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LXX Hosea

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 14

1 Samaria shall be utterly destroyed: for she has resisted her God; they shall fall by the sword, and their sucklings shall be dashed against the ground, and their women with child ripped up. 2 Return, Israel, to the Lord your God; for you have fallen through your iniquities. 3 Take with you words, and turn to the Lord your God: speak to him, that you may not receive the reward of unrighteousness, but that you may receive good things: and we will render in return the fruit of our lips.⁠ 4 Assyria shall never save us; we will not mount on horseback; we will no longer say to the works of our hands, Our gods. He who is in you shall pity the orphan. 5 I will restore their dwellings, I will love them truly: for my fierce anger has turned away from them. 6 I will be as dew to Israel: he shall bloom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 7 His branches shall spread, and he shall be as a fruitful olive, and his smell shall be as the smell of Lebanon. 8 They shall return, and dwell under his shadow: they shall live and be satisfied with grain, and he shall flower as a vine: his memorial shall be to Ephraim as the wine of Lebanon. 9 What has Ephraim to do any more with idols? I have afflicted him, and I will strengthen him: I am as a leafy juniper tree. From me is your fruit found. 10 Who is wise, and will understand these things? or prudent, and will know them? for the ways of the Lord are straight, and the righteous shall walk in them: but the ungodly shall fall in them.

Texts in conversation

Compare Hosea 14:2 and LXX Hosea 14:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Hosea says Israel repays God with the bulls of their lips, language that suggests a return to literal sacrifice. The Greek Septuagint translation instead says the fruit of their lips, removing any sense of literal sacrifice.

Passages

Hosea 14:2

Hebrew Bible
1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall! 2 Return to the Lord and repent! Say to him: “Completely forgive our iniquity; accept our penitential prayer, that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls. 3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not ride warhorses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods,’ to what our own hands have made. For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hosea

LXX Hosea 14:3

Septuagint
2 Return, Israel, to the Lord your God; for you have fallen through your iniquities. 3 Take with you words, and turn to the Lord your God: speak to him, that you may not receive the reward of unrighteousness, but that you may receive good things: and we will render in return the fruit of our lips. 4 Assyria shall never save us; we will not mount on horseback; we will no longer say to the works of our hands, Our gods. He who is in you shall pity the orphan.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Hosea

References

... promises. The Masoretic Text reads prym, “steers.” The Septuagint renders “fruit,” as if reading pry. There is no need to delete the mem of the Masoretic Text; it is an unassailable example of the enclitic particle, as Wolff (1974:231) and Kuhnigk (1974:154-156) allow; the latter also allows for a bovine pun in a bit of bet-hedging. The writer to the Hebrews identified the “fruit of the lips” as “the sacrifice of praise to God” (13:15; Buchanan 1972:236-237). There is nothing in this that a prophet would have disagreed with; but Hosea also intended a return to the proper offerings of real fruit. Fruit of lips must mean the vows and promises made, including not only offerings but commitment in worship and service. ...
Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, Hosea: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980), 645.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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