I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man — the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:9)
I will not flare my nose. I will not contort my face.
I am power among you, yet I am set apart. My purposes are not the same as yours, yet I am part of you.
When I come it cannot be as into a closely guarded place.
Translation and interpretation are two closely related but very different skills. In working across cultures we usually want a good translator who will give us what we need to intrepret meaning ourselves.
But there are times when even the best translator may have to explain what is being said is different - even the opposite - of its meaning.
I am amazed at what the Hebrew, translated above as, "I will not come in wrath", might also mean. The verb is bow' meaning to go in, come in, enter. It is different than arriving. There is a strong sense of merging with.
The noun is 'iyr which is derived from the word for a place that is guarded, defended, shut off.
What I hear is God will not enter into a place without being welcomed. God will not enter into a heart and mind that resists.
God is trying to seduce us. But God will not force our acceptance.
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