2 Raja-raja 16:7

16:7 Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your dependent. ¹  March up and rescue me from the power ²  of the king of Syria and the king of Israel, who have attacked ³  me.”

Yesaya 1:21

Purifying Judgment

1:21 How tragic that the once-faithful city

has become a prostitute! ⁴ 

She was once a center of ⁵  justice,

fairness resided in her,

but now only murderers. ⁶ 

Yeremia 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ⁷  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ⁸ 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ⁹ 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 2:25

2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out

and your throats become dry. ¹¹ 

But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me

because I love those foreign gods ¹²  and want to pursue them!’

Yeremia 4:30

4:30 And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, ¹³ 

you accomplish nothing ¹⁴  by wearing a beautiful dress, ¹⁵ 

decking yourself out in jewels of gold,

and putting on eye shadow! ¹⁶ 

You are making yourself beautiful for nothing.

Your lovers spurn you.

They want to kill you. ¹⁷ 

Ratapan 1:2

ב (Bet)

1:2 She weeps bitterly at night;

tears stream down her cheeks. ¹⁸ 

She has no one to comfort her

among all her lovers. ¹⁹ 

All her friends have betrayed her;

they have become her enemies.

Yehezkiel 16:26

16:26 You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your sexually aroused neighbors, ²⁰  multiplying your promiscuity and provoking me to anger.

Yehezkiel 16:29

16:29 Then you multiplied your promiscuity to the land of merchants, Babylonia, ²¹  but you were not satisfied there either.

Hosea 2:4

2:4 I will have no pity on her children, ²² 

because they are children conceived in adultery. ²³ 

Hosea 2:11

2:11 I will put an end to all her celebration:

her annual religious festivals,

monthly new moon celebrations,

and weekly Sabbath festivities –

all her appointed festivals.

Hosea 3:1

An Illustration of God’s Love for Idolatrous Israel

3:1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show love to ²⁴  your wife ²⁵  again, even though she loves ²⁶  another man ²⁷  and continually commits adultery. ²⁸  Likewise, the Lord loves ²⁹  the Israelites ³⁰  although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.” ³¹ 

[16:7]  ¹ tn Heb “son.” Both terms (“servant” and “son”) reflect Ahaz’s subordinate position as Tiglath-pileser’s subject.

[16:7]  ² tn Heb “hand, palm.”

[16:7]  ³ tn Heb “who have arisen against.”

[1:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “How she has become a prostitute, the faithful city!” The exclamatory אֵיכָה (’ekhah, “how!”) is used several times as the beginning of a lament (see Lam 1:1; 2;1; 4:1-2). Unlike a number of other OT passages that link references to Israel’s harlotry to idolatry, Isaiah here makes the connection with social and moral violations.

[1:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “filled with.”

[1:21]  ⁶ tn Or “assassins.” This refers to the oppressive rich and/or their henchmen. R. Ortlund (Whoredom, 78) posits that it serves as a synecdoche for all varieties of criminals, the worst being mentioned to imply all lesser ones. Since Isaiah often addressed his strongest rebuke to the rulers and leaders of Israel, he may have in mind the officials who bore the responsibility to uphold justice and righteousness.

[2:20]  ⁷ tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

[2:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

[2:20]  ⁹ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

[2:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

[2:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”

[2:25]  ¹² tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”

[4:30]  ¹³ tn Heb “And you that are doomed to destruction.” The referent is supplied from the following context and the fact that Zion/Jerusalem represents the leadership which was continually making overtures to foreign nations for help.

[4:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “What are you accomplishing…?” The rhetorical question assumes a negative answer, made clear by the translation in the indicative.

[4:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “clothing yourself in scarlet.”

[4:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “enlarging your eyes with antimony.” Antimony was a black powder used by women as eyeliner to make their eyes look larger.

[4:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they seek your life.”

[1:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “her tears are on her cheek.”

