Hosea13
New Living Translation
1When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the people shook with fear, for that tribe was important in Israel. But the people of Ephraim sinned by worshiping Baal and thus sealed their destruction.
2Now they continue to sin by making silver idols, images shaped skillfully with human hands. “Sacrifice to these,” they cry, “and kiss the calf idols!”
3Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist, like dew in the morning sun, like chaff blown by the wind, like smoke from a chimney.
4“I have been the Lord your God ever since I brought you out of Egypt. You must acknowledge no God but me, for there is no other savior.
5I took care of you in the wilderness, in that dry and thirsty land.
6But when you had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me.
7So now I will attack you like a lion, like a leopard that lurks along the road.
8Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away, I will tear out your heart. I will devour you like a hungry lioness and mangle you like a wild animal.
9“You are about to be destroyed, O Israel— yes, by me, your only helper.
10Now where is your king? Let him save you! Where are all the leaders of the land, the king and the officials you demanded of me?
11In my anger I gave you kings, and in my fury I took them away.
12“Ephraim’s guilt has been collected, and his sin has been stored up for punishment.
13Pain has come to the people like the pain of childbirth, but they are like a child who resists being born. The moment of birth has arrived, but they stay in the womb!
14“Should I ransom them from the grave? Should I redeem them from death? O death, bring on your terrors! O grave, bring on your plagues! For I will not take pity on them.
15Ephraim was the most fruitful of all his brothers, but the east wind—a blast from the Lord— will arise in the desert. All their flowing springs will run dry, and all their wells will disappear. Every precious thing they own will be plundered and carried away.
16The people of Samaria must bear the consequences of their guilt because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed by an invading army, their little ones dashed to death against the ground, their pregnant women ripped open by swords.”
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