What Does Hosea 12:10 Mean?
And I have spoken to the prophets. I multiplied visions, and by the hand of the prophets I gave likenesses.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “similitudes” means “I compare”: revelation reaches you by making the unseen resemble something you can see.
THE MEANING
God’s communication reaches you through speech, vision, and likeness; an image is one way truth becomes visible to you. A comparison gives the unseen a shape your perception can hold, while a vision opens sight beyond the spoken sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A message does not have to arrive as a plain sentence to be real; this verse gives vision and comparison a place alongside prophetic speech.
THE ROOT
אֲדַמֶּה
adammeh
GROWS FROM
דמה
דמה (damah): to resemble, be like, or compare.
“gave likenesses” in this verse is adammeh. The Hebrew verb אֲדַמֶּה (adammeh, “I compare” or “I make like”) presents likeness as a way the message is conveyed. A comparison is not merely decorative: it gives something unseen a form the mind can recognize.
ALSO GROWS
damah: To be like or resemble.
דָּמָה
This is the root action: a likeness places one thing beside another so the relationship becomes visible.
domeh: Like or resembling.
דּוֹמֶה
This form describes the resemblance itself, showing how comparison can give an idea a recognizable shape.
חָזוֹן
chazon
GROWS FROM
חזה
חזה (chazah): to see, behold, or perceive.
“visions” in this verse is chazon. The word for vision belongs to the language of seeing and perceiving. The verse places received sight beside spoken words and likeness: what reaches you can be shown as well as said.
ALSO GROWS
chazah: To see, behold, or perceive.
חָזָה
The verb names the act of seeing that lies within the verse’s language of vision.
chozeh: A seer, one who sees.
חֹזֶה
This form names the one who perceives, linking vision to a person who receives what is shown.
THE PATTERN
The living message reaches you through words, images, and comparisons, giving what is unseen a form you can perceive.
And he said, Now hear and respond to my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make myself known to him in sight, and will speak to him in a dream.I will open my mouth in a likeness, and pour out riddles of old.I have spoken these things to you in sayings. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in sayings, but in full voice I will bring you word of the Father.THE THREAD
Humankind is like vapor; his days are as a shadow that passes over.The phrase “is like” uses דָּמָה (damah, “to resemble or compare”), the same Hebrew root behind Hosea’s “similitudes.” Here, comparison makes human frailty visible as a passing shadow: likeness gives truth a form the reader can see.
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