[1:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lovers.” The term “lovers” is a figurative expression (hypocatastasis), comparing Jerusalem’s false gods and foreign political alliances to sexually immoral lovers. Hosea uses similar imagery (Hos 2:5, 7, 10, 13). It may also function as a double entendre, first evoking a disconcerting picture of a funeral where the widow has no loved ones present to comfort her. God also does not appear to be present to comfort Jerusalem and will later be called her enemy. The imagery in Lamentations frequently capitalizes on changing the reader’s expectations midstream.

[16:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your neighbors, large of flesh.” The word “flesh” is used here of the genitals. It may simply refer to the size of their genitals in general, or, as the translation suggests, depicts them as sexually aroused.

[16:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “Chaldea.” The name of the tribal group ruling Babylon (“Chaldeans”) and the territory from which they originated (“Chaldea”) is used as metonymy for the whole empire of Babylon.

[2:4]  ²² tn Heb “her sons.” English versions have long translated this as “children,” however; cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT.

[2:4]  sn The word order is rhetorical: the accusative וְאֶת־בָּנֶיהָ (vé’et-baneha, “her sons”) is moved forward for emphasis.

[2:4]  ²³ tn Heb “sons of adulteries”; KJV “children of whoredoms.”

[2:4]  sn The word order is rhetorical: the construct clause בְנֵי זְנוּנִים (vÿne zÿnunim, “sons of adulteries”), which functions as the predicate nominative, is moved forward, before the independent personal pronoun הֵמָּה (hemma, “they”) which functions as the subject, to focus on the immoral character of her children.

[3:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Go again! Love!” Cf. NAB “Give your love to.”

[3:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “a woman.” The probable referent is Gomer. Some English translations (e.g., NIV, NLT) specify the referent as “your wife.”

[3:1]  ²⁶ tc The MT vocalizes אֲהֻבַת (’ahuvat) as a construct form of the Qal passive participle and takes רֵעַ (rea’) as a genitive of agent: “who is loved by רֵעַ.” However, the ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Vulgate) all vocalize אֲהֻבַת as an absolute form of the Qal active participle, and take רֵעַ as the accusative direct object: “who loves רֵעַ.” The English translations consistently follow the MT. The editors of BHS suggest the revocalization but with some reservation. For discussion of the vocalization, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:230.

[3:1]  tn Heb “a woman who is loved by a companion” (אִשָּׁה אֲהֻבַת רֵעַ, ’ishah ’ahuvat rea’). The substantival participle אֲהֻבַת (“one who is loved”) is in apposition to אִשָּׁה (“a woman”). The genitive noun רֵעַ (“companion”) functions as the agent of the preceding construct noun: “who is loved by a companion” (אֲהֻבַת רֵעַ). Cf. NAB “a woman beloved of a paramour”; NRSV “a woman who has a lover.”

[3:1]  ²⁷ tn The meaning of the noun רֵעַ (rea’) is debated because it has a broad range of meanings: (1) “friend,” (2) “lover,” (3) “companion,” (4) “neighbor,” and (5) “another” (HALOT 1253-55 s.v. II רֵעַ; BDB 945-46 s.v. II רֵעַ). The Hebrew lexicons favor the nuance “lover; paramour” here (HALOT 1255 s.v. 2; BDB 946 s.v. 1). Most scholars adopt the same approach; however, a few suggest that רֵעַ does not refer to another man, but to her husband (Hosea). Both approaches are reflected in English translations: NASB “a woman who is loved by her husband”; NIV “though she is loved by another”; NAB “a woman beloved of a paramour”; KJV “a woman beloved of her friend”; NJPS “a woman who, while befriended by a companion”; TEV “a woman who is committing adultery with a lover”; CEV “an unfaithful woman who has a lover.”

[3:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “love a woman who is loved of a lover and is an adulteress.”

[3:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “like the love of the Lord.” The genitive after the construct functions as a subjective genitive.

[3:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “sons of Israel” (so NASB); KJV “children of Israel”; NAB “people of Israel.”

[3:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “they are lovers of cakes of raisins.” A number of English translations render this literally (e.g., ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).