When the Society begins to evaluate a new translation, one of the first passages we check is Hosea 12.4 in order to see if an important mistake is made which impacts upon both translation principles and theology. It is a crucial mistake made by liberals and even sometimes by theological conservatives. The origin of the mistake is not found in the Hebrew Old Testament text. It comes from a theological system which does not believe that the Bible is the supernatural, verbally inspired Word of God.

There are those of the liberal or neo-orthodox theological persuasion who have difficulty with the supernatural nature of the Bible. Some of them would claim that the Bible, written so many centuries ago in and to a culture so different from most today, is a closed book. God could not possibly speak to modern people through it. However, this verse in the book of Hosea speaks volumes about the way in which God communicates to us today through His Word.

Speaking of Jacob, the Scripture says, 'Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us' (Hosea 12.4). In the simple pronoun ‘us’ Hosea provides a key to God’s blessing.

Hosea, in chapter 12 verses 3-6, speaks of Jacob. In verse 3 Hosea speaks of Jacob’s power with God and man. The first part of verse 4 refers to Jacob’s meeting with the Man (whom Hosea calls the Angel) at Peniel, where Jacob saw God “face to face” and his life was preserved (Genesis 32.30). The latter portion of the verse refers to Jacob’s two meetings with God at Beth-el (Genesis 28 and 35). In these references we are told that God spoke with Jacob.

But Hosea takes these references further. He says not that God spoke to ‘him’, as would be expected; instead he says that God spoke to ‘us’. God said to Jacob, 'I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac … behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee … I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of' (Genesis 28.13-15). Jacob’s reaction was one of fear, and of making vows to God (vss. 17,20). He met God again in Peniel where he struggled with the Man, and heard His voice a third time some years later, again in Beth-el, where God restated His earlier promises to this grandson of Abraham (Genesis 35.10-12).

Centuries later God through Hosea reminds us of Jacob’s meetings with his God. The result of these meetings is found in 12.6: 'Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually'. However, God’s words to Jacob were not to him only, but to us. This particular reading ‘us’, which is in the Hebrew Masoretic Text, has provided a problem for some modern translators. Many modern versions translate the Hebrew word for ‘us’ as ‘him’. Versions such as the Revised English Bible, the Good News Bible, the New Revised Standard Version, the Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible, and the New Century Version/International Children’s Bible, translate this word as ‘him’, indicating that the only one with whom this Man spoke is Jacob.

The New International Version translators, who claim to be conservative, evangelical Christians, have problems in following conservative translational principles in their translation of this verse. In the NIV it reads, 'He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there—'. There you have it. The translation betrays their principles. Although the Hebrew has ‘us’, and Hebrew experts do not argue with the fact that this is the actual word in the original, the NIV translators found it necessary to limit God’s speaking to ‘him’.

Dr. Walter Kaiser, who later served on the NIV translation team, rightly says,

'‘Us’ means right down to Hosea’s time and audience. We can add also ourselves. Almost one millennium later, after Jacob’s lifetime, it is recorded that when God spoke to Jacob, he spoke not only to Jacob; He spoke also to the ‘us’ of Hosea’s time and to the ‘us’ of our time.'¹

The NIV translators could not accept that. They put in ‘him’ and then put down the footnote ‘Hebrew us’. They couldn’t believe it, but the text in the Hebrew says ‘us’. We weren’t there, yet we were addressed in something that appeared time bound.

Hosea’s blessing is that in a supernatural book God speaks to individual people in their context in the Bible, and God also speaks to others in Bible times, using the original message given in earlier times. Not only that, but the implication is, by the way the New Testament uses the Old, that God speaks to New Testament believers and ultimately to us by way of application.

Thus the problem is not with God communicating His Word through the centuries to different cultures. The problem is firstly with those who do not see the Bible as the infallible, inerrant Word of God, a supernatural book written to communicate His truth to His people, and, secondly, with those who translate the Bible. In a day of uncertainty, it is a rich blessing that even through a simple pronoun such as ‘us’ God provides for His people His infallible Word.

¹ Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. The Old Testament in Contemporary Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI, USA: Baker Book House, 1973), pp. 25-6.

This article was first published in Quarterly Record 559.