Biblical Hebrew

Hosea
  
הוֹשֵׁעַ
 "deliverance"

The name has the same form as the hiph'il infintive absolute of the verb root  ישׁע meaning, "to deliver, save." 




Used with permission. ©2021 United Church of God, an International Association.
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Introduction

The Book of Hosea is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. 

According to the traditional order of most Hebrew Bibles, it is the first of the twelve Minor Prophets.

Set around the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Book of Hosea denounces the worship of gods other than Yahweh (the God of Israel), metaphorically comparing Israel's abandonment of Yahweh to a woman being unfaithful to her husband. 

According to the book's narrative, the relationship between Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer is comparable to the relationship between Yahweh and his unfaithful people Israel. 

The eventual reconciliation of Hosea and Gomer is treated as a hopeful metaphor for the eventual reconciliation between Yahweh and Israel.


Date

Dated to c. 760–720 BC, it is one of the oldest books of the Hebrew Bible, predating final recensions of the full Torah (Pentateuch). 

Hosea is the source of the phrase "sow the wind", which has passed into common usage in English and other languages.


Contents

Chapters 1–2

Account of Hosea's marriage with Gomer biographically which is a metaphor for the relationship with YHWH and Israel.

Chapter 3

Account of Hosea's marriage autobiographically. 

This is possibly a marriage to different women.

Chapters 4–14

Oracle judging Israel, Ephraim in particular, for not living up to the covenant.


The rest of this comprehensive Wikipedia article on the book can be read here.

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Hosea 12:10a
(An extract from BHFA Volume 5.)

  
            וְאָנֹכִי    יְהוָה      אֱלֹהֶיךָ          מֵאֶרֶץ       מִצְרָיִם
                   Egypt      from the land of     your God     Yahweh     and I


KJB      And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt
NASB   But I have been the LORD your God since the land of Egypt;
ESV      I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt;
NLT     But I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.
NIV      I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt;
ISV  Yet I remain the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.


From the examples above it is clear that some translators finds this description of God’s origins objectionable, and made a number of changes in their translations.
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Hosea 13:14c
(An extract from BHFA Volume 5.)

  
                             אֱהִי       דְבָרֶיךָ     מָוֶת
                                        death    your plagues    where


KJB      O death, I will be thy plagues;
NASB   Death, where are your thorns?
ESV      O Death, where are your plagues?
NLT      O death, bring on your terrors!
NIV      Where, O death, are your plagues?


                                           אֱהִי
Adverb meaning, "where?" It is found three times in the Hebrew Bible: 
Once in verse ten, and twice in this verse. 
This is also the way in which it is quoted in 1 Cor 15:55 in the NT. 

It is taken by many of the older interpreters (KJV, NKJV, DRB) as the qal impf 1cs of the verb הָיָה with apocope (the loss of a sound at the end of a word) then meaning, "I would be." 
This translation is found ten times in the Hebrew Bible 
(Neh 1:4, 2:11,13,15; Ps 18:23, 38:14, 69:11, 73:14; Job 30:9; Jgs 18:4).
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