Hosea 13

When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was lifted high in Israel. But he became guilty by worshiping the god Baal, and he died.

1When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

Note"Ephraim" was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and prophets often use the name for that whole kingdom (also called Israel), as distinct from Judah in the south. The Hebrew of the first line is ambiguous: it can mean that when Ephraim spoke others trembled in awe, or that Ephraim himself spoke with trembling (that is, with proper reverence) before he turned to Baal. Baal was the Canaanite storm and fertility god, the chief rival to the LORD in Israelite worship. "He died" is said of the tribe or nation, not of an individual.

2Now they sin more and more. They melt their silver and cast images from it, idols shaped by their own ideas, every one of them made by craftsmen. People say about them, "Those who sacrifice kiss the calves."

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.

NoteCasting images meant melting silver and pouring it into a mold. The "calves" are the young-bull images set up at Bethel and Dan as the official shrines of the northern kingdom; kissing an image was the ordinary gesture of homage to a god, like kissing the hand or foot of a statue. The Hebrew of the last line is unusually compressed and can be read two ways: "those who sacrifice kiss calves," or "those who sacrifice human beings kiss calves."

3So they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that dries up, like husks of grain blown away by a whirlwind from the threshing floor, like smoke drifting out of a window.

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.

NoteA threshing floor was a flat, exposed patch of hard ground where grain was beaten loose and then tossed into the air; the wind carried off the light husks (chaff) and the heavy grain fell back. Chaff is the standard image for something weightless and instantly gone. Houses had no chimneys, smoke escaped through a hole or lattice opening in the wall or roof.

4Yet I am the LORD your God, and have been since you were in the land of Egypt. You are to know no god but me, for there is no rescuer except me.

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.

Note"Since the land of Egypt" points back to the exodus, when the people were brought out of slavery in Egypt; the phrase can mean either "ever since that time" or "the God who brought you from there." "Rescuer" (KJV "saviour") here means a deliverer from danger (from enemies, famine, captivity), not a religious title.

5I knew you in the desert, in a land of burning heat where there was no water.

5I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

Note"Knew" in Hebrew covers more than having information: to know someone is to acknowledge them, claim them, look after them. Some ancient versions read a similar-looking Hebrew word meaning "I fed" or "I shepherded you," which fits the pasture image in the next verse.

6When they had pasture, they ate their fill. They were full, and their hearts grew proud; and so they forgot me.

6According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

NoteThe picture is of livestock: good grazing, animals eating until they are full, and then no longer needing the shepherd. "Heart" in Hebrew usage means the inner self (mind, will and intention), not the seat of feeling alone.

7So I will be like a lion to them; like a leopard I will lie in wait beside the road.

7Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

8I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and I will tear their chests open. There I will devour them like a lion, the way a wild animal rips its prey apart.

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.

NoteThe KJV's "caul of their heart" is the membrane or casing around the heart; the phrase means the animal rips open the chest cavity. Bears, lions and leopards were all real hazards in the hill country and along travel routes at this period.

9Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but your help is in me.

9O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

NoteThis verse is one of the hardest lines in the book. The Hebrew as written says something like "he has destroyed you, Israel, for against me, against your helper", with no clear ending. Translators either supply "you have destroyed yourself, but your help is in me" (as the KJV does) or read it as "you are destroyed because you are against me, your helper." Both are attempts to finish a sentence the Hebrew leaves broken.

10I will be your king. Where is anyone else who can save you in all your cities? Where are your rulers, the ones you asked for when you said, "Give me a king and leaders"?

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?

NoteThe first Hebrew word here is read by the KJV as "I will be [your king]" and by most modern translations as "where is...", the two are nearly identical in Hebrew. The demand "Give me a king" recalls the moment when Israel asked for a monarchy like the surrounding nations instead of being governed by judges (1 Samuel 8). "Judges" were leaders who settled disputes and led in war, the system that preceded kingship.

11I gave you a king because I was angry, and I took him away in my fury.

11I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

NoteIn the northern kingdom's last decades, kings were repeatedly installed by force and murdered in short order, four of the last six were assassinated. "Gave" and "took away" describe that whole history of grasped and toppled thrones.

12Ephraim's guilt is tied up in a bundle; his sin is kept in storage.

12The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

NoteThe image is of a legal document: written, rolled up, tied and sealed, then filed away for safekeeping until it is produced in court. Nothing is lost or overlooked; the record is being kept.

13Pains like those of a woman in labor come on him. He is a son with no sense: when the time comes, he does not come out of the womb.

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.

NoteIn childbirth, a baby that fails to move into the birth canal at the right moment endangers both itself and the mother; without surgery this was usually fatal to both. The son is called foolish because the moment of deliverance arrives and he will not take it.

14I will pay the price to free them from the power of the grave; I will buy them back from death. Death, I will be your plagues. Grave, I will be your ruin. Pity is hidden from my eyes.

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.

Note"Ransom" and "redeem" are commercial words: paying a price to free a captive or a debt-slave, or buying back family land or family members who had been sold. "The grave" translates Sheol, the underworld where the Hebrew Bible pictures all the dead as going, not a place of punishment. The verse is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew and has been read both as a promise (I will rescue them) and as a summons calling Death's plagues down on Israel; the closing line, that pity is hidden from view, is what makes many read it the second way. In the KJV, "repentance" carries its older sense of a change of mind or a relenting, not sorrow for sin.

15Even if he thrives among his brothers, an east wind will come, a wind from the LORD rising out of the desert. His spring will fail and his well will run dry. The wind will strip his storehouse of every precious thing.

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.

NoteThe name Ephraim sounds like the Hebrew word for "fruitful," so "though he be fruitful" is a play on the name. The east wind is the sirocco, a scorching desert wind that withers crops in a day; it also stands for the invader coming from that direction, Assyria. "Spring" and "well" are another play on the name, and in a dry country the loss of water is the loss of everything.

16Samaria will be left in ruins, because she has rebelled against her God. Her people will fall by the sword. Their little children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women cut open.

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.

NoteIn Hebrew Bibles this verse is numbered as 14:1, the first verse of the next chapter. Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom; it fell to Assyria in 722 BC. Killing the children and cutting open pregnant women are named because they were recognized practices when an ancient city was stormed, the point being that the conquered people would have no next generation.