Passage

Hosea 2.16

Book: Hosea · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 15. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16. And it shall be at that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali.

For I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name. 18. And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely. (Hosea 2:14-18, ASV)

WEB

14. “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15. I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16. It will be in that day,” says Yahweh, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name. 18. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely. (Hosea 2:14-18, WEB)

KJV

14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. ^{comfortably: or, friendly: Heb. to her heart} 15. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16. And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. ^{Ishi: that is, My husband} ^{Baali: that is, My lord}

For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18. And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. (Hosea 2:14-18, KJV)

YLT

14. Therefore, lo, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken unto her heart, 15. And given to her her vineyards from thence, And the valley of Achor for an opening of hope, And she hath responded there as in the days of her youth, And as in the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

16. And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah, Thou dost call Me, My husband, And dost not call Me any more, My lord.

And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered any more by their name. 18. And I have made to them a covenant in that day, with the beast of the field, And with the fowl of the heavens, And the creeping thing of the ground, And bow, and sword, and war I break from off the land, And have caused them to lie down confidently. (Hosea 2:14-18, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: YHWH
Audience: the northern kingdom under the figure of the restored wife
Location: the northern kingdom of Israel, repeatedly called Ephraim after its dominant tribe
Time period: c. 750-722 BC, from the last years of Jeroboam II through the dynastic chaos that followed to the eve of Samaria's fall to Assyria

Theological reading

Both Hebrew words in view can mean "my husband." Ba'ali is the ordinary term for master or owner and is simultaneously the name of the Canaanite storm god; ishi is simply "my man." The oracle removes a word that was legitimate in itself because association had contaminated it.

The point is not that Israel had been addressing God as Baal by mistake, but that a term capable of being heard two ways will not survive the restoration. Verse 17 makes the principle explicit: the names of the Baals are taken out of her mouth entirely. Worship is being purified at the level of vocabulary, on the assumption that what a people can say shapes what it can mean.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

Concepts:

Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ, via Hosea 2.16-20

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.