B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Hosea 14:8 הושע
14:8יָשֻׁבוּ יֹשְׁבֵי בְצִלּוֹ יְחַיּוּ דָגָן וְיִפְרְחוּ כַגָּפֶן זִכְרוֹ כְּיֵין לְבָנוֹן׃ ס

What do you think the first few words say? Every translation is different. Does it say "will return" or "will dwell" or "will do again"? Does it say "inhabitants" or "ones sitting" in his shade or "inhabitants of his shade" or what?

Kenneth Greifer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:09 pm Hosea 14:8 הושע
14:8יָשֻׁבוּ יֹשְׁבֵי בְצִלּוֹ יְחַיּוּ דָגָן וְיִפְרְחוּ כַגָּפֶן זִכְרוֹ כְּיֵין לְבָנוֹן׃ ס

What do you think the first few words say? Every translation is different. Does it say "will return" or "will dwell" or "will do again"? Does it say "inhabitants" or "ones sitting" in his shade or "inhabitants of his shade" or what?

I think it could say "My inhabitants will return" because Hosea 9:3 says the people will not dwell in the land of the Lord. Maybe they are His inhabitants, and they will return in the future. Also, Hosea 11:10-11 sounds like He will bring them back to inhabit their houses.

Well, as it is written in the MT, it says "those who live in his shadow will return." Questions are introduced when you look at the other versions. The LXX says ἐπιστρέψουσιν καὶ καθιοῦνται ὑπὸ τὴν σκέπην αὐτοῦ «they will turn and sit under his shadow», taking the whole phrase as יָשֻׁ֫בוּ וְיֵֽשְׁבוּ "they will return and they will sit," reading the last letter as a vav rather than as a yod. The Syriac apparently also takes that route (נתפנון ונתבון בטללה). The Vulgate goes the way of the Hebrew (convertentur sedentes in umbra).

The word שוב can be used either with the infinitive or with a conjunctive vav to say that someone does something again.

Maybe יָשֻׁ֫‌בוּ לָשֶׁ֫‌בֶת בְּצִלּוֹ "they will dwell in his shadow again" or יָשֻׁ‌֫בוּ וְיֵֽשְׁבוּ [וְיָֽשְׁבוּ] בְּצִלּוֹ "they will return and dwell (will dwell again) in his shadow." The latter is the way that both the Septuagint and the Syriac took the verse, but the MT isn't written that way. There may be a divergence in the Vorlage that led to the variant reading.

By the way, BHS also suggests reconstructing בְּצִלּוֹ "in his shadow" as בְּצִלִּי "in my shadow."

This represents the comments in BHQ for this verse.