Hosea 2:6-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Hosea 2:6 tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hin^eni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time-reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).
2. Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; cf. NIV “block her path.”
3. Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (v^egadarti ʾet-g^ederah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The third person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means: “I will build a wall to bar her way” (cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in”).
4. Hosea 2:6 tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause that can be understood as either purpose or result.
5. Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).
6. Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “overtake” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); cf. NLT “be able to catch up with.”
7. Hosea 2:7 tn In the Hebrew text the accusative direct-object pronoun אֹתָם (ʾotam, “them”) is omitted/elided for balanced poetic parallelism. The LXX supplies αὐτούς (autous, “them”); but it is not necessary to emend the MT because this is a poetic literary convention rather than a textual problem.
8. Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “I will go and return” (so NRSV). The two verbs joined with vav form a verbal hendiadys. Normally, the first verb functions adverbially, and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h). The Hebrew phrase אֵלְכָה וְאָשׁוּבָה (ʾel^ekhah v^eʾashuvah, “I will go and I will return”) connotes, “I will return again.” As cohortatives, both verbs emphasize the resolution of the speaker.
9. Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “to my man, the first.” Many English translations (e.g., KJV, NAB, NRSV, TEV) take this as “my first husband,” although this implies that there was more than one husband involved. The text refers to multiple lovers, but these were not necessarily husbands.
10. Hosea 2:7 tn Or “because it was better for me then than now” (cf. NCV).
11. Hosea 2:8 tn Or “For” (so KJV, NASB); or “But” (so NCV).
12. Hosea 2:8 tn The phrase “until now” does not appear in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
13. Hosea 2:8 tn Heb “she does not know” (so NASB, NCV); or “she does not acknowledge.”
14. Hosea 2:8 tn The first person common singular independent personal pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) is emphatic, since the subject of this verbal clause is already explicit in the verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, Qal perfect first person common singular: “I gave”).
15. Hosea 2:8 tn The phrase “that it was I who” does not appear in the Hebrew text here but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
16. Hosea 2:8 sn The third person plural here is an obvious reference to the Israelites, who had been unfaithful to the Lord in spite of all that he had done for them. To maintain the imagery of Israel as the prostitute, a third person feminine singular would be called for; in the interest of literary consistency this has been supplied in some English translations (e.g., NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
17. Hosea 2:8 tn Heb “for Baal” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. TEV “in the worship of Baal.”