Hosea 13King James Version
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. 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. Paul quotes this in 1 Corinthians 15.
When Ephraim trembled and feared God, he was exalted in Israel; once he attached himself to Baal he died spiritually. Their idols are handmade nonsense. God alone brought them out of Egypt, knew them in the wilderness, fed them, and watched them grow fat and forget him. Now he comes as lion, as leopard, as a bereaved bear to tear them. Yet even here: 'I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.' The chapter ends on the edge of Samaria's fall.
The nation that forgot the God who fed it in the desert will meet that same God coming toward them as a bear robbed of her cubs, yet even now he holds the keys to death and grave.
verse: "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." (13:14): Paul quotes this in 1 Corinthians 15 as a resurrection taunt, but its original setting is a God who refuses to let death have the final word even over a nation being destroyed.
This is the eve of 722 BC. Samaria has likely already been under Assyrian siege for one or two years. Hosea describes what is coming with precision: infants dashed, pregnant women ripped open. He has watched the northern kingdom die and is dictating its autopsy while it is still breathing.
God is the speaker throughout, moving from aggrieved covenant keeper to predatory beast to death-destroyer inside a single chapter. Ephraim is the nation in freefall. The unnamed king Israel demanded in pride, given 'in anger and taken away in wrath,' is a reference to the whole institution of the monarchy. Death and Sheol are addressed directly as opponents God can overpower.
The sudden pivot to ransom in verse 14, inside a chapter of destruction, is the book's most startling turn after chapter 11:8. Hosea holds the judgment and the redemption in the same hand without resolving the tension. This is what gives the verse its explosive power when Paul reaches for it centuries later as the climax of his resurrection argument.
The bear bereaved of her whelps image is one of the most visceral threat images in Hebrew poetry. And then, mid-chapter, the tone shifts entirely to defiance against death itself on Israel's behalf.
1When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
2And 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.
3Therefore 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.
4Yet 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.
5I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
7Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
8I 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.
9O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
10I 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?
11I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
12The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
13The 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.
14I 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.
15Though 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.
16Samaria 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.