revised Standard Version has Ephraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey, and Good News Translation says “LORD, I can see their children being hunted down.” Wolff also prefers the Septuagint because he considers it the oldest phase in the history of this text. He suggests the following translation of the verse:

Ephraim, as I see,
(has exposed his sons to the hunt).
Now Ephraim must lead
his sons to the butcher.

Another emendation of the first line is followed by New English Bible: “As lion-cubs emerge only to be hunted,” but this is not so well supported by the Septuagint. NET Bible has a somewhat similar reading, but it turns the cubs into hunters: “Just as lion cubs are born predators.”

Although many scholars believe the Hebrew of the first line is unreliable, New Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch demonstrate that a clear translation can result from following the Hebrew text, and this fact removes an important reason for suspecting the Hebrew. So we recommend their reading of the Hebrew text. The following comments on this line are based on New Revised Standard Version‘s translation.

“Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow”: Ephraim is compared to a palm tree planted in fertile soil. The “palm” tree probably refers to the date palm.

The pronoun “I” most likely refers to the LORD. Good News Translation believes this pronoun refers to the prophet Hosea, so it moves “LORD” from the next verse to the beginning of this one, to show that the prophet is addressing the LORD in verses 13-14. However, in view of the wider context it is more likely that the LORD is still speaking in this verse to the people of Israel. Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, and Bijbel in Gewone Taal explicitly take this verse as the final lines in the speech of the LORD which began in verse 10. A similar understanding can be drawn from New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, and English Standard Version.

“Saw” renders a Hebrew verb that relates to the earliest traditions of Israel’s prophets, that of “seeing” a vision. However, not all interpreters understand the verb to refer to prophetic experience here, since God is speaking.

Instead of “Ephraim,” Good News Translation has the pronoun “their,” which refers to the people of Israel, as do the third person pronouns in the preceding verses. Again, it is suggested to be consistent with the use of pronouns in preceding verses.

Ephraim must lead forth his sons to slaughter: This line may refer to battles with Assyrian invaders, in which many Israelite soldiers perished. Sons may be rendered “children” (New Revised Standard Version) in this context. For this line Good News Translation says simply “and killed.” Good News Translation drastically reduces it, omitting the agent. A better model is “They must send out their sons to be killed in battle.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• Ephraim, once I saw you as a palm tree planted in fertile soil,
but now you must lead your children out for slaughter.

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 .

Ephraim herds the wind, and pursues the east wind all day long: Once again Good News Translation renders Ephraim as “Israel” for clarity (see comments on 4.17). There is a problem with the Hebrew verb rendered herds, which normally means “pasture,” “tend,” or “feed.” However, since Hosea uses the Hebrew dialect of northern Israel, the preferred sense of this verb is “desire” or “want.” And this meaning is synonymous with the parallel verb pursues. These two parallel lines use the figurative language of chasing the wind, which means that what the people do is “useless” (Good News Translation). The east wind refers to the hot wind that blows across Israel as it comes from the desert east of Israel.

Good News Translation renders these two parallel lines with nonfigurative language, saying “Everything that the people of Israel do from morning to night is useless and destructive.” The decision to maintain or abandon the poetic images fully depends on the type of translation one wants to produce, as well as on the expressive power of the images in the receptor culture. Changing the images certainly reduces the expressiveness of the translation. New American Bible maintains the imagery, saying “Ephraim chases the wind, ever pursuing the gale.” Contemporary English Version also keeps the imagery, but combines the two lines: “All day long Israel chases wind from the desert.”

They multiply falsehood and violence: This poetic line stands alone in the verse. It means the people of Israel are very deceitful and violent. The pronoun they is literally “he,” referring to Ephraim. As in Revised Standard Version, many languages may need to use a plural pronoun to refer to the people of this group. It is not clear whether falsehood and violence are what the people of Israel do to each other, or what they do to others, such as Assyria and Egypt. These two countries were to the north and the south of Israel, and they would often wage war with each other (see 7.11). And Israel was caught in the middle. However, since these two nations are not mentioned until the last two lines of this verse, it seems better to understand this line as referring to what the Israelites do to each other; for example, Good News Translation says “Treachery and acts of violence increase among them.” It may also be possible to leave it open in translation.

They make a bargain with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt: These two parallel lines show how Israel deals with the countries to the north and to the south. For they make a bargain, which is literally “they cut a covenant,” see the comments on 2.18. Good News Translation says “They make treaties,” but the Hebrew word for bargain is singular, and there is no compelling reason to deviate from this.

Good News Translation renders oil is carried to Egypt as “do business with Egypt,” which gives the general meaning of the specific expression in Hebrew. The oil would have been olive oil, not petroleum oil (see comments on 2.5b). Wolff understands the oil as sent to ratify a treaty with Egypt, to make it official. This understanding would show Israel to be making treaties with both Egypt and Assyria, and this is the preferred meaning of these lines. Revised English Bible says “he makes a treaty with Assyria and carries tribute of oil to Egypt.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• Ephraim chases the wind,
they pursue the desert wind all day.
They add deceit to violence.
They cut out a covenant with Assyria,
and take olive oil as a present to Egypt.

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 .

This verse continues the offering of “words” that the people are to bring to Yahweh. Here most of the statements are in the negative, indicating areas in which the people have failed in the past. This verse uses several synecdoches, which are figures of speech in which a part is used for the whole, or a whole is used for a part. Assyria represents all the foreign powers with whom the Israelites made alliances, horses represents their own military power in which they trusted, and the work of our hands refers to the idols that they made and worshiped.

Assyria shall not save us: Assyria was a powerful nation to the north of Israel, and Israelite kings sometimes had to deal with them (see 2 Kgs 16–17; see also comments on 5.13). As part of their offering of “words,” the Israelites are to say that they will not look to a foreign nation for help.

We will not ride upon horses: Horses were considered important military equipment in those days (see comments on 1.7). This line means the Israelites will depend upon Yahweh, not on their military strength. Good News Translation‘s “war horses cannot protect us” is an attempt to make this clear. This statement is another part of their offering of “words” to Yahweh.

And we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands: The work of our hands refers to idols, images made by human hands. This expression is used elsewhere in the Old Testament for idols (see, for example, 2 Kgs 22.17; Isa 2.8), implying how foolish it is for the one who made the image to then worship the helpless image that could not exist without the skill of the person who made it (see also 13.2). The promise in these two lines is that they will not speak to such images and call them Our God. The Hebrew word for God is plural, so it may also be translated “gods” (New International Version, NET Bible). A third option is “god” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling), since idols are not the God of Israel.

In thee the orphan finds mercy: This line uses Hebrew terms that evoke tender feelings. The word for mercy involves kindness to those in need, along with a sense of tenderness usually connected with the love of a mother (see 1.6, where it is rendered “pitied”). Some versions say “compassion” (New International Version, NET Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible) and others have “pity” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The Hebrew word for orphan usually refers to a child who has lost both parents. In this way the Hebrew words here make one think of a motherless person who receives care like that provided by a mother. Israel is considered to be an orphan, because its people have left their father, the LORD. Good News Translation renders orphan more broadly as “those who have no one else to turn to.” But this model goes beyond the text itself and is not the best one to follow.

It is not clear why Good News Translation inserts “O LORD” to begin this line. It may have been inserted to show contrast with the following verse, spoken by Yahweh rather than by the prophet. But this seems unnecessary.

A translation model for this verse is:

• The Assyrians will not save us,
no longer will we trust in our war horses.
What we have made with our own hands,
we will not call, ‘Our god.’
In you the orphan finds mercy.”

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 .