Hosea 4:9

4:9 I will deal with the people and priests together: ¹ 

I will punish them both for their ways,

and I will repay them for their deeds.

Hosea 8:12

8:12 I spelled out my law for him in great detail,

but they regard it as something totally unknown ²  to them!

Hosea 9:9

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

9:9 They have sunk deep into corruption ³ 

as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their wrongdoing.

He will repay them for their sins.

[4:9]  ¹ tn Heb “And it shall be, like people, like priest” (so ASV); NAB “The priests shall fare no better than the people.”

[8:12]  ² tn Heb “foreign” or “alien”; NASB, NRSV “as a strange thing.”

[9:9]  ³ tn Or more literally, “they are deeply corrupted.” The two verbs הֶעְמִיקוּ־שִׁחֵתוּ (he’miqu-shikhetu; literally, “they have made deep, they act corruptly”) are coordinated without a conjunction vav to form a verbal hendiadys: the second verb represents the main idea, while the first functions adverbially (GKC 386-87 §120.g). Here Gesenius suggests “they are deeply/radically corrupted.” Several translations mirror the syntax of this hendiadys: “They have deeply corrupted themselves” (KJV, ASV, NRSV), “They have been grievously corrupt” (NJPS), and “They are hopelessly evil” (TEV). Others reverse the syntax for the sake of a more graphic English idiom: “They have gone deep in depravity” (NASB) and “They have sunk deep into corruption” (NIV). Some translations fail to represent the hendiadys at all: “You are brutal and corrupt” (CEV). The translation “They are deeply corrupted” mirrors the Hebrew syntax, but “They have sunk deep into corruption” is a more graphic English idiom and is preferred here (cf. NAB “They have sunk to the depths of corruption”).