Core Glossary
Hosea — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term surfaced in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, drawn from all fourteen chapters of Hosea. Per the hard governing rule of this pipeline, every term already fixed in the Romans Hmong Language Package baseline TM is reused exactly — no alternate gloss is proposed for any Critical/High baseline term. New terms required by Hosea’s distinct vocabulary are marked NEW ENTRY and are proposed here for TM-revision review; they do not yet carry the “permanent” status of the Romans baseline entries until formally adopted.
Risk tier definitions are inherited unchanged from assets/bible_term_registry.json (Romans baseline): Critical / High / Medium / Low, with the same review-routing rule (Critical & High → human theologian; Medium → native speaker; Low → automated).
Doctrine key (Hosea curriculum):
- D1 = God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
- D2 = Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
- D3 = The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
- D4 = Judgment and Compassion Held Together
- D5 = The Call to Return and Repentance
- Gen = General/Cross-cutting (shared with Romans baseline doctrines)
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline TM
| # | English Term | Hebrew (Hosea) | Hmong Rendering (TM-fixed) | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | God | אֱלֹהִים Elohim | Vajtswv | Low | Gen | all | Reused verbatim per baseline. |
| A2 | Lord (YHWH / Adonai) | יְהוָה YHWH / אֲדֹנָי Adonai | tus Tswv | Low | Gen | all | Reused verbatim; covenant name YHWH rendered with the same title used for kyrios in the Romans baseline. |
| A3 | Love (general) | אָהַב ahav | kev hlub | Low-Medium | D1, D3 | 1, 3, 11, 14 | Reused; distinguished from the new chesed entry (steadfast/covenant love) — see B1. |
| A4 | Mercy / compassion | רַחֲמִים rachamim, רָחַם racham | txoj kev khuv leej | Medium | D1, D4 | 1, 2, 11, 14 | Reused; kept lexically distinct from chesed/steadfast-love per the Romans baseline’s mercy-vs-grace discipline, here applied as mercy-vs-chesed. |
| A5 | Idol / idols | פֶּסֶל pesel, עֲצַבִּים atsabim, מַסֵּכָה massekhah | dab mlom | High | D2 | 2, 4, 8, 13, 14 | Reused verbatim; correct as-is, must not be softened to generic “statue” or “carved object.” |
| A6 | Law (Mosaic/Divine) | תּוֹרָה torah | Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes) | Critical | D2, D5 | 4, 8 | Mandatory qualifier retained without exception, exactly as in the Romans baseline. |
| A7 | Redemption / ransom | קָנָה qanah (ch.3); פָּדָה padah, גָּאַל ga’al (ch.13) | kev txhiv | Critical (elevated from baseline Medium due to direct 1 Cor 15:55 cross-reference at 13:14) | D1, D4 | 3, 13 | Reused; Hosea 3’s literal purchase narrative gives vivid concrete grounding to the baseline’s “needs anchoring to Christ as price-payer” note. |
| A8 | Salvation / save | יָשַׁע yasha | kev cawm dim / cawm | High | D1, D4 | 1, 13, 14 | Reused; OT context anchors agency to YHWH/tus Tswv rather than an explicit “Yexus Khetos” clause — teach as typological anticipation of the fuller NT revelation, not a contradiction of the baseline’s Christ-anchoring rule. |
| A9 | Hope | תִּקְוָה tiqvah | kev cia siab | Low | D1, D5 | 2 | Reused verbatim (“door of hope,” 2:15). |
| A10 | Sin / guilt (general) | חַטָּאת chattath, עָוֺן avon | txhaum / kev txhaum | High | D2 | 4, 13, 14 | Reused verbatim. |
| A11 | Death | מָוֶת mavet | txoj kev tuag | Low-High (context-dependent; elevated near chesed/redemption contexts) | D4 | 13 | Reused verbatim; paired with new sheol_grave entry (B18). |
| A12 | Wrath / anger of God | חֲרוֹן אַף charon aph, אַף aph | kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv | High | D4 | 5, 8, 11, 13 | Reused verbatim; must be taught as righteously held back by compassion in 11:8-9, not as never having existed. |
| A13 | Worship / sacrifice (cultic) | זָבַח zabach, עֹלָה olah, פָּרִים sacrificial “bulls” | fij family (living_sacrifice, propitiation_atoning_sacrifice) | Critical | D2, D5 | 2, 4, 6, 8, 14 | Reused with the same three-way disambiguation discipline: (a) illegitimate/idolatrous sacrifice to Baal, (b) Christ’s unique atonement, (c) ethical/verbal devotion (14:2’s “bulls of our lips”) — never left ambiguous between these. |
| A14 | Righteousness (of God) | צְדָקָה tsedaqah, צֶדֶק tsedeq | Vajtswv txoj kev ncaj ncees | Critical | D1 | 2, 10 | Reused verbatim, paired with chesed in 10:12’s sow/reap metaphor. |
| A15 | Kingdom / king | מֶלֶךְ melekh (human king; distinct from lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv) | tus vaj ntxwv (human king, new low-risk term, not the baseline Kingdom-of-God phrase) | Low | D4 | 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 | Human political kingship; must not be confused with the reused baseline kingdom_of_god phrase. |
B. New Terms Introduced by Hosea (Proposed for TM-Revision Review)
| # | English Term | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hmong Rendering (proposed) | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Chapters | Alternatives Rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Steadfast love (covenant loyalty) | חֶסֶד | chesed | txoj kev hlub ruaj khov | Critical | D1 | 2, 6, 10, 14 | Bare kev hlub alone — rejected, flattens the specifically covenantal, loyal, unilaterally-maintained nuance into generic affection and loses the contrast with reciprocal/conditional Hmong clan-loyalty norms. | The single most doctrinally load-bearing new term in this curriculum. Must be taught as God’s loyal love maintained despite the covenant partner’s unfaithfulness — the opposite of the reciprocal-obligation loyalty (kwv tij duty-loyalty) that is the nearest cultural analogue and could otherwise wrongly suggest the love is conditional on Israel’s own faithfulness. |
| B2 | Harlotry / spiritual prostitution | זְנוּנִים / זָנָה | zenunim / zanah | kev ua nkauj yi | Critical | D2, D3 | 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 | Euphemistic softening (e.g., “unfaithfulness” alone with no sexual-metaphor content) — rejected, loses the deliberately shocking, embodied force of Hosea’s central sign-act and metaphor. | Register must remain formal/literary, never crude; requires a dedicated teaching note framing this as a prophetic sign-act metaphor for idolatry, not gratuitous content. Central to both D2 (covenant-breaking) and D3 (marriage metaphor). |
