I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery: These two lines are directly related to the last two lines of 4.13, and the corresponding terms should be used again, unless the style of the receptor language demands variety. Good News Translation simply says “Yet I will not punish them for this” to avoid a repetition that is not good style in English prose. However, if poetry is appropriate here in the receptor language, repetition may be a genuine stylistic feature. Good News Translation adds the connector “Yet” to highlight the unexpected nature of these two lines. Other translations similarly begin with “But” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling). Normally such women should be stoned to death (Deut 22.20-21), but Yahweh makes the surprising statement that he will not punish them. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch implies that others will be punished instead by saying “But it is not they whom I will bring to an accounting!” Some commentaries recommend that these two lines should be rendered as a question (so New Living Translation), but we advise not doing this. The following lines make it clear that the real cause of the problem is with the men, the leadership (elders and priests) who are involved in prostitution.

For the men themselves go aside with harlots and sacrifice with cult prostitutes: The Hebrew expression rendered for the men themselves uses an emphatic third person plural masculine pronoun, showing sharp contrast with the daughters and daughters-in-law. It signifies that the real fault lies with the men, who have given a bad example by engaging in sex in pagan temples, where it was considered legitimate. For the women to engage in illegitimate sex was not to be regarded as a more serious sin. The translator will have to decide whether this pronoun refers to “the priests” (Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or to the men of Israel in general (so Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible). Since the earlier verses show that the priests are responsible for the errors of the people, this pronoun can be understood as referring to the men of Israel, who have not been disciplined by the priests (so Jerusalem Bible with “everyone else”). However, the final line of this verse seems to suggest that the ones who are responsible for teaching the people, that is, the priests, are in view here. Some translations therefore use a second person plural pronoun here to avoid a shift in pronominal reference with the previous lines (so Good News Translation, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling). If the receptor language has a second person plural masculine pronoun, it can be used here. Otherwise, “you, men” is a good solution.

Go aside with harlots is parallel with sacrifice with cult prostitutes in order to define in shocking terms what the men have been doing. Harlots were the women offering illegitimate sex outside the pagan temples, while cult prostitutes offered sex as worship inside the pagan temples. It is possible to understand these parallel lines to mean “You are really going aside with harlots when you go with those temple women!” But they may also mean that the men had sex with both kinds of women.

The Hebrew verb translated go aside is very likely a northern Israelite dialect expression meaning “offer, extend.” It is therefore parallel in meaning with the Hebrew verb for sacrifice in the next line, and it will be good to use a similar term. One model for these two lines with this sense is “for it is you, men, who make offerings with the harlots and you sacrifice with the temple prostitutes.” Since some Israelites would be acquainted with both the northern and the southern dialects of Hebrew, it is also possible that this was a wordplay. Then the verb for go aside would have the double meaning of “going off” with harlots, and “making offerings” with them. However, it is rare that such wordplays can be reproduced in the language of a translation.

The Hebrew word for cult prostitutes is literally “holy women,” but it denotes, of course, women who were involved with sex in a regular way in the pagan temples. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982) says “temple-girls.” The Hebrew verb for sacrifice has a generic sense, but here the context specifies that it is done together with cult prostitutes, implying that a cultic sex act is involved.

As explained in GNT’s footnote, intercourse with temple prostitutes at pagan shrines was thought to ensure fertility of the fields, of the herds, and of the women. Such idolatry and immorality showed a lack of spiritual and moral understanding. It may be necessary to include a footnote similar to the one in Good News Translation.

And a people without understanding shall come to ruin: This line is a proverb corresponding to the one in 4.11, so that these two proverbs mark boundaries from one section of discourse to another. It is possible that the prophet has composed these as new proverbs, but Good News Translation and Bible en français courant assume that this one is known and make explicit that it is a proverb by introducing it with “As the proverb says.” NET Bible is less explicit by beginning with “It is true.” A people refers to any identifiable grouping of people according to geography, heritage, nationality, or other criterion. The Hebrew expression for without understanding (that is, “who do not understand”) comes from the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. It refers to the opposite of having wisdom; that is, having no insight, no appreciation for the meaning of knowledge and information, unable to make sense of the world around them and of their experiences. The Hebrew verb for come to ruin is a general term for the opposite of succeeding, and in fact includes the idea of destruction. It literally means “be thrust down or away,” but for proverbs most languages use generic terms rather than specific ones, unless specific terms are used in a way that implies that the proverb is suitable for a wide range of applications.

A translation model for this verse is:

• But I will not punish your daughters for their prostitution,
or your daughters-in-law for their adultery.
Because it is you, men, who go off with prostitutes,
and who sacrifice with temple prostitutes.
The saying is true: “A people without wisdom will be ruined.”

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 .