Hosea 4:5

4:5 You stumble day and night,

and the false prophets stumble with you;

You have destroyed your own people! ¹ 

Hosea 9:11

The Fertility Worshipers Will Become Infertile

9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird;

what they value ²  will fly away.

They will not bear children –

they will not enjoy pregnancy –

they will not even conceive! ³ 

Hosea 12:12

Jacob in Aram, Israel in Egypt, and Ephraim in Trouble

12:12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram,

then Israel worked ⁴  to acquire a wife;

he tended sheep to pay for her.

[4:5]  ¹ tc The MT reads וְדָמִיתִי אִמֶּךָ (vÿdamiti ’immekha, “and I will destroy your mother”), and is followed by most English versions; however, the text should probably be emended to וְדָמִית עַמֶּךָ (vÿdamit ’ammekha, “and you have destroyed your own people”). The 2nd person masculine singular form וְדָמִית (vÿdamit, “and you have destroyed”) is preserved in several medieval Hebrew mss and reflected in Jerome’s Vulgate. For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.

[4:5]  tn Or “and I will destroy your mother” (so NASB, NRSV).

[9:11]  ² tn Heb “their glory” (so NASB); TEV “Israel’s greateness.”

[9:11]  ³ tn Heb “no childbearing, no pregnancy, no conception.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to the three parallel nouns functions in a privative sense, indicating deprivation (BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7).

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “served” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “earned a wife.”