| B3 | Adultery (covenant infidelity) | נָאַף | naaph | kev deev luag / kev sib deev | Critical | D2, D3 | 2, 4 | Merging fully with zanah (B2) with no distinction — rejected where the Hebrew text itself distinguishes general harlotry from specific covenant-breaking adultery. | Kept lexically distinguishable from B2 where the text requires it, though functionally overlapping. |
| B4 | Lovers (illicit) | מְאַהֲבִים | m’ahabim | cov khub deev | High | D2, D3 | 2 | Literal “cov neeg nyiam” (people who are liked) — rejected, far too weak for the personified-idolatry force of the term. | Refers to Baal-gods and/or foreign political alliances personified as illicit romantic partners. |
| B5 | Baal (proper name / “husband-master” pun) | בַּעַל / בְּעָלִים | Ba’al(im) | Npa-as (transliterated name); “master/husband” sense rendered tus tswv/tus txiv contextually | High | D2, D3 | 2, 8 (Beth-Aven), 9, 11, 13 | Translating “Baal” generically as “tus tswv” (master/lord) throughout — rejected, would erase the proper-name/idol referent entirely and could be confused with tus Tswv (Lord, the reused baseline title for God/Christ). | The 2:16-17 wordplay (ishi/ba’ali) cannot be reproduced lexically in Hmong and MUST be handled with an explicit footnote rather than a forced pun. |
| B6 | Spirit of whoredom | רוּחַ זְנוּנִים | ruach zenunim | lub siab uas raug kev ua nkauj yi kav (a heart/disposition ruled by harlotry) | Critical | D2 | 4, 5 | ntsuj plig or Vaj Ntsuj Plig in any form — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this referent, per the Romans baseline’s absolute prohibition on confusing the Holy Spirit’s fixed collocation with any other referent, and its caution against language resembling animistic spirit-possession. | Highest-severity forbidden-substitution flag in this glossary; see §C. |
| B7 | Natural wind (disambiguation) | רוּחַ | ruach (non-spirit sense) | cua | Low | Gen | 8, 13 | N/A | Logged purely to document that the Hebrew root shared with “Spirit” is correctly disambiguated by Hmong’s distinct vocabulary (cua vs. ntsuj plig), preventing any future confusion. |
| B8 | Covenant | בְּרִית | berith | phau lus cog tseg (ntawm Vajtswv) | Critical/High | D2, D3, D5 | 2, 4, 6, 8 (implied), 10 (implied) | Bare lus cog tseg (the existing baseline promise rendering) with no covenant-specific qualifier — flagged as insufficient on its own, since berith denotes a formal, binding, two-party relational bond (the marriage-covenant is Hosea’s central image), not merely a one-directional pledge. | Proposed as an extension of, not a replacement for, the existing baseline promise entry; the qualifier “(ntawm Vajtswv)” parallels the Law entry’s mandatory-qualifier pattern. |
| B9 | Knowledge of God (covenantal/relational) | יָדַע / דַּעַת | yada / da’at | kev paub Vajtswv | High | D1, D2, D5 | 2, 4, 6, 13 | Plain “paub” (to know a fact) used interchangeably — rejected, collapses relational/covenantal recognition (including the term’s marital-intimacy overtones elsewhere in Hebrew usage) into mere informational awareness. | Must be consistently glossed as relational/experiential knowing, not factual knowledge alone. |
| B10 | Return / repent | שׁוּב | shuv | rov qab los cuag Vajtswv (positive sense) | High | D5 | 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14 | Bare “rov qab” (go back) with no God-ward anchor for the positive/repentance sense — rejected, indistinguishable from the negative/ironic senses of the same root (physical return to Egypt, 11:5; “return, but not upward,” 7:16). | Central to Doctrine 5; must be paired contrastively with B11 (backsliding) in all teaching material to preserve the book’s wordplay. |
| B11 | Backsliding / apostasy | מְשׁוּבָה | meshuvah | kev tig rov qab ntawm Vajtswv | High | D2, D5 | 11, 14 | N/A | Noun-form counterpart to B10; taught as the same root deployed in the opposite direction. |
| B12 | Heal | רָפָא | rapha | kho kom zoo | Medium | D1, D4 | 6, 7 (implied via taraph), 11, 14 | Vocabulary overlapping with shamanic ritual healing (ua neeb kho mob) — rejected as a direct equivalence; must be distinguished by teaching note as direct divine healing, not ritual/spirit-negotiated healing. | Climactic use at 14:4 (“I will heal their apostasy”). |
| B13 | Faithfulness (God’s own attribute) | אֱמוּנָה | emunah | kev ncaj thiab kev ruaj khov | Medium | D1, D3 | 2 | Reuse of baseline faith_believe (kev ntseeg) — rejected, that entry denotes the human response of trust/belief, not God’s own attribute of reliability. | Distinguished from B1 (chesed = loyal love) as a related but separate covenant-quality term. |
| B14 | Betroth | אֵרַשׂ | arash | qhaib coj los ua poj niam mus ib txhis | Medium-High | D3 | 2 | Unqualified reuse of ordinary Hmong betrothal vocabulary with no “forever/covenant” qualifier — rejected, risks reducing the everlasting covenant pledge to an ordinary bride-price transaction. | Must be distinguished from ch.3’s literal monetary purchase of Gomer, which is a deliberately different (costly-redemption) image. |
| B15 | Golden calf (idol) | עֵגֶל | egel | tus mlom nyuj kub | High | D2 | 8, 10, 13 | N/A | Builds on the reused baseline dab mlom (idol) root; concrete Exodus-32-echoing idol object. |
| B16 | Covenant lawsuit / controversy | רִיב | riv | Vajtswv txoj kev foob thiab tsis txaus siab | Medium | D2 | 4, 12 | N/A | Good cultural bridge via Hmong village-dispute/lawsuit concept (plaub ntug), consistent with the Romans baseline’s village-court idiom for no_condemnation. |
| B17 | Prophet | נָבִיא | navi | tus cev Vajtswv Lus | Low-Medium | Gen | 6 (implied), 9, 12 | N/A | Distinct from the Romans baseline’s NT apostle entry (different office/era); no collision. |
| B18 | Sheol / realm of the dead | שְׁאוֹל | Sheol | tub tuag teb | Medium | D1, D4 | 13 | Direct equivalence with Hmong ancestral-spirit-realm cosmology (where ancestors are venerated) with no distinguishing note — rejected; must be taught as an enemy-power to be defeated by God’s redemption, not a venerated ancestral abode. | Paired with reused baseline death (A11) in 13:14. |
| B19 | Jezreel (name + meaning) | יִזְרְעֶאל | Yizre’el | Yexeliyees (Vajtswv Tso Tawg / Vajtswv Tseb) | Low-Medium | D4, D5 | 1, 2 | N/A | Symbolic name reversed from judgment (1:4-5) to blessing (2:22-23); both occurrences must use the identical name-plus-meaning-gloss pairing. |
| B20 | Lo-Ruhamah / Ruhamah (name + meaning) | לֹא רֻחָמָה | Lo-Ruhamah | Lauv-Luhamas (Tsis Tau Txais Kev Khuv Leej) | Medium | D1, D4 | 1, 2 | N/A | Shares root with reused baseline mercy (A4); positive reversal at 2:23 must reuse the identical root. |
