So are you implying that Paul did not misquote or spin Hosea 13:14, but instead actually made a direct quote of it, which has in the time since has been slightly corrupted into the current rendering which now contradicts Paul's original writing of it in Greek? You claimed that the Peshitta says "victory" instead of "plagues"...
To be clear, no textual corruption is implied in my argument. As I said above, the consonants used for both “plagues” and “words” (as well as the latter’s derivatives) are the same. The vowel points that are in the Masoretic Text are necessarily much later than any text Paul could have known, but it is possible for even the same vowel points to accompany the same consonants and mean “words” or some derivative thereof from the same form (Josh 1:18; Judg 13:12, 17; 1 Sam 15:24; 28:21; 2 Sam 7:28; 1 Kgs 8:26; 10:6; 2 Chr 9:5; Ps 119:57; Eccl 5:2; Jer 15:16; 28:6; Ezek 33:31–32; Dan 10:12), as the term has a broad semantic range. Symmachus translates it as “plague,” but in the singular, perhaps because this is otherwise a unique use of the term in the plural in the OT. Of course, it is not entirely clear if Symmachus is correcting what he found in his source, if his own source already featured the singular to make this reading smoother. In the OG/LXX, the term for “plague” was typically rendered as θάνατος (Exod 5:3; 9:3; Lev 26:25; Num 14:12; Deut 28:21; 2 Kgdms 24:13, 15; 3 Kgdms 8:37; 1 Chr 21:12, 14; 2 Chr 7:13; 20:9; Ps 77:50; Jer 14:12; 21:6–7, 9; 24:10; Jer 41:17; Ezek 5:12, 17; 6:11–12; 7:15; 12:16; 14:19, 21; 28:23; 33:27; 38:22; Amos 4:10; cf. Exod 9:15). In fact, that is how the Vulgate renders it, “O Death, I will be your death.”
But other translations reflect the understanding that the term was the broader and more common one. I mentioned how the OG/LXX and Theodotion rendered it, but Aquila is the most basic in translating the term as ρήματα, which is similar to Targum Jonathan. What is especially significant about the Peshitta is that not only does it convey the same sense as Paul, but it appears that the translator arrived at this conclusion independently, as the Peshitta text of Paul was completed much later. In fact, there were some Greek manuscripts that had this term as νίκη rather than δίκη. For more on this, you can see Eric J. Tully, The Translation and the Translator of the Peshitta of Hosea, 216–17. (I am currently unaware of how to type out Syriac.)
The upshot of all of this is that Paul was contributing to or following an already established way of translating a broad term with a more specific one that befits a legal context. He is part of a controversy in translation, for which he represents a fair option, that has been around for a long time. The Hebrew does not contradict Paul. But the spelling does allow for different ways of construal.
You can find a more extensive argument in Lukasz Popko, “Why Paul Was Not Wrong in Quoting Hosea 13:14,” BibAn 9 (2019): 493–512.
If Paul's rendering is correct, would this also imply that the final sentence of Hosea 13:14 says something like, "For sorrow will be hidden from my eyes", instead of, "Compassion will be hidden from my eyes"?
Particularly in this context, the more likely sense relates to "settling accounts" or "restoring the balance," for which "vengeance" is the best shorthand. So the sense would be "vengeance will be hidden from my eyes." The newer JPS translation (second edition) similarly has it as "revenge."
Walter Harrelson goes over this matter in more detail in relation to the larger context of Hosea in “Death and Victory in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57: The Transformation of a Prophetic Theme,” in Faith and History: Essays in Honor of Paul W. Meyer, ed. John T. Carroll, Charles H. Cosgrove, and E. Elizabeth Johnson (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990).
Joshua B. For whatever reason, I am being prevented from replying directly to your last comment. Maybe it has something to do with Substack only allowing so many levels of replies, but I don't know. Anyway, yes, you have understood correctly. Like with other prophetic books and like other places in Hosea, it is signaling that, though the judgment declared elsewhere must come, so too will mercy come.
