Hosea 9:12-13

12. The children already born will not escape.

Though More accurately, Yea, though.

Bereave Or, make childless (1 Samuel 15:33).

Not be a man left [“not a man shall be left”] Children will not reach the age of manhood.

To them Is interpreted most naturally as referring to the parents; they also will suffer.

When I depart from them There is no need for changing the text so as to read, “I look away” (compare Hosea 5:6; Hosea 5:15).

Hosea 9:13 presents grave linguistic difficulties. The thought which the English translators seek to express seems to be: At present Israel is flourishing like Tyre, but soon it will become desolate, for it must bring out its children to the slayer. Would the prophet express this thought in as awkward Hebrew as the verse now contains? LXX. reads a different, and in some respects a better text, and by its aid we may reconstruct the Hebrew so as to read, “Ephraim, according as I see, for prey has appointed his children; Ephraim he must lead out his children to slaughter.” The reading becomes still smoother if according as I see is omitted. With these alterations Hosea 9:13 becomes an expansion of Hosea 9:11-12, setting forth the destruction of Ephraim’s youth in war.