| B21 | Lo-Ammi / Ammi (name + meaning) | לֹא עַמִּי | Lo-Ammi | Lauv-Ami (Tsis Yog Kuv Haiv Neeg) | High | D2, D4 | 1, 2 | N/A | Cross-reference flag: quoted by Paul in Romans 9:25-26. Any future Romans-curriculum treatment of Rom 9:25-26 MUST reuse this exact Hmong rendering for consistency across Language Packages. |
| B22 | Ephraim (proper name for Israel) | אֶפְרַיִם | Ephraim | Efalayees | Low | Gen | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 | N/A | Most frequent name for the Northern Kingdom in Hosea (~37 occurrences); consistency across all occurrences is essential. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm final transliteration is distinct from and not confusable with "Yixalayees" (Israel)]. |
| B23 | Gomer / Diblaim (proper names) | גֹּמֶר / דִּבְלָיִם | Gomer / Diblayim | Kaumaws / Divelais | Low | D3 | 1 | N/A | [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: minor proper names, confirm against any existing Hmong OT transliteration precedent]. |
| B24 | Valley of Achor | עֵמֶק עָכוֹר | Emeq Akhor | Lub Hav Akhaus | Low-Medium | D1, D5 | 2 | N/A | Comprehension-gap (unfamiliar place/story reference to Joshua 7); footnote required. |
| B25 | Bulls/calves of our lips (praise as sacrifice) | פָּרִים שְׂפָתֵינוּ | parim sephateynu | tej lus qhuas ntawm peb daim tawv ncauj | Medium-High | D5 | 14 | Literal rendering implying actual cattle offered as praise — rejected, would produce nonsensical or misleading imagery; must render the idiom’s meaning (verbal praise replacing literal sacrifice). | Directly relevant to the reused fij/worship_serve_cultic disambiguation discipline. |
| B26 | Vine (Israel as vine) | גֶּפֶן | gephen | tsob txiv hmab | Low-Medium | D2 | 10 | N/A | Comprehension-gap (grape cultivation unfamiliar in highland Hmong context); illustrative note recommended, parallel to the Romans baseline’s olive-tree handling. |
| B27 | Cords of kindness / bands of love | חֶבְלֵי אָדָם / עֲבֹתוֹת אַהֲבָה | chevlei adam / avotot ahavah | txoj hlua ntawm tib neeg kev hlub / txoj hlua ntawm kev hlub | Medium | D1, D4 | 11 | N/A | Core-passage term (11:4); concrete draft-animal-leading imagery transfers well in an agrarian Hmong context. |
| B28 | Call / summon | קָרָא | qara | hu | High | D1, D5 | 11 | Unmarked, unqualified use with no teaching note — rejected; inherits the Romans baseline’s hu/soul-calling collision risk (originally flagged for “call on the name of the Lord,” 10:9-13) even though the direction here is reversed (God calling Israel). | Requires explicit contrast-teaching distinguishing God’s historical/covenantal summons from ritual soul-recall (hu plig). |
| B29 | Holy One (divine title) | קָדוֹשׁ | Qadosh | Tus Dawb Huv | Medium | D4 | 11 | N/A | Reuses the dawb huv root flagged in the Romans baseline’s sanctification entry; lower risk here as a divine title than as a process-word, but still requires the same folk-ritual-purity contrast-note. |
| B30 | Relenting / compassion kindled | נִחוּמִים / נֹחַם | nichumim / nocham | kev khuv leej tig los hlub | High | D4 | 11, 13 | Flattening to a simple “God changed His mind” statement — rejected; must preserve relational/covenantal register without implying instability of God’s essential character. | [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: 13:14b syntax is exegetically debated — confirm framing with human theologian]. |
| B31 | God, not man (ontological contrast) | אֵל וְלֹא־אִישׁ | El ve-lo ish | kuv yog Vajtswv, tsis yog neeg | Low-Medium | D4 | 11 | N/A | Grounds God’s capacity to hold judgment and compassion together perfectly. |
C. Forbidden Substitutions — Hosea-Specific Additions
These additions are cumulative with, and never contradict, the Romans baseline’s §3.1/§3.2 forbidden-substitution tables in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
| Forbidden Substitution | Correct Rendering | Reason |
|---|---|---|
ntsuj plig or Vaj Ntsuj Plig for “spirit of whoredom” (ruach zenunim, 4:12; 5:4) | lub siab uas raug kev ua nkauj yi kav (descriptive, non-spirit phrasing) | Would confuse either the animistic wandering-soul concept or, catastrophically, the divine Holy Spirit with a metaphor for compulsive idolatrous unfaithfulness. |
hmoov (fate/fortune) for pequddah (appointed day of reckoning/visitation, 9:7) | descriptive phrase anchored to God’s personal, sovereign judgment | Same fatalism-collision the Romans baseline already forbids for election/foreknowledge; God’s “visitation” is a personal act of judgment, not an impersonal fated outcome. |
Generic kev hlub (love) alone for חֶסֶד (chesed) without the “ruaj khov” (steadfast) qualifier | txoj kev hlub ruaj khov | Loses the specifically covenantal, unilaterally-maintained loyalty-love that is the doctrinal core of the entire book (Doctrine 1). |
Rendering Ba'al generically as tus tswv (lord/master) with no proper-name marking | Npa-as (transliterated proper name), with tus tswv/tus txiv used only for the common-noun “husband/master” sense in context | Erases the idol’s identity as a specific rival deity and risks confusing the god’s title with the reused baseline title tus Tswv (Lord) for God/Christ. |
| Literal, un-glossed rendering of “bulls of our lips” (14:2) | tej lus qhuas ntawm peb daim tawv ncauj (our lips’ praise, idiomatically explained) | A literal word-for-word rendering produces incoherent or misleading imagery (implying actual cattle offered verbally) rather than the intended reinterpretation of sacrifice as praise. |
| Treating Hosea’s marriage/harlotry metaphor (chs. 1-3) as literal biographical scandal-content without sign-act framing | Consistent framing as a prophetic sign-act enacting the Marriage Metaphor doctrine (D3), taught in formal/literary register | Prevents the material from being read/taught as sensational narrative rather than as intentional prophetic theology. |
koob hmoov for chesed or rachamim in any Hosea context | txiaj ntsim (grace, reserved per Romans baseline) is ALSO not appropriate here — chesed and rachamim require their own distinct renderings (B1, A4) | Same fate/fortune collision the Romans baseline permanently forbids for grace; chesed and rachamim are equally at risk of being flattened into merit-based fortune-language if mishandled. |
D. Escalation Summary for Phase 2
Per the Romans baseline’s escalation rules (12_ai_translation_requirements.md §9), the following Hosea-specific items require mandatory human theologian review before any Phase 2 generation is published:
- All Critical-tier new entries: B1 (chesed), B2 (zenunim/harlotry), B3 (naaph/adultery), B6 (ruach zenunim).
