Hosea13
New International Version
1When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
2Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss calf-idols!”
3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.
4“But I have been the Lord your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.
5I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat.
6When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
7So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them— a wild animal will tear them apart.
9“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.
10Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?
11So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.
12The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.
13Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.
14“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? “I will have no compassion,
15even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the Lord will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.
16The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Hosea 13.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The abuse of God's favour leads to punishment. (1-8). A promise of God's mercy. (9-16).
vv1-8
While Ephraim kept up a holy fear of God, and worshipped Him in that fear, so long he was very considerable. When Ephraim forsook God, and followed idolatry, he sunk. Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves, in token of their adoration of them, affection for them, and obedience to them; but the Lord will not give his glory to another, and therefore all that worship images shall be confounded. No solid, lasting comfort, is to be expected any where but in God. God not only took care of the Israelites in the wilderness, he put them in possession of Canaan, a good land; but worldly prosperity, when it feeds men's pride, makes them forgetful of God. Therefore the Lord would meet them in just vengeance, as the most terrible beast that inhabited their forests. Abused goodness calls for greater severity.
vv9-16
Israel had destroyed himself by his rebellion; but he could not save himself, his help was from the Lord only. This may well be applied to the case of spiritual redemption, from that lost state into which all have fallen by wilful sins. God often gives in displeasure what we sinfully desire. It is the happiness of the saints, that, whether God gives or takes away, all is in love. But it is the misery of the wicked, that, whether God gives or takes away, it is all in wrath, nothing is comfortable. Except sinners repent and believe the gospel, anguish will soon come upon them. The prophecy of the ruin of Israel as a nation, also showed there would be a merciful and powerful interposition of God, to save a remnant of them. Yet this was but a shadow of the ransom of the true Israel, by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He will destroy death and the grave. The Lord would not repent of his purpose and promise. Yet, in the mean time, Israel would be desolated for her sins. Without fruitfulness in good works, springing from the Holy Spirit, all other fruitfulness will be found as empty as the uncertain riches of the world. The wrath of God will wither its branches, its sprigs shall be dried up, it shall come to nothing. Woes, more terrible than any from the most cruel warfare, shall fall on those who rebel against God. From such miseries, and from sin, the cause of them, may the Lord deliver us.
Key Words
אֶפְרַיִם: Ephrajim, a son of Joseph; also the tribe descended from him, and its territory
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
רְתֵת: terror
נָשָׂא: to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relative
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
אָשַׁם: to be guilty; by implication to be punished or perish
בַּעַל: Baal, a Phoenician deity
מוּת: to die (literally or figuratively); causatively, to kill
עַתָּה: at this time, whether adverb, conjunction or expletive
חָטָא: properly, to miss; hence (figuratively and generally) to sin; by inference, to forfeit, lack, expiate, repent, (causatively) lead astray, condemn
Cross References
Hosea 13Direct parallel to the practice of kissing the calves as an act of pagan adoration.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Famous apostolic adaptation of the triumphant defiance: 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave...'
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Repetition of the exact imagery of the vanishing morning cloud and early dew.
Supported by JFB
Moses' warning of Jeshurun waxing fat, being filled, and then forsaking God who made him.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The historical request for a king ('Give me a king') which rejected God's direct rule.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
God giving Saul in displeasure and removing him in wrath due to rebellion.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
The fatal spiritual turning point under Ahab when Israel officially offended in Baal.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel declaration of God's identity as Yahweh from the land of Egypt.
Supported by JFB
God knowing and leading Israel through the great and terrible wilderness of drought.
Supported by JFB
Sin described as laid up in store and sealed up among God's treasures.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The motif of transgression being sealed up in a bag, safely preserved for reckoning.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The east wind drying up the fruit and fountains, representing the destructive Assyrian invasion.
Supported by JFB
Literal, horrific historical fulfillment of women with child being ripped up by conquerors.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The cultural practice of kissing a deity as a sign of absolute allegiance.
Supported by JFB
Job's denial of throwing a kiss with the hand to pagan celestial bodies.
Supported by JFB
Direct echo of the opening of the Decalogue establishing God's exclusive claim.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Moses' specific warning that being full in the land would lead to forgetting God.
Supported by JFB
Lamentations' parallel comparison of God's sudden judgment to a waiting bear and lion.
Supported by JFB
Proverbial danger of meeting a fierce she-bear robbed of her whelps.
Supported by JFB
Samuel declaring that requesting a earthly king was a rejection of God as savior.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Contrast between Ephraim's name ('fruitful') and his impending spiritual and physical dryness.
Supported by John Calvin, JFB
Chaff driven away by the wind representing the utter dissolution of pagan kingdoms.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Earlier Hosian warning of God acting as a fierce lion to tear Ephraim.
Supported by JFB
Verbal echo highlighting how self-willed sin destroys one's own soul.
Supported by JFB