Hosea 13

Hosea 13 is the next-to-last chapter of the fourteen-chapter Book of Hosea. Continuing from Hosea 12, it indicts Ephraim for its sins and pronounces judgment. Ephraim is a name for the whole northern kingdom of Israel. The chapter's pronouncement leads into the call to repentance in Hosea 14.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 Ephraim, once exalted in Israel, sinned through Baal and perished. Yet the people still cast idols of silver and kiss calves. They will vanish like the morning cloud and the dew, like chaff and smoke.
• Verses 4–8 The Lord has been their God since Egypt, and there is no savior besides him. God cared for them in the wilderness, but once they were filled, they grew proud and forgot him. Therefore God will fall upon them like a lion, a leopard, and a bear robbed of her cubs.
• Verses 9–11 Israel asked for a king and princes. God asks where their king is now and declares that he gave them a king in his anger and took him away in his wrath.
• Verses 12–16 Ephraim's sin is bound up and stored away. The people are likened to an unwise son who does not come forth at the time of birth. Then follows a pronouncement addressed to death and Sheol (the realm of the dead). The chapter ends with the verdict that an east wind will dry up the springs and plunder the treasures, and that Samaria will fall by the sword.

Key Verses

• Hosea 13:4 "For there is no saviour beside me" — On the basis of the relationship that began with the Exodus, God demands that Israel serve the Lord alone.
• Hosea 13:6 "They were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me" — This verse shows how abundance leads to forgetting God.
• Hosea 13:14 "O death, I will be thy plagues" (rendered in some versions as "O death, where are thy plagues?") — Paul quoted this verse when speaking of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.

People and Places

• Ephraim — A tribe named after a son of Joseph. In the Book of Hosea, the name represents the northern kingdom of Israel.
• Egypt — Mentioned as the starting point of Israel's relationship with God.
• Samaria — The capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Notes for Reading

• The calves of verse 2 are commonly associated with the golden calves that Jeroboam set up at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28–29).
• Interpretations differ regarding the king in verses 10–11. Some see a reference to the installation of Saul as king (1 Samuel 8), while others see a reference to the situation in Hosea's day, when the kings of the northern kingdom were replaced in rapid succession.
• Verse 14 is also read in different ways. Some read it as a promise of salvation, while others, noting that the surrounding verses speak of judgment, read it as an ironic question. Some translations render the first part of the verse as a question. The word "repentance" (KJV: "repentance shall be hid from mine eyes") is understood to refer to God's compassion in relenting. In 1 Corinthians 15:55, Paul uses this verse to proclaim that death has been conquered through the resurrection of Christ. Paul's wording, however, differs from the Hebrew text.
• The east wind of verse 15 is commonly understood as the Assyrian invasion. Verse 16 is connected with the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in the late eighth century BC. In the Hebrew Bible, verse 16 is numbered as 14:1.