- The Baal wordplay footnote content (B5, 2:16-17) and the Beth-Aven wordplay (ch.10).
- The cross-reference consistency checks flagged for Romans 9:25-26 (B21, Lo-Ammi/Ammi) and 1 Corinthians 15:55 (A7, redemption from death, 13:14).
- The exegetically debated clause at 13:14b (B30/nocham).
- Pastoral-sensitivity handling of reproductive-loss imagery (ch.9) and of the harlotry/adultery metaphor’s register throughout (chs. 1-3).
All remaining High-tier entries require human theologian review per the inherited routing rule; Medium-tier entries require native-speaker review at minimum, escalating to theologian review where doctrinal ambiguity is suspected, exactly as specified in the Romans baseline.
Critical Risk Terms
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Vaj Ntsuj Plig
Transliteration: pneuma hagion (NT parallel; no direct Hosea occurrence)
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: applying this collocation to ‘ruach zenunim’ (spirit of whoredom) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged here specifically because Hosea 4:12/5:4’s ‘ruach zenunim’ creates the single highest-severity forbidden-substitution risk in the book: this fixed collocation must never be applied to that referent. See spirit_of_whoredom entry.
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis (NT parallel)
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, per Romans baseline
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged here to fix the boundary with the new ‘chesed’ entry: grace (txiaj ntsim) and steadfast covenant love (chesed) are theologically related but must never be used interchangeably; chesed has its own dedicated entry (steadfast_love_chesed) and must never default to ‘txiaj ntsim’ or ‘koob hmoov’.
Righteousness Of God Righteous
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev ncaj ncees / tus ncaj ncees
Transliteration: tsedaqah / tsedeq
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘kev ncaj ncees’ without qualifier — rejected, reads as self-achieved moralism
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Paired directly with steadfast_love_chesed in Hosea 10:12’s sow/reap metaphor (‘sow righteousness, reap steadfast love’) — both Critical-tier terms must retain their full qualified forms in the same clause.
Law Mosaic Divine
Approved rendering: Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes)
Transliteration: torah
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Txoj Kevcai’ without qualifier — rejected, collapses into kev cai dab qhuas
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Mandatory qualifier retained without exception. Hosea 8:12’s ‘they regarded [my law] as a strange thing’ vividly illustrates the exact collision the qualifier exists to prevent.
Propitiation Atoning Sacrifice
Approved rendering: qhov theej txhoj kev txhaum
Transliteration: hilastērion (NT parallel; not directly present in Hosea)
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: transliterated loanword — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged here as the fixed positive referent against which Hosea’s ‘fij’ (sacrifice) family must always be disambiguated: this referent (Christ’s unique, sufficient atonement) is not textually present in Hosea but must never be contradicted or diluted by any Hosea-curriculum use of ‘fij’ vocabulary for either illegitimate Baal-sacrifice or ethical praise-as-sacrifice (14:2).
Redemption
Approved rendering: kev txhiv
Transliteration: apolytrōsis (NT parallel); Hebrew qanah (ch.3), padah / ga’al (ch.13)
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Inherited from Romans package TM (there rated Medium); ELEVATED to Critical in this Hosea Language Package because Hosea 13:14 is directly quoted by 1 Corinthians 15:55 regarding resurrection victory over death, requiring cross-curriculum consistency. Hosea 3’s literal, costly purchase of Gomer gives vivid concrete grounding to the price-payer anchoring the Romans baseline already required. [CROSS-REFERENCE: any future 1 Corinthians curriculum MUST reuse this exact rendering for 1 Cor 15:55].
Election Choose
Approved rendering: kev xaiv (Vajtswv xaiv raws li nws lub siab nyiam)
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai (NT parallel)
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (fate) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged here because its forbidden-substitution rule (never hmoov-vocabulary for God’s personal, sovereign action) governs the new ‘punishment_visitation_pequddah’ entry (Hosea 9:7) by identical logic: God’s personal reckoning must never be rendered as impersonal fate.
Steadfast Love Chesed
Approved rendering: txoj kev hlub ruaj khov
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘kev hlub’ with no ‘ruaj khov’ qualifier — rejected, flattens covenantal loyalty into generic affection, koob hmoov — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, same fate/fortune collision as grace
NEW ENTRY. The single most doctrinally load-bearing term in this curriculum (Hosea 2:19; 6:6; 10:12; 14:4). The ‘ruaj khov’ (steadfast/unwavering) qualifier is structurally mandatory, never dropped, mirroring the Romans baseline’s atomic-qualifier rule for ‘hwjchim’/‘Txoj Kevcai’. Must be taught as God’s loyal love maintained despite the covenant partner’s unfaithfulness — the opposite of reciprocal kwv tij (clan) duty-loyalty, which lapses when the other party defaults. Must never be conflated with ‘txiaj ntsim’ (grace) or ‘txoj kev khuv leej’ (mercy).
