Hosea 13 KJV
The Lord's Anger Against Israel
Hosea Chapter 13: The Lord's Anger Against Israel
Hosea 13:14 supplies the source of the taunt 'O death, where is thy sting?' that Paul revoices in 1 Corinthians 15, converting an oracle of irrevocable judgment into a proclamation of resurrection victory.
1hen Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
5 I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?
11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
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Did You Know?
Hosea 13:14 supplies the source of the taunt 'O death, where is thy sting?' that Paul revoices in 1 Corinthians 15, converting an oracle of irrevocable judgment into a proclamation of resurrection victory.
The verse 13 childbirth image casts Ephraim as a son who refuses to emerge at the 'breaking forth of children,' a striking reversal of the Exodus birth motif that equates national judgment with failed labor and spiritual stillbirth.
God's remembered wilderness care (feeding and knowing Israel) is deliberately inverted into the ferocity of a lion, leopard, and bear robbed of her whelps, demonstrating how covenant intimacy intensifies the form of divine wrath.
The sudden ransom declaration in 13:14 stands in unresolved tension with the surrounding destruction oracles, creating a theological ambiguity later exploited by Christian interpreters yet left open-ended in the Hebrew text itself.
Verse 16's prediction of infants dashed and pregnant women ripped open precisely anticipates the documented Assyrian siege practices later inflicted on Samaria, fusing prophetic hyperbole with the concrete military horrors of the eighth century BCE.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain When Ephraim spake trembling โ rather, "When Ephraim (the tribe most powerful among the twelve in Israel's early history) spake (authoritatively) there was trembling"; all reverentโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Hosea 13 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Ephraim's sinful ingratitude to God, and its fatal consequence; God's promise at last.
- 1
- When Ephraim spake trembling โ rather, "When Ephraim (the tribe most powerful among the twelve in Israel's early history) spake (authoritatively) there was trembling"; all reverentially feared him [JEROME], (compare Job 29:8, 9, 21). offended in Baal โ that is, in respect to Baal, by worshipping him (1Ki 16:31), under Ahab; a more heinous offense than even the calves. Therefore it is at this climax of guilt that Ephraim "died." Sin has, in the sight of God, within itself the germ of death, though that death may not visibly take effect till long after. Compare Ro 7:9, "Sin revived, and I died." So Adam in the day of his sin was to die, though the sentence was not visibly executed till long after (Ge 2:17; 5:5). Israel is similarly represented as politically dead in Eze 37:1-28.
- 2
- according to their own understanding โ that is, their arbitrary devising. Compare "will-worship," Col 2:23. Men are not to be "wise above that which is written," or to follow their own understanding, but God's command in worship. kiss the calves โ an act of adoration to the golden calves (compare 1Ki 19:18; Job 31:27; Ps 2:12).
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