So are you implying that Paul did not misquote or spin Hosea 13:14, but instead actually made a direct quote of it, which has in the time since has been slightly corrupted into the current rendering which now contradicts Paul's original writing of it in Greek? You claimed that the Peshitta says "victory" instead of "plagues"...
To be clear, no textual corruption is implied in my argument. As I said above, the consonants used for both “plagues” and “words” (as well as the latter’s derivatives) are the same. The vowel points that are in the Masoretic Text are necessarily much later than any text Paul could have known, but it is possible for even the same vowel points to accompany the same consonants and mean “words” or some derivative thereof from the same form (Josh 1:18; Judg 13:12, 17; 1 Sam 15:24; 28:21; 2 Sam 7:28; 1 Kgs 8:26; 10:6; 2 Chr 9:5; Ps 119:57; Eccl 5:2; Jer 15:16; 28:6; Ezek 33:31–32; Dan 10:12), as the term has a broad semantic range. Symmachus translates it as “plague,” but in the singular, perhaps because this is otherwise a unique use of the term in the plural in the OT. Of course, it is not entirely clear if Symmachus is correcting what he found in his source, if his own source already featured the singular to make this reading smoother. In the OG/LXX, the term for “plague” was typically rendered as θάνατος (Exod 5:3; 9:3; Lev 26:25; Num 14:12; Deut 28:21; 2 Kgdms 24:13, 15; 3 Kgdms 8:37; 1 Chr 21:12, 14; 2 Chr 7:13; 20:9; Ps 77:50; Jer 14:12; 21:6–7, 9; 24:10; Jer 41:17; Ezek 5:12, 17; 6:11–12; 7:15; 12:16; 14:19, 21; 28:23; 33:27; 38:22; Amos 4:10; cf. Exod 9:15). In fact, that is how the Vulgate renders it, “O Death, I will be your death.”
But other translations reflect the understanding that the term was the broader and more common one. I mentioned how the OG/LXX and Theodotion rendered it, but Aquila is the most basic in translating the term as ρήματα, which is similar to Targum Jonathan. What is especially significant about the Peshitta is that not only does it convey the same sense as Paul, but it appears that the translator arrived at this conclusion independently, as the Peshitta text of Paul was completed much later. In fact, there were some Greek manuscripts that had this term as νίκη rather than δίκη. For more on this, you can see Eric J. Tully, The Translation and the Translator of the Peshitta of Hosea, 216–17. (I am currently unaware of how to type out Syriac.)
The upshot of all of this is that Paul was contributing to or following an already established way of translating a broad term with a more specific one that befits a legal context. He is part of a controversy in translation, for which he represents a fair option, that has been around for a long time. The Hebrew does not contradict Paul. But the spelling does allow for different ways of construal.
You can find a more extensive argument in Lukasz Popko, “Why Paul Was Not Wrong in Quoting Hosea 13:14,” BibAn 9 (2019): 493–512.
Thanks for the interesting response.
If Paul's rendering is correct, would this also imply that the final sentence of Hosea 13:14 says something like, "For sorrow will be hidden from my eyes", instead of, "Compassion will be hidden from my eyes"?
Particularly in this context, the more likely sense relates to "settling accounts" or "restoring the balance," for which "vengeance" is the best shorthand. So the sense would be "vengeance will be hidden from my eyes." The newer JPS translation (second edition) similarly has it as "revenge."
Walter Harrelson goes over this matter in more detail in relation to the larger context of Hosea in “Death and Victory in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57: The Transformation of a Prophetic Theme,” in Faith and History: Essays in Honor of Paul W. Meyer, ed. John T. Carroll, Charles H. Cosgrove, and E. Elizabeth Johnson (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990).
So from your knowledge, נֹ֫חַם (nocham) does not mean "sorrow" but "vengeance"?
In this context, yes, that is the best way to translate it.
Do you know the reason why most translations render it "compassion"?
Joshua B. For whatever reason, I am being prevented from replying directly to your last comment. Maybe it has something to do with Substack only allowing so many levels of replies, but I don't know. Anyway, yes, you have understood correctly. Like with other prophetic books and like other places in Hosea, it is signaling that, though the judgment declared elsewhere must come, so too will mercy come.