Harlotry Zanah
Approved rendering: kev ua nkauj yi
Transliteration: zenunim / zanah
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: euphemistic softening to plain ‘unfaithfulness’ with no embodied-metaphor content — rejected, erases Hosea’s deliberately shocking force
NEW ENTRY. Central metaphor of chs. 1-3 and recurring diagnosis (4, 5, 9). Register must remain formal/literary, never crude; must always be introduced with mandatory prophetic sign-act framing language at first occurrence in any lesson unit.
Adultery Naaph
Approved rendering: kev deev luag / kev sib deev
Transliteration: naaph
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: full merger with harlotry_zanah with no distinction — rejected where the Hebrew text distinguishes them
NEW ENTRY. Specifically covenant-breaking infidelity against an existing bond (2:2-13; 4:1-14), distinguished from harlotry_zanah’s broader promiscuity sense where the text requires it. Same register/pastoral-sensitivity discipline as harlotry_zanah.
Spirit Of Whoredom
Approved rendering: lub siab uas raug kev ua nkauj yi kav
Transliteration: ruach zenunim
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: ntsuj plig or Vaj Ntsuj Plig in any form — PERMANENTLY, ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN
NEW ENTRY. Personified internal disposition toward idolatrous unfaithfulness (4:12; 5:4). Highest-severity forbidden-substitution flag in the entire Hosea Language Package: using ‘ntsuj plig’ risks an animistic-possession misreading; using ‘Vaj Ntsuj Plig’ would catastrophically confuse the divine Holy Spirit’s fixed collocation with a metaphor for compulsive idolatry. Descriptive, wholly non-spirit-vocabulary phrasing is mandatory.
High Risk Terms
Human Spirit Soul
Approved rendering: ntsuj plig
Transliteration: pneuma (anthropological); cf. Hebrew nephesh/ruach anthropological senses
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Never used for the divine Spirit; kept lexically distinct from Vaj Ntsuj Plig and never applied to ‘ruach zenunim’ either (see spirit_of_whoredom, which uses wholly descriptive non-spirit phrasing).
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: charon aph / aph
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘npau taws’ associated with capricious spirit/ancestor anger — rejected without explicit contrast teaching
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. In Hosea 11:8-9, this wrath is explicitly real and deserved yet voluntarily restrained by God’s own compassion — must never be taught as ‘God was never really angry’ nor as ritually appeased.
Idol
Approved rendering: dab mlom
Transliteration: pesel / atsabim / massekhah
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘statue’ softening — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Correct as-is throughout Hosea (chs. 2, 4, 8, 13, 14); must not be softened.
Sin Act And Condition
Approved rendering: txhaum / kev txhaum
Transliteration: chattath / avon
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Used throughout Hosea (chs. 4, 13, 14) for both act and condition; retains the Romans baseline’s teaching requirement that this be an objective, God-ward guilt-condition, not merely reparable social/ritual fault.
Original Sin Adam Christ Typology
Approved rendering: Adas / kev ua txhaum (ntawm Adas)
Transliteration: Adam; paraptōma (NT parallel); cf. Hosea’s own ‘k’adam’ (like Adam) at 6:7
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Cross-referenced here because Hosea 6:7 (‘like Adam, they transgressed the covenant’) directly echoes this typology; useful bridge to the Romans baseline’s Original Sin doctrine, though Hosea’s own five assigned doctrines do not include Original Sin as a standalone doctrine — this entry is retained for consistency and cross-reference only.
Death
Approved rendering: txoj kev tuag
Transliteration: mavet
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. At Hosea 13:1 (idolatry pictured as a kind of spiritual death) and 13:14 (death as a personified power to be defeated, quoted by 1 Cor 15:55), risk is elevated from the Romans baseline’s Low rating; must be taught with the accompanying teaching note distinguishing covenantal/spiritual death from mere physical mortality.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: kev raug ua kom dawb huv
Transliteration: hagiasmos (NT parallel)
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: treating dawb huv as repeatable ritual-cleansing — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged here because it shares the ‘dawb huv’ root with the new Hosea entry ‘holy_one_qadosh’ (Tus Dawb Huv, 11:9); the two usages (process-word here vs. divine title there) must be kept visually/grammatically distinct and never blended in a single sentence without a clarifying clause.
Foreknow Predestine
Approved rendering: twb paub ua ntej lawm / twm chaw ua ntej lawm
Transliteration: proginōskō / proorizō (NT parallel)
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (fate) vocabulary — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Cross-referenced for consistency with the same hmoov-avoidance discipline applied throughout Hosea’s judgment/sovereignty vocabulary.
All Israel Will Be Saved
Approved rendering: tag nrho cov Yixalayees yuav dim
Transliteration: pas Israēl sōthēsetai (NT parallel, Rom 11:26)
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: flattening to generic lineage-continuity language — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Directly relevant because Romans 9:25-26 quotes Hosea 1:10/2:23 (the Lo-Ammi reversal) as scriptural support for this very Romans doctrine. [CROSS-REFERENCE: the Hmong rendering of Hosea's Lo-Ammi reversal (see lo_ammi entry) MUST be checked for consistency against this entry and any future Romans 9:25-26 curriculum treatment].
Salvation Save
Approved rendering: kev cawm dim / cawm
Transliteration: yasha
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: unanchored ‘dim’ parallel to shamanic soul-rescue — rejected without explicit anchoring
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. In Hosea (1:7, 13:4, 14:3), agency is YHWH/tus Tswv rather than an explicit ‘Yexus Khetos’ clause, since the text predates the incarnation; teach as typological anticipation of the fuller NT revelation, not a contradiction of the Romans baseline’s Christ-anchoring rule.
Living Sacrifice
Approved rendering: khoom fij uas muaj txoj sia nyob
Transliteration: thysia zōsa (NT parallel)
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘fij’ — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged as the fixed ‘ethical/devotional’ pole of the fij-family disambiguation discipline governing Hosea 6:6, 8:11-13, and especially 14:2’s ‘bulls of our lips’ (see bulls_of_our_lips entry), which realizes this very category in the Old Testament.
Lovers Meahabim
Approved rendering: cov khub deev
Transliteration: m’ahabim
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Rejected alternatives: weak ‘cov neeg nyiam’ (people who are liked) — rejected, too weak for the personified-idolatry force
NEW ENTRY. Personification of Baal(s)/foreign alliances as illicit romantic partners (ch. 2). Must be taught as a personification device within the marriage metaphor, not commentary on literal relationships.
