Hebrew word · H8566
תָּנָה
yitnu
to hire
A rare verb, 'to hire, give a hire-gift', tied to the nouns ʾetnah / ʾetnan, 'a prostitute's fee' (Hos 2:12 [Heb 2:14]; 9:1; Deut 23:18; Ezek 16:31–41). Hosea 8:9–10 has the hiphil and qal forms. Some ancient readers connected the consonants instead with natan, 'to give'.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to hire
1a) (Qal) to hire
1b) (Hiphil) to hire (a prostitute), give amorous favours
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A rare verb, 'to hire, give a hire-gift', tied to the nouns ʾetnah / ʾetnan, 'a prostitute's fee' (Hos 2:12 [Heb 2:14]; 9:1; Deut 23:18; Ezek 16:31–41). Hosea 8:9–10 has the hiphil and qal forms. Some ancient readers connected the consonants instead with natan, 'to give'.
- Against the English
BSB 'hire allies' and KJV 'hired' keep the payment idea but lose the sexual edge. WEB and NIV 'sold themselves' turn it around, making Israel the one sold rather than the one who pays. NRSV 'bargain' flattens it into ordinary diplomacy.
- How it drifted
Modern 'hire' suggests employment or hiring mercenaries. The Hebrew word comes from the world of the harlot's wage, and Hosea's whole book is built on Israel as an unfaithful wife.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The noun ʾetnan is used for a prostitute's pay in Deut 23:18 and Mic 1:7. Ezekiel 16:33–34 builds the same irony at length: unlike other harlots, Jerusalem pays her lovers instead of being paid. The Septuagint of Hos 8:10 seems to read a passive of natan, 'they will be handed over'.
- Range of meaning
A rare verb meaning to hire or to give a love-payment. It belongs with the nouns ʾetnan and ʾetnāh, 'a prostitute's fee' (Deut 23:19 [Eng 23:18]; Hos 2:12; 9:1; Mic 1:7; Ezek 16:31, 34, 41). Here it is in the causative (hiphil) form, 'they gave out hire'. In 8:10 the same verb follows in a simpler form, 'though they hire among the nations'.
- Against the English
BSB/KJV/ESV/NASB 'hired'; WEB 'hired... for himself'. NIV turns it around as Ephraim selling herself, which keeps the prostitution image but loses the point that Ephraim is the one paying.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Hos 2:12 ('these are my wages [ʾetnāh] that my lovers have given me'); 9:1 ('you have loved a prostitute's wage on every threshing floor'). Ezekiel 16:33–34 develops exactly this reversal: 'you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come… you are the opposite of other women: you pay, no payment is given to you.' Ezekiel may well be building on Hosea.
Where it appears
Hosea · 2
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Hosea 8:9 הִתְנ֥וּ they have hired
For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
Here: A rare verb from the same root as ʾetnan/ʾetnāh, 'a prostitute's wage' (Hos 2:12; 9:1). It means Ephraim paid out for love. The plural verb with a singular name treats Ephraim as a collective people. The shock is in the direction of payment: the 'woman' pays the clients.
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Hosea 8:10 יִתְנ֥וּ they will hire
Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.
Here: It repeats the end of verse 9, 'Ephraim has hired (hitnu) lovers.' The word belongs to the language of a prostitute's fee: Israel pays foreign powers for their favours. No object is stated; 'lovers' carries over from verse 9.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.