There is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds: The Hebrew construction here is literally “To swear and to lie and to kill and to steal and to commit adultery they break out.” The series of crimes are in an infinitive form that shows that past activity continues into the present, but this construction does not express a performer of the crimes. The crimes just “break out” (New Revised Standard Version), apparently indicating that they flourish. The infinitives function as nouns. There is a clear reference here to words used in the core document of the covenant, the Decalogue (Exo 20.1-17). Three of the Hebrew words here occur in the Decalogue: the words for killing, stealing, and committing adultery. The words for swearing and lying are clearly associated with it: do not use the name of Yahweh in vain, and do not give false testimony.

The Hebrew word for swearing can refer either to a curse or an oath. The context implies that it is done sinfully. Good News Translation assumes it is an oath by saying “They make promises and break them.” Wolff believes it means cursing others, and this involves the improper use of God’s name (Exo 20.7). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982) follows this sense with “One misuses God’s name to curse others.” The context may help us to determine which meaning is intended. Since it is put against the backdrop of the Decalogue, using the name of Yahweh in vain by invoking his name is the most likely meaning.

Lying refers both to telling lies in court (perjury, false witness) and to telling lies in business. New English Bible renders swearing and lying as a unit, saying “oaths are imposed and broken.”

Killing refers to premeditated murder (Exo 20.13).

Stealing usually refers to taking things by stealth (Exo 20.15), including breaking into a home to get things. It may also include stealing a person, not in the modern concept of kidnaping, but to keep as a wife, or to sell as a slave.

Committing adultery involves breaking the marriage relationship by sexual intercourse with another person (Exo 20.14). It does not include fornication, which is sexual intercourse between unmarried people, but if a precise term is not available in the receptor language, a word that also includes fornication will do.

All of the above crimes show how the Israelites were not faithful to each other in their community life. Most of the crimes were punishable by death in certain circumstances, according to Israel’s ancient laws.

They break all bounds renders a single Hebrew verb that involves a metaphor. It is as if the people were breaking through a figurative wall or boundary of moral decency, as in an outburst of evil. Good News Translation translates this verb without a figure of speech, saying “Crimes increase.”

And murder follows murder is literally “and blood touches upon blood,” referring to the way one bloody murder is hardly finished when another one occurs. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “bloodshed is the order of the day.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• Cursing, lying, murdering, stealing, and committing adultery flourish;
and one bloodbath follows after another.

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 .