HOLY BIBLE: Hosea 7 (original) (raw)

1 ἐν τῷ ἰάσασθαί με τὸν Ισραηλ καὶ ἀποκαλυφθήσεται ἡ ἀδικία Εφραιμ καὶ ἡ κακία Σαμαρείας ὅτι ἠργάσαντο ψευδῆ καὶ κλέπτης πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰσελεύσεται ἐκδιδύσκων λῃστὴς ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ αὐτοῦ 2 ὅπως συνᾴδωσιν ὡς συνᾴδοντες τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῶν πάσας τὰς κακίας αὐτῶν ἐμνήσθην νῦν ἐκύκλωσεν αὐτοὺς τὰ διαβούλια αὐτῶν ἀπέναντι τοῦ προσώπου μου ἐγένοντο 3 ἐν ταῖς κακίαις αὐτῶν εὔφραναν βασιλεῖς καὶ ἐν τοῖς ψεύδεσιν αὐτῶν ἄρχοντας 4 πάντες μοιχεύοντες ὡς κλίβανος καιόμενος εἰς πέψιν κατακαύματος ἀπὸ τῆς φλογός ἀπὸ φυράσεως στέατος ἕως τοῦ ζυμωθῆναι αὐτό 5 αἱ ἡμέραι τῶν βασιλέων ὑμῶν ἤρξαντο οἱ ἄρχοντες θυμοῦσθαι ἐξ οἴνου ἐξέτεινεν τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ μετὰ λοιμῶν 6 διότι ἀνεκαύθησαν ὡς κλίβανος αἱ καρδίαι αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ καταράσσειν αὐτούς ὅλην τὴν νύκτα ὕπνου Εφραιμ ἐνεπλήσθη πρωὶ ἐγενήθη ἀνεκαύθη ὡς πυρὸς φέγγος 7 πάντες ἐθερμάνθησαν ὡς κλίβανος καὶ κατέφαγον τοὺς κριτὰς αὐτῶν πάντες οἱ βασιλεῖς αὐτῶν ἔπεσαν οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐπικαλούμενος ἐν αὐτοῖς πρός με 8 Εφραιμ ἐν τοῖς λαοῖς αὐτοῦ συνανεμείγνυτο Εφραιμ ἐγένετο ἐγκρυφίας οὐ μεταστρεφόμενος

1 When I would grant[1] healing to Israel …

Foul shews the guilt of Ephraim, Samaria’s malice is plain to view. What a workshop of wrong-doing is here, all thieving within doors, all robbery without! 2 Let them never complain I am too nice over the chronicling of their misdeeds; why, they blazon these ill designs of theirs, under my very eyes! 3 King himself there is no pleasing but by villainy, nor his nobles but by flattering speeches; 4 false is every one of them to his troth. What else is this whole realm but baker that lights his fire, and then takes a rest from his kneading, leaves yeast to spread as it will? 5 Huzza for our king?[2] Ay, but see how the princes fall to their carousing, and he himself reaches out for the wine, reckless as they! 6 Their scheming adds fuel to the fire; are there not plots afoot? Sleeps baker the long night through, and morning finds him flaming hot like the rest. 7 A very furnace the city is; ruler may not abide nor king stand before the heat of it, and never a man among them invokes my name! 8 What wonder Ephraim should throw in his lot with the Gentiles? No better than a girdle-cake is Ephraim, baked only on one side.[3]

Cum sanare vellem Israël,
revelata est iniquitas Ephraim,
et malitia Samariæ,
quia operati sunt mendacium;
et fur ingressus est spolians,
latrunculus foris.

2
Et ne forte dicant in cordibus suis,
omnem malitiam eorum me recordatum,
nunc circumdederunt eos adinventiones suæ:
coram facie mea factæ sunt. 3
In malitia sua lætificaverunt regem,
et in mendaciis suis principes. 4
Omnes adulterantes,
quasi clibanus succensus a coquente;
quievit paululum civitas a commistione fermenti,
donec fermentaretur totum. 5
Dies regis nostri: cœperunt principes furere a vino;
extendit manum suam cum illusoribus. 6
Quia applicuerunt quasi clibanum cor suum,
cum insidiaretur eis;
tota nocte dormivit coquens eos:
mane ipse succensus quasi ignis flammæ. 7
Omnes calefacti sunt quasi clibanus,
et devoraverunt judices suos:
omnes reges eorum ceciderunt;
non est qui clamat in eis ad me. 8
Ephraim in populis ipse commiscebatur;
Ephraim factus est subcinericius panis, qui non reversatur.

[1] So the Latin version, but the Hebrew text and the Septuagint Greek are more naturally translated, ‘When I grant’. It seems doubtful, therefore, whether the first seven words of the verse really fit on to what follows.

[2] ‘Huzza for our king’; literally, ‘The day of our king’; cf. IV Kg. 9.13.

[3] The allegory from cooking seems to be a double one; the baker (apparently the people of Israel) goes to sleep and lets the fire blaze up, instead of keeping a moderate heat, and at the same time he does not finish kneading the dough, so that the result is a half-baked state of things. The application is not easily made; but perhaps the passage reflects the disappointment of God-fearing people at the relapse of Jehu’s dynasty into idolatry, after the overthrow of Achab’s Baal-worship. The ruling class, it seems to be intimated, are too strong for the new sovereigns, and the old ways come back again.

[4] ‘Self-condemned stands the pride of Israel’; the same words are used as in 5.5 above, but the Latin version here has ‘The pride of Israel shall be humbled before his very eyes’. It seems unlikely that we are meant to vary the interpretation in this way.

[5] Literally, ‘And they did not cry out to me with their heart, but howled in their beds, chewed the cud over wheat and wine, departed from me’. If ‘chewed the cud’ is the right interpretation of the rare verb used, we must suppose that the Israelites are being compared to dumb beasts. But it seems likely that the text is corrupt.

[6] The Hebrew text is usually interpreted as meaning, ‘they return, (but) not upwards’, a phrase which leaves a good deal to the imagination. The latter part of the verse, if the text is genuine, can hardly be understood except on the supposition that some words have fallen out at the end of it.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd