Hosea 6:7

[seekinganswers]

What is the proper translation of "Adam" in this text? Is it the Adam of Genesis, a general man kind, or the city?

[Isaac Fried]

The verse is:
וְהֵמָּה כְּאָדָם עָבְרוּ בְרִית שָׁם בָּגְדוּ בִי
KJV: "But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me."
NIV: "As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there."

Notice that בָּגְדוּ, 'they opposed', has nothing directly to do with בֶּגֶד, 'garment'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Galena]

Hallo, I am going by instinct, but one can't help but be drawn into the association that is intended by the use of the word בָּגְדוּ in this context. Which means, to cover, hide (one's wrong doing in this case). And so when God clothed Adam in Genesis it was to 'hide' his nakedness, which by then was a cause of shame. So covering shame was the purpose, the first result of the first act of disobedience was shame, and it needed to be covered. And so I would for this context really believe that Hosea meant Adam, and not men.
KInd regards

[Isaac Fried]

Chris,

I agree that both בֶּגֶד, 'garment', and בְּגִידָה, 'betrayal, covert action', come from a common concrete manifestation, the same as קֶשֶר QE$ER, or קִשוּר, that may mean 'knot, tie', as in Gen. 44:30, or, by implication, 'conspiracy', as in 2Ki. 12:21(20).
In post-biblical Hebrew גֶּשֶר GE$ER is 'bridge', connecting the two banks of a river.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[kwrandolph]

What is the proper translation of "Adam" in this text? Is it the Adam of Genesis, a general man kind, or the city?

Another option is that the word is pointed incorrectly, that the correct points could be Edom. That’s the name of the country. The context of the following verses seems to back up that reading.

Karl W. Randolph.

[Galena]

What is the proper translation of "Adam" in this text? Is it the Adam of Genesis, a general man kind, or the city?

Another option is that the word is pointed incorrectly, that the correct points could be Edom. That’s the name of the country. The context of the following verses seems to back up that reading.

Karl W. Randolph.

The balm of Gilead bacame a symbol for the ointment that was used with the power to heal and to soothe. Mentioned many times in the bible as you know. The verse following that mentions Gilead is, I believe, a symbolic reference to the fact that Gilead was very prized for its ointment. To equate 'sin' and 'blood' with this symbol of healing and soothing would be a powerful metaphor. Also in this verse: ...they like 'Edom' have transgressed my covenant... would not make sense being that God never made any covenant with the edomites Karl.
Kind regards

[seekinganswers]

Chris,

If you could, flesh out the idea of Hosea 6:7 being an allusion to Adam. I, too, am seeing a connection. It's one of the reasons I asked the question, as I respect everyone here as having a far superior understanding of Hebrew than I do.

"Adam" being a reference to a city seems stretched, both because of the structure of the sentence and the context.

The translation "like men" seems plausible. But then I had to ask myself, what covenant did "men" transgress?

Dustin...

[Galena]

Dustin, from a language perspective I can not say anything since nuances and anything beyond basic grammatical structures I have no knowledge, I can however see the word שָׁם which seems to stress a point, I may be wrong, but this seems to me to place extra emphasis on the idea of "in this very place" ie, As Adam! had to hide himself, so Israel (the northern 10) have hidden their sins by refusing to acknowledge the faults that Hosea was pointing out. I really can not add anything to what I said above.
kind regards

[seekinganswers]

Chris,

I appreciate the insight.

Dustin...

[kwrandolph]

Another option is that the word is pointed incorrectly, that the correct points could be Edom. That’s the name of the country. The context of the following verses seems to back up that reading.

Karl W. Randolph.

The balm of Gilead bacame a symbol for the ointment that was used with the power to heal and to soothe. Mentioned many times in the bible as you know. The verse following that mentions Gilead is, I believe, a symbolic reference to the fact that Gilead was very prized for its ointment. To equate 'sin' and 'blood' with this symbol of healing and soothing would be a powerful metaphor. Also in this verse: ...they like 'Edom' have transgressed my covenant... would not make sense being that God never made any covenant with the edomites Karl.
Kind regards

The text doesn’t mention any covenant of God with Edom, rather says that “but they are like Edom, they pass by a covenant, there they treat me underhandedly.” This would be a reference to a national character trait, not to a treaty.

The next verse too I don’t read as a reference to the healing ointment, rather to the people living in Gilead and how faithful they are to God. (Not)

Karl W. Randolph.