They love sacrifice: Revised Standard Version emends the Hebrew text here for its reading. In Hebrew the word for sacrifice is followed by a word that occurs only here. In the northern Israelite dialect the word probably means “my burnt offerings,” so in Hebrew this line is literally “The sacrifices of my burnt offerings.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the Hebrew text, giving it a {B} rating. Good News Translation renders it well with “They offer sacrifices to me” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling).

The Hebrew word for sacrifice is a general term, but it usually refers to peace offerings (for example, Lev 3.1) or thanksgiving offerings (for example, Lev 7.12). These offerings allow the person who brings the offering and other participants to eat part of the sacrificial meat (see comments on 6.6, where the same Hebrew word occurs).

They sacrifice flesh and eat it: The Israelites bring the offerings not as a sign of worship, but only to eat meat. They used the sacrificial system to enjoy the food rather than to honor God. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes explicit the mood and purpose of the people by rendering the first two lines as “They slaughter sacrificial animals—for their belly; they throw themselves with complete eagerness upon the meat of the sacrificial meal.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh does the same but with fewer functional adjustments: “When they present sacrifices to Me, it is but flesh for them to eat.”

But the LORD has no delight in them: Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew by referring to Yahweh in the third person. Good News Translation uses first person to keep him as the speaker: “But I, the LORD, am not pleased with them.” The Hebrew verb rendered has … delight in is used elsewhere in connection with Yahweh accepting or rejecting either the sacrifice or the person who sacrifices (see Mal 1.13, where it is translated “accept”). The pronoun them possibly refers to the people, but some translations take it to refer to the offerings; for example, Contemporary English Version says “but I, the LORD, refuse your offerings” (similarly NET Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). If possible, this pronoun can be left ambiguous in translation. The other third person plural pronouns in this verse (their and they) clearly refer to the people. Yahweh is not pleased with them because of the sins described in the preceding verses and their manipulating the sacrificial system.

Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins: The adverb Now introduces God’s promise of judgment on the Israelites. The verb remember here has the sense of “take note of” in preparation for the judgment, as in 7.2 and 9.9. Remember … iniquity is an expression used in court to state that the plaintiff is presenting his case against the accused. The Hebrew word for iniquity may refer to “sin” in general or to the “guilt” one bears after doing something wrong. Sins renders another generic Hebrew term (see 8.11, where a word from the same root is translated “sinning”). Good News Translation combines these two terms into “sin.” If the parallelism is maintained, it is better to use two synonymous words.

The punishment threatened is they shall return to Egypt. This signifies a reversal of God’s blessings, for he had once brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt (Exo 20.2). But this punishment is not merely figurative, for their return to Egypt is also predicted in 9.3, 6; 11.5. In those passages it is in parallel with going to Assyria, where the Israelites finally did go into captivity. Later there were also people from Judah who escaped into exile in Egypt (Jer 43–44). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “Back to Egypt with them!”

There is a textual problem at the end of this verse. The Septuagint adds “and in Assyria they will eat unclean things.” Most scholars assume that this is an addition based on 9.3b, so we do not recommend including it.

A translation model for this verse is:

• They offer sacrifices to me,
so that they can eat the meat.
I don’t accept them.
I keep their iniquities in mind,
and I will punish them for their sins.
They will go back to Egypt.

Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .