I have given you kings in my anger is literally “I gave to you a king in my anger.” This line again refers to Israel’s request to Samuel for a king and God granting it (1 Sam 8.4-9). By giving Israel its first king, Saul, God in fact provided a whole series of kings. When Yahweh granted this request, he reminded Samuel that Israel had not rejected Samuel but had rejected Yahweh as their king. This is the background for the words anger and wrath in this verse.

And I have taken them away in my wrath is literally “and I took away in my wrath.” Revised Standard Version adds the pronoun them for clarity.

The Hebrew verbs rendered have given and have taken … away are imperfect, and they can be understood as referring to repeated action. Thus, even though kings is singular in the Hebrew text, this verse refers to the action of Yahweh that was repeated through all the history of Israel, especially the northern kingdom. The sense of this verse may be “I kept giving you a king in my anger, and in my wrath I kept taking him away.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “I give you kings in my ire, and take them away in My wrath.” Local languages may have their own way of expressing such repeated action.

The Hebrew verbs for have given and have taken … away mean simply “give” and “take,” and it is the words anger and wrath that provide the emotion that is intended. It is interesting that, against the background of Hosea’s unhappy marriage, these verbs are often used in Hebrew for the giving and taking of a wife.

The Hebrew nouns for anger (see comments on 8.5) and wrath are similar in meaning, but the latter one refers to more intense anger, one that cannot be contained. It may be rendered “fury” or “rage.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• In my anger I gave you kings,
and in my rage I took them away.

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 .