Baal Proper Name
Approved rendering: Npa-as (transliterated proper name); common-noun ‘master/husband’ sense rendered contextually as tus tswv / tus txiv, never merged with the proper name
Transliteration: Ba’al / Ba’alim
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Rejected alternatives: rendering Baal generically as ‘tus tswv’ with no proper-name marking — FORBIDDEN, erases the idol’s distinct identity and risks confusion with ‘tus Tswv’ (Lord, God/Christ)
NEW ENTRY. Recurs throughout the book (2, 8, 9, 11, 13). The husband/master wordplay with 2:16-17 cannot be reproduced lexically in Hmong and requires a mandatory footnote, never a forced pun.
Ishi Baali Titles
Approved rendering: kuv tus txiv (ishi) vs. kuv tus Npa-as / kuv tus tswv (ba’ali)
Transliteration: ishi / ba’ali
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
NEW ENTRY (Hosea 2:16-17). God’s deliberate retirement of the ambiguous ‘ba’ali’ title in favor of the unambiguous ‘ishi’ cannot be reproduced as a pun; must be footnoted as a single teaching unit with baal_proper_name, retaining the transliterated Hebrew terms in the footnote for reference (parallel to the Romans baseline’s Abba/Leej Txiv handling).
Covenant Berith
Approved rendering: phau lus cog tseg (ntawm Vajtswv)
Transliteration: berith
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘lus cog tseg’ with no covenant-specific qualifier — flagged insufficient on its own for berith’s two-party binding-bond sense
NEW ENTRY (2, 4, 6, 8, 10), extending the Romans baseline’s ‘promise’ entry rather than replacing it. Qualifier ‘(ntawm Vajtswv)’ parallels the Law entry’s mandatory-qualifier pattern.
Know Yada Covenant
Approved rendering: kev paub Vajtswv
Transliteration: yada / da’at
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: plain ‘paub’ (know a fact) used interchangeably — rejected, collapses relational/covenantal recognition into mere informational awareness
NEW ENTRY (2:20; 4:1, 6; 6:3, 6; 13:5). Diagnostic root failure of the whole book (‘no knowledge of God in the land,’ 4:1). Must never be abbreviated to bare ‘paub’ when the covenantal sense is intended.
Return Repent Shuv
Approved rendering: rov qab los cuag Vajtswv
Transliteration: shuv (positive covenantal sense)
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘rov qab’ (go back) with no God-ward anchor — rejected, indistinguishable from negative/ironic senses of the same root
NEW ENTRY (5:15; 6:1; 7:16 [negative echo]; 11:5 [negative echo]; 12:6; 14:1). Central to Doctrine 5. Must be rendered identically at every positive occurrence for cross-passage consistency; paired contrastively with backsliding_meshuvah in all teaching material.
Backsliding Meshuvah
Approved rendering: kev tig rov qab ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: meshuvah
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
NEW ENTRY (11:7; 14:4). Noun-form counterpart of return_repent_shuv, naming Israel’s settled disposition of turning away — the tragic wordplay in which the same root that should mean ‘return to God’ instead names ‘turning away from God.’ Must be taught paired contrastively with return_repent_shuv wherever either appears.
Call Summon Qara
Approved rendering: hu
Transliteration: qara
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: unmarked, unqualified use with no teaching note — rejected
NEW ENTRY (11:1, 2, 7). hu is the identical Hmong verb used in the animistic soul-calling ritual hu plig. Every occurrence in this sense requires an explicit relational/historical anchor clause distinguishing God’s personal, covenantal summons from ritual soul-recall — a standing structural rule for all chapter 11 content, not a one-off flag.
Golden Calf Egel
Approved rendering: tus mlom nyuj kub
Transliteration: egel
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (8:5-6; 10:5; 13:2), built on the reused baseline ‘dab mlom’ root. Directly recalls the Exodus 32 golden-calf apostasy; the Beth-Aven wordplay at 10:5 requires a separate footnote (see beth_aven_wordplay).
Relenting Compassion Nocham
Approved rendering: kev khuv leej tig los hlub
Transliteration: nichumim / nocham
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: flattening to a simple ‘God changed His mind’ statement — rejected
NEW ENTRY (11:8; 13:14b). Must be taught as relational, covenantal language depicting God’s compassion prevailing, never as evidence of instability or capricious character change. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: 13:14b syntax/tone is exegetically debated — confirm framing with human theologian before finalizing any paraphrase].
Lo Ammi
Approved rendering: Lauv-Ami (Tsis Yog Kuv Haiv Neeg)
Transliteration: Lo-Ammi
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (1:9; reversed 2:23). [CROSS-REFERENCE: quoted by Paul in Romans 9:25-26 — this exact rendering MUST be reused for consistency in any future Romans-curriculum treatment of Rom 9:25-26]. See also all_israel_will_be_saved entry.
Medium Risk Terms
Faith Believe
Approved rendering: kev ntseeg / ntseeg
Transliteration: pistis / pisteuō (NT parallel)
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Relevant as the general human-response term contrasted with Hosea’s covenantal ‘knowing’ (yada) and ‘returning’ (shuv) vocabulary; must not be substituted for either.
Indwelling Sin
Approved rendering: kev txhaum nyob hauv (kuv)
Transliteration: hamartia enoikousa (NT parallel)
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
Rejected alternatives: pairing with dab (spirit) vocabulary — rejected
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Referenced as a cautionary comparison point for the new ‘spirit_of_whoredom’ entry: both are personified-sin metaphors that must avoid animistic possession-language, but spirit_of_whoredom carries the additional, higher-severity Vaj Ntsuj Plig collision risk this entry does not.
No Condemnation
Approved rendering: kev raug txiav txim rau kev puas tsuaj
Transliteration: katakrima (NT parallel)
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Its village-court legal-idiom bridge is reused as the model for the new ‘covenant_lawsuit_riv’ entry (Hosea 4, 12).
Adoption As Sons
Approved rendering: raug muab coj los ua me tub (ntawm Vajtswv)
Transliteration: huiothesia (NT parallel)
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Cross-referenced with Hosea 11:1’s corporate ‘my son’ (Israel) parental imagery; must be taught as related but not identical typology — Hosea’s is corporate/national, the NT entry is individual/soteriological.
Mercy
Approved rendering: txoj kev khuv leej
Transliteration: rachamim / racham
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: chesed used interchangeably for mercy — rejected, distinct emphases
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Paired with chesed as part of God’s fourfold betrothal gift (2:19-20) and reversed from the child-name Lo-Ruhamah (see lo_ruhamah entry); kept lexically distinct from steadfast_love_chesed per the Romans baseline’s mercy-vs-grace discipline, now extended to mercy-vs-chesed.
