Hosea 1:6-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Hosea 1:6 tn Heb “Then he said”; the referent (the Lord) does not appear in Hebrew but has been specified in the translation for clarity. Many English versions specify the speaker here (KJV “God”; ASV “Jehovah”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “the Lord”).
2. Hosea 1:6 sn The negative particle לֹא (loʾ, “no, not”) and the root רָחַם (rakham, “compassion”) are repeated in 1:6, creating a wordplay between the name Lo-Ruhamah (literally “No-Pity”) and the announcement of divine judgment, “I will no longer have pity on the nation of Israel.”
3. Hosea 1:6 tn Heb “house”; cf. TEV, NLT “the people of Israel.”
4. Hosea 1:6 tn The particle כִּי (ki) probably denotes cause (so NCV, TEV, CEV) or result here (GKC 505 §166.b; BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 3.c).
5. Hosea 1:6 tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasaʾ, “to take away”) frequently denotes “to forgive,” meaning to take away sin (BDB 671 s.v. נָשָׂא 3.c). The construction נָשׂא אֶשָּׂא (nasoʾ ʾesaʾ, “I will certainly take away,” infinitive absolute + imperfect of the same root) repeats the root נָשָׂא for rhetorical emphasis, stressing the divine resolution not to forgive Israel.
6. Hosea 1:6 tn The phrase “their guilt” does not appear in Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for clarification. The ellipsis of the accusative direct object of נָשׂא אֶשָּׂא (nasoʾ ʾesaʾ, “I will certainly take away”) is an example of brachyology (abbreviation by word omission). The accusative “guilt” must be supplied frequently with נָשַׂא (see BDB 671 s.v. נָשָׂא 3.c; e.g., Num 14:19; Isa 2:9; Ps 99:8). Many recent English versions simplify this to “forgive them” (e.g., NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).
7. Hosea 1:7 tn Heb “house”; cf. NCV, TEV, NLT “the people of Judah.”
8. Hosea 1:7 tn The word order in this line is rhetorical, emphasizing the divine decision to withhold pity from Israel but to bestow it on Judah. The accusative direct object, which is introduced by a disjunctive vav (to denote contrast), appears before the verb: וְאֶת־בֵּית יְהוּדָה אֲרַחֵם (v^eʾet bet y^ehudah ʾarakhem, “but upon the house of Judah I will show pity”).
9. Hosea 1:7 tn Heb “by war” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); cf. KJV, NASB, and NIV “(“by”) battle.”
10. Hosea 1:7 sn These military weapons are examples of the metonymy of adjunct (the specific weapons named) for subject (warfare).
11. Hosea 1:8 tn The preterite וַתִּגְמֹל (vattigmol, literally, “and she weaned”) functions in a synchronic sense with the following preterite וַתַּהַר (vattahar, literally, “and she conceived”) and may be treated in translation as a dependent temporal clause: “When she had weaned…she conceived” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV). Other English versions render this as sequential with “After” (NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT).