Hosea 13:14

King James Version (KJV)

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: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

I will ransom them from the power of the grave - In their captivity they are represented as dead and buried, which is a similar view to that taken of the Jews in the Babylonish captivity by Ezekiel in his vision of the valley of dry bones. They are now lost as to the purpose for which they were made, for which God had wrought so many miracles for them and for their ancestors; but the gracious purpose of God shall not be utterly defeated. He will bring them out of that grave, and ransom them from that death; for as they have deserved that death and disgraceful burial, they must be redeemed and ransomed from it, or still lie under it. And who can do this but God himself? And he will do it. In the prospect of this the prophet exclaims, in the person of the universal Redeemer, "O death, I will be thy plagues;" I will bring into thy reign the principle of its destruction. The Prince of life shall lie for a time under thy power, that he may destroy that power.

O grave, I will be thy destruction - I will put an end to thy dreary domination by rising from the dead, and bringing life and immortality to life by my Gospel, and by finally raising from the death the whole human race in the day of the general resurrection.

שאול sheol, which we translate grave, is the state of the dead. מות maveth, which we translate death, is the principle of corruption that renders the body unfit to be longer the tenement of the soul, and finally decomposes it. Sheol shall be destroyed, for it must deliver up all its dead. Maveth shall be annihilated, for the body shall be raised incorruptible. See the use which the apostle makes of this passage, 1 Corinthians 15:54, 1 Corinthians 15:55; but he does not quote from the Hebrew, nor from any of the ancient versions. He had to apply the subject anew; and the Spirit, which had originally given the words, chose to adapt them to the subject then in hand, which was the resurrection of the dead in the last day. Instead of דבריך debareycha, thy plagues, one of my oldest MSS., ninety-six of Kennicott's and thirty-two of De Rossi's, have דברך debarcha, thy plague, that which shall carry thee off, as the plague does them who are affected by it. To carry off, carry away, is one of the regular meanings of the verb דבר dabar .

Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes - On these points I will not change my purpose; this is the signification of repentance when attributed to God.

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Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

I will ransom them from the power of the grave - Literally, “from the hand,” i. e., the “grasp of the grave,” or “of hell.” God, by His prophets, mingles promises of mercy in the midst of His threats of punishment. His mercy overflows the bounds of the occasion upon which He makes it known. He had sentenced Ephraim to temporal destruction. This was unchangeable. He points to that which turns all temporal less into gain, their eternal redemption. The words are the fullest which could have been chosen. The word rendered “ransom,” signