What Does Hosea 7:15 Mean?
Though I have straightened their arms and gripped them, yet they plan harm against me.
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
Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.THE KEY
The strength in their arms is received, yet they turn it against the one who trained and strengthened them.
THE MEANING
God names the contradiction plainly: he has disciplined and strengthened their arms, and they still devise harm against him. Their ability to act is received, but receiving strength does not determine what they intend; the verse holds both truths together now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that receiving strength from God proves that one’s intent is aligned with God.
THE ROOT
יְחַשְׁבוּ
yeḥashvu
GROWS FROM
חשב
to reckon, calculate, devise, or plan
The verb carries deliberation and design, so the mischief is shaped as intent, not merely pictured in passing. The root also speaks of reckoning: the verse reveals a mind actively forming a plan against its source of strength.
ALSO GROWS
maḥashavah: thought, plan, or design
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch shows that the same root can name an idea as something formed and laid out.
ḥeshbon: account or reckoning
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch carries the root’s calculating sense, giving “imagine” the shade of considered intent.
יִסַּרְתִּי
yissarti
GROWS FROM
יסר
to discipline, correct, or train
“straightened” in this verse is yissarti. The word carries the sense of corrective formation. Beside “strengthened,” it presents the arms as both trained and made capable before they are turned toward hostility.
ALSO GROWS
musar: instruction or discipline
מוּסָר
This branch shows that the root’s correction can also form understanding.
yissurim: discipline or chastisement
יִסּוּרִים
This branch keeps the corrective force audible in the verse’s description of God’s action.
חִזַּקְתִּי
ḥizzaqti
GROWS FROM
חזק
to be strong, make firm, or strengthen
“gripped” in this verse is ḥizzaqti. The root holds together strength and firmness: God makes their arms capable, yet that capacity does not settle the direction of their intent. English gives the strengthening as a finished benefit; the root also evokes something made firm and able to act.
ALSO GROWS
ḥazaq: strong or firm
חָזָק
This branch names the quality produced when something is strengthened.
heḥeziq: to hold fast, maintain, or strengthen
הֶחֱזִיק
This branch links strength with holding and sustaining, echoing the power present in the arms.
THE PATTERN
A creature’s strength remains received and dependent, even when it is turned against its source.
Shall the axe adorn itself against the one who hews with it? Shall the saw swell itself against the one who waves it? As if the rod should wave itself against those who lift it, or as if the staff should lift itself, as if it were no wood.For who sifts you apart? And what do you hold that you did not take? But if you did take it, why do you boast as though you had not taken it?For in him we live and move and are; as some of your own makers have said, for we are also his offspring.THE THREAD
As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, to make it as it is this day, to keep a great people alive.“Thought evil against me” uses the same Hebrew root for devising and reckoning, paired with the same word for evil. Genesis makes the deliberate planning audible too, while Hosea leaves the strength and hostility together in the open.
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