Here we have an unusual and surprising metaphor about childbirth and its problems. Instead approaching it from the perspective of the mother, here God focuses on the child who does not want to be born and thus misses the opportunity to have life. The Israelites could have life but refuse it. Good News Translation radically revises the order and presentation of the text to ensure clarity of understanding. Translators will have to determine whether something similar to this is necessary and useful for their own project, but they should always keep in mind that the use of imagery makes the translation more vivid and appealing. Most meaning-based translations opt for changing the metaphor into a simile and adding some explicit notes to enhance the reader’s understanding, as in Contemporary English Version (“You are like a senseless child who refuses to be born at the proper time”) and New Living Translation (“Pain has come to the people like the pain of childbirth, but they are like a child who resists being born. The moment of birth has arrived, but they stay in the womb!”).

Many languages have interesting ways of speaking about childbirth and the body of the mother. Sometimes these are quite poetic. The Hebrew expressions here are no exception.

The pangs of childbirth have come for him: All languages will have a way of expressing the idea of childbirth pain. Normally we think of a woman experiencing such pain, but here the normal expression is used in a surprising way, namely, that the pain is a signal to the child in the womb. This line is literally “The pains of the one who gives birth come to him.” What is important here is not the pain itself, nor does this line mean that the child experiences pain, but the child gets the signal from the pain that it is now time to be born.

But he is an unwise son: The conjunction but is not in the Hebrew text, but in many languages it will be helpful to add a contrastive connector here. He is an unwise son is literally “he a son not wise.” He lacks the awareness and cleverness to correctly interpret the sign of the times and make the right choices, risking his own life.

For now he does not present himself at the mouth of the womb: The conjunction for introduces why the son is not wise. It is because he refuses to be born at the proper time. Now renders a Hebrew expression that shows that it is time, the right moment has come.

He does not present himself at the mouth of the womb is literally “he does not take a stand at the breach of children,” which means he does not move into the proper position for being born when the womb is open.

A translation model for this verse is:

• Labor pains come to him,
but he is like a foolish child.
At the right time he is unwilling
to find the way out of the womb.

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 .