Faithfulness Emunah
Approved rendering: kev ncaj thiab kev ruaj khov
Transliteration: emunah
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Rejected alternatives: reuse of Romans baseline ‘faith_believe’ (kev ntseeg) — rejected, that entry denotes human trust, not God’s own attribute
NEW ENTRY (Hosea 2:20). God’s own reliable, trustworthy character; the fifth betrothal-gift term. Distinguished from steadfast_love_chesed as a related but separate covenant-quality term.
Heal Rapha
Approved rendering: kho kom zoo
Transliteration: rapha
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: equivalence with shamanic ritual healing (ua neeb kho mob) — rejected
NEW ENTRY (6:1 [taraph/rapha pair]; 7:1 [implied]; 11:3; 14:4). Climactic use at 14:4, ‘I will heal their apostasy.’ Must be taught as direct, complete divine healing, not ritual/spirit-negotiated healing.
Covenant Lawsuit Riv
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev foob thiab tsis txaus siab
Transliteration: riv
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (4:1; 12:2). Formal covenant-lawsuit genre opener; good cultural bridge via the Hmong village-dispute/lawsuit concept (plaub ntug), consistent with the Romans baseline’s village-court idiom for no_condemnation.
Holy One Qadosh
Approved rendering: Tus Dawb Huv
Transliteration: Qadosh
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (11:9). Divine title grounding God’s transcendent, non-capricious moral character — the reason His compassion prevails over deserved wrath. Reuses the ‘dawb huv’ root from the inherited sanctification entry; must be kept grammatically/visually distinct from that process-word usage and carries the same folk-ritual-purity contrast-note requirement.
Cords Of Kindness
Approved rendering: txoj hlua ntawm tib neeg kev hlub / txoj hlua ntawm kev hlub
Transliteration: chevlei adam / avotot ahavah
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
NEW ENTRY (11:4). Concrete draft-animal-leading imagery transfers well in an agrarian Hmong context; comprehension-level risk only.
Punishment Visitation Pequddah
Approved rendering: hnub uas Vajtswv yuav txiav txim
Transliteration: pequddah
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (fate) vocabulary — rejected, same collision the Romans baseline forbids for election/foreknowledge
NEW ENTRY (9:7). God’s active, appointed reckoning must be distinguished from impersonal fatalistic language.
Sheol Grave
Approved rendering: tub tuag teb
Transliteration: Sheol
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
Rejected alternatives: direct equivalence with Hmong ancestral-spirit-realm veneration cosmology — rejected
NEW ENTRY (13:14). Must be taught as an enemy-power defeated by God’s redemption, not a venerated ancestral abode. Paired with the inherited ‘death’ entry; 13:14 is directly quoted by 1 Corinthians 15:55.
Lo Ruhamah
Approved rendering: Lauv-Luhamas (Tsis Tau Txais Kev Khuv Leej)
Transliteration: Lo-Ruhamah
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (1:6; reversed 2:23). Shares its root with the inherited ‘mercy’ entry; the positive reversal at 2:23 must reuse the identical root.
Beth Aven Wordplay
Approved rendering: Npe-thes (Bethel) / Npe-avees (Beth-Aven), footnoted together
Transliteration: egel Beit-Aven (Beit-El)
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (10:5). Bitter wordplay (Bethel ‘house of God’ renamed Beth-Aven ‘house of iniquity’) cannot be reproduced lexically in Hmong; requires a mandatory explanatory footnote, parallel to the Baal/husband wordplay handling.
Altar Mizbeach
Approved rendering: lub thaj
Transliteration: mizbeach
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (8:11). Must be marked as illegitimate/idolatrous altars in this context, reusing the cultic-object register established for the fij family.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: Elohim
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Used throughout Hosea for Israel’s covenant God.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: YHWH / Adonai
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: divine-name substitution (‘Yehauvas’) — forbidden per Romans baseline §4
Inherited from Romans package verbatim (kyrios parallel). Used for YHWH/Adonai throughout Hosea.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Leej Tub ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: huios theou (NT parallel)
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Hosea 11:1’s ‘my son’ (Israel, corporate covenant sonship) is rendered separately as ‘kuv tus tub’ and must be taught as distinct from this unique divine Sonship of Christ, though the same honorific register informs both. Matthew 2:15 typologically applies Hosea 11:1 to Christ.
Promise
Approved rendering: lus cog tseg
Transliteration: epangelia (NT parallel); cf. Hebrew covenant-pledge language
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Serves as the base term extended (not replaced) by the new ‘covenant_berith’ entry, which adds the two-party binding-bond qualifier bare ‘lus cog tseg’ lacks.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: basileia tou theou (NT parallel)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Logged only to fix the boundary with the new ‘king_human_melekh’ entry (Hosea’s human kings, e.g. Assyria’s king, 11:5): the two phrases must never be confused.
Hope
Approved rendering: kev cia siab
Transliteration: tiqvah
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. Used at Hosea 2:15’s ‘door of hope’ (Valley of Achor transformed).
Wind Ruach Natural
Approved rendering: cua
Transliteration: ruach (non-spirit sense)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY (8:7 ‘sow the wind, reap the whirlwind’; 13:15). Logged purely to confirm correct disambiguation from Vaj Ntsuj Plig/ntsuj plig; Hmong’s clean, unambiguous natural-wind word carries no collision risk itself.
Yoke Ol
Approved rendering: lub quab
Transliteration: ol
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
NEW ENTRY (11:4). Familiar agrarian image of God lightening, not imposing, the yoke.
King Human Melekh
Approved rendering: tus vaj ntxwv
Transliteration: melekh
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13). Human political kingship (e.g., Assyria’s king replacing YHWH’s kingship, 11:5); must not be confused with the inherited ‘kingdom_of_god’ phrase.
Dove Yonah
Approved rendering: nquab
Transliteration: yonah
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
NEW ENTRY (7:11). Symbol of foolish flightiness; concrete image transfers cleanly.
Sword Chereb
Approved rendering: rab ntaj
Transliteration: chereb
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (11:6). Concrete image of judgment; stable, no collision.
Tremble Charad
Approved rendering: ntshai tshee hnyo
Transliteration: charad
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
NEW ENTRY (11:10-11). Awe-filled trembling of returning exiles, connecting to the return/shuv theme.
Deceit Lies
Approved rendering: kev dag ntxias
Transliteration: kazav / remiyah
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (11:12). Stable, existing Hmong moral vocabulary; no collision.
