Therefore renders the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”), but here it introduces the result of the previous emphatic statement. If translators opted for the model in the previous verse (the second half being the grounds for the first half), a less emphatic connection, or none at all, can be used.

The tumult of war shall arise among your people: The tumult of war is literally “a tumult” (King James Version). The Hebrew word for “tumult” refers to any roaring sound, whether that of a waterfall, a rushing stream, a crowd of people, or warfare. Here it refers to “the roar of battle” (New International Version). Good News Translation has simply “war,” which loses the idea of the “loud noise” of battle.

Among your people may at first give the impression that the roaring sound is simply that of a large crowd of people, since “war” is not mentioned explicitly in the Hebrew text. But the following line shows that this is the sound of warfare, since fortresses will be destroyed. Instead of among your people, many translations have “against your people” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, NET Bible). Good News Translation‘s “war will come to your people” also seems to suggest that warfare will come from elsewhere against the people. The context provides support for this interpretation. The Hebrew preposition for among normally points at a location, “in” or “on,” but “against” is certainly an option (see, for example, Jer 52.3, where “Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon”).

And all your fortresses shall be destroyed: The Hebrew word for fortresses refers to cities surrounded by protective walls and to fortified places within cities. Their walls were usually made of stone. If these places were destroyed, the battle was lost.

As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle refers to a past terrible destruction that was apparently known to Hosea’s hearers but that is impossible for us to identify with certainty. One suggestion is that Shalman was a king of Moab mentioned in Assyrian records of Hosea’s time. Beth-arbel may be the city of Irbid in modern Jordan, north of ancient Moab. Other commentators offer different solutions. None of the suggestions is totally convincing. So translators should not attempt to offer a rendering that makes the king and/or the location clearly identifiable. On the day of battle is a way of stating when the destruction of Beth-arbel happened. There was a battle before Shalman was able to destroy the place.

Mothers were dashed in pieces with their children is literally “mother upon children she was dashed to pieces.” The singular “mother” refers to mothers in general. Wolff’s translation is “when a mother over sons was shattered.” Both were dashed to pieces and “were crushed to death” (Good News Translation) are slightly misleading renderings of the Hebrew verb here. The word pieces gives the mistaken notion that the bodies were dismembered. “Crushed” implies pressure between two objects. The mothers and their children were probably thrown against rocks (see Psa 137.9). The order of the words in the Hebrew text seems to indicate that the children were killed first, possibly in the sight of their mothers, and that the mothers were then killed as well. Doing this with all the children in a community would ensure that the community would not have a future. A possible translation is “mothers and their children were dashed to death.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• There will be war cries against your people,
and all your fortified places will be destroyed,
just as Beth-arbel was destroyed by King Shalman in war,
when mothers were dashed to death on the ground with their children.

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 .