Hosea 11:3

11:3 Yet it was I who led ¹  Ephraim,

I took them by the arm;

but they did not acknowledge

that I had healed them. ² 

Hosea 6:1

Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness

6:1 “Come on! Let’s return to the Lord!

He himself has torn us to pieces,

but he will heal us!

He has injured ³  us,

but he will bandage our wounds!

Hosea 5:13

5:13 When Ephraim saw ⁴  his sickness

and Judah saw his wound,

then Ephraim turned ⁵  to Assyria,

and begged ⁶  its great king ⁷  for help.

But he will not be able to heal you!

He cannot cure your wound! ⁸ 

Hosea 7:1

7:1 whenever I want to heal Israel,

the sin of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed.

For they do what is wrong;

thieves break into houses,

and gangs rob people out in the streets.

Hosea 14:4

Divine Promise to Relent from Judgment and to Restore Blessings

14:4 “I will heal their waywardness ⁹ 

and love them freely, ¹⁰ 

for my anger will turn ¹¹  away from them.

Hosea 6:2

6:2 He will restore ¹²  us in a very short time; ¹³ 

he will heal us in a little while, ¹⁴ 

so that we may live in his presence.

[11:3]  ¹ tn Or “taught Ephraim to walk” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). The verb תִרְגַּלְתִּי (tirgalti, “I taught [him] to walk, I led [him]”; Tiphil perfect 1st person common singular from רָגַל, ragal, “to walk”) is an unusual verb stem: the Tiphil (properly Taphel) is attested three times in Biblical Hebrew (Hos 11:3; Jer 12:5; 22:15) and once in Biblical Aramaic (Ezra 4:7; see GKC 153 §55.h).

[11:3]  ² tn Or “that it was I who had healed them” (NIV, NLT similar).

[6:1]  ³ tn “has struck”; NRSV “struck down.”

[5:13]  ⁴ tn Hosea employs three preterites (vayyiqtol forms) in verse 13a-b to describe a past-time situation.

[5:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “went to” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); CEV “asked help from.”

[5:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “sent to” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[5:13]  ⁷ tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a contentious king”). This is translated as a proper name (“king Jareb”) by KJV, ASV, NASB. However, the stative adjective יָרֵב (“contentious”) is somewhat awkward. The words should be redivided as an archaic genitive-construct מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “great king”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) which preserves the old genitive hireq yod ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 10:6.

[5:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “your wound will not depart from you.”

[5:13]  sn Hosea personifies Ephraim’s “wound” as if it could depart from the sickly Ephraim (see the formal equivalent rendering in the preceding tn). Ephraim’s sinful action in relying upon an Assyrian treaty for protection will not dispense with its problems.

[14:4]  ⁹ sn The noun מְשׁוּבָתָה (mÿshuvatah, “waywardness”; cf. KJV “backsliding”) is from the same root as שׁוּבָה (shuvah, “return!”) in 14:1[2]. This repetition of שׁוּב (shuv) creates a wordplay which emphasizes reciprocity: if Israel will return (שׁוּבָה, shuvah) to the Lord, he will cure her of the tendency to turn away (מְשׁוּבָתָה) from him.

[14:4]  ¹⁰ tn The noun נְדָבָה (nÿdavah, “voluntariness; free-will offering”) is an adverbial accusative of manner: “freely, voluntarily” (BDB 621 s.v. נְדָבָה 1). Cf. CEV “without limit”; TEV “with all my heart”; NLT “my love will know no bounds.”

[14:4]  ¹¹ sn The verb שָׁב, shav, “will turn” (Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular from שׁוּב, shuv, “to turn”) continues the wordplay on שׁוּב in 14:1-4[2-5]. If Israel will “return” (שׁוּב) to the Lord, he will heal Israel’s tendency to “turn away” (מְשׁוּבָתָה, mÿshuvatah) and “turn” (שָׁב) from his anger.

[6:2]  ¹² tn The Piel of חָיָה (khayah) may mean: (1) to keep/preserve persons alive from the threat of premature death (1 Kgs 20:31; Ezek 13:18; 18:27); (2) to restore the dead to physical life (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; cf. NCV “will put new life in us”); or (3) to restore the dying back to life from the threat of death (Ps 71:20; BDB 311 s.v. חָיָה).

[6:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “after two days” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV). The expression “after two days” is an idiom meaning “after a short time” (see, e.g., Judg 11:4; BDB 399 s.v. יוֹם 5.a).

[6:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “on the third day” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV), which parallels “after two days” and means “in a little while.” The “2-3” sequence is an example of graded numerical parallelism (Prov 30:15-16, 18-19, 21-23, 24-28, 29-31). This expresses the unrepentant overconfidence of Israel that the Lord’s discipline of Israel would be relatively short and that he would restore them quickly.