Ephraim Name
Approved rendering: Efalayees
Transliteration: Ephraim
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY. Hosea’s most frequent name for the Northern Kingdom (~37 occurrences). [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm final transliteration is distinct from and not confusable with 'Yixalayees' (Israel)]. Consistency across all occurrences is essential.
Israel Name
Approved rendering: Yixalayees
Transliteration: Yisrael
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY. Consistent with the Romans baseline’s existing transliteration convention (used there in ‘tag nrho cov Yixalayees yuav dim’).
Jacob Name
Approved rendering: Yakhauj
Transliteration: Ya’aqov
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY (ch. 12). [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm existing standard Hmong OT spelling if already established elsewhere].
Gomer Diblaim
Approved rendering: Kaumaws / Divelais
Transliteration: Gomer / Diblayim
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
NEW ENTRY (chs. 1, 3). [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm against any existing Hmong OT transliteration precedent].
Assyria Name
Approved rendering: Axilias
Transliteration: Ashshur
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (chs. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14). Established transliteration; stable proper name.
Egypt Name
Approved rendering: Iziv
Transliteration: Mitsrayim
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
NEW ENTRY (chs. 2, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13). Established transliteration; stable proper name.
Admah Zeboiim
Approved rendering: Admas / Xenpauyees
Transliteration: Admah / Tseboyim
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (11:8). Cities destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah; comprehension-gap only, one-line footnote (Genesis 19) required.
Low-Medium Risk Terms
Love
Approved rendering: kev hlub
Transliteration: ahav
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Inherited from Romans package verbatim. In Hosea this is the broad affection-word (God’s freely-initiated parental love, 11:1; His unconditioned ‘free’ love, 14:4) — must be kept lexically distinct from the new, more technical steadfast_love_chesed entry.
Seek Baqash
Approved rendering: nrhiav
Transliteration: baqash
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
NEW ENTRY (5:6). Israel’s futile ritual-only seeking, contrasted theologically with genuine covenant return (return_repent_shuv).
God Not Man
Approved rendering: kuv yog Vajtswv, tsis yog neeg
Transliteration: El ve-lo ish
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (11:9). The ontological ground for God’s capacity to hold judgment and compassion together perfectly; should be taught alongside Romans’s divine-nature material for cross-curriculum consistency.
Vine Gephen
Approved rendering: tsob txiv hmab
Transliteration: gephen
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (10:1). Comprehension-gap (grape cultivation unfamiliar to highland Hmong agrarian context); illustrative note recommended, parallel to the Romans baseline’s olive-tree handling.
Jezreel Name
Approved rendering: Yexeliyees (Vajtswv Tso Tawg / Vajtswv Tseb)
Transliteration: Yizre’el
Doctrine: Judgment and Compassion Held Together
NEW ENTRY (1:4-5; reversed 2:22-23). Name-plus-meaning-gloss required at first occurrence and again at its positive reversal; both must use the identical pairing.
Valley Of Achor
Approved rendering: Lub Hav Akhaus
Transliteration: Emeq Akhor
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
NEW ENTRY (2:15). Comprehension-gap (Joshua 7 reference); one-line footnote required, paired with the inherited ‘hope’ entry (‘door of hope’).
Dew Lily Lebanon Imagery
Approved rendering: descriptive rendering of dew, blossoming flower, and fragrant cedar-forest imagery, footnoted
Transliteration: tal / shoshannah / Levanon
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Rejected alternatives: substituting a locally-familiar plant for dynamic equivalence — rejected, severs the canonical intertextual echo
NEW ENTRY (14:5-7). Comprehension-gap (Lebanon/cedar imagery exotic to Hmong context); illustrative note recommended, parallel to the Romans baseline’s olive-tree handling.
Yashar Upright
Approved rendering: ncaj
Transliteration: yashar
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY (14:9, closing wisdom-proverb). May be rendered simply without invoking the full Critical-tier apparatus of ‘ncaj ncees’ (righteousness_of_god_righteous), since this is a wisdom-proverb statement, not a forensic-justification context.
Priest Kohen
Approved rendering: pov thawj
Transliteration: kohen
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (4:6, 9). Literal OT cultic priesthood, indicted for failing to teach knowledge of God; distinct from the Romans baseline’s NT ‘priestly_minister’ (leitourgos) — the two must not be merged.
Prophet Navi
Approved rendering: tus cev Vajtswv Lus
Transliteration: navi
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
NEW ENTRY (6 implied; 9; 12:13). Distinct from the Romans baseline’s NT ‘apostle’ entry (different office/era).
Deceitful Scales
Approved rendering: raj teev ntxias (tus lag luam ntxias luag)
Transliteration: moznei mirmah
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (12:7). Commercial dishonesty as an expression of covenant unfaithfulness; comprehension-level only.
Oven Tannur
Approved rendering: lub qhov cub
Transliteration: tannur
Doctrine: Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry as Covenant Breaking
NEW ENTRY (7:4, 6-7). Metaphor for internal moral/political corruption ‘heating up’; comprehension-gap (unfamiliar oven type), illustrative note recommended.
Roar Shaag
Approved rendering: nrov ntsuag / quaj nrov
Transliteration: sha’ag
Doctrine: God’s Steadfast Love despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness
NEW ENTRY (11:10). God’s future restorative summons pictured as a gathering, not merely threatening, lion’s roar; must be distinguished in teaching accordingly.
Medium-High Risk Terms
Betroth Arash
Approved rendering: qhaib coj los ua poj niam mus ib txhis
Transliteration: arash
Doctrine: The Marriage Metaphor for God and His People
Rejected alternatives: unqualified betrothal vocabulary with no ‘mus ib txhis’ (forever) qualifier — rejected, risks reduction to ordinary bride-price transaction
NEW ENTRY (Hosea 2:19-20). The ‘mus ib txhis’ qualifier is structurally mandatory. Must be distinguished from the literal, costly purchase of Gomer in ch. 3 (a deliberately different image).
Bulls Of Our Lips
Approved rendering: tej lus qhuas ntawm peb daim tawv ncauj
Transliteration: parim sephateynu
Doctrine: The Call to Return and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: literal word-for-word rendering implying actual cattle offered verbally — rejected, produces misleading imagery
NEW ENTRY (14:2). Reinterprets cultic sacrifice as verbal praise; the clearest textual payoff of the fij-family disambiguation discipline. Must render the idiom’s meaning, with the literal ‘bulls’ image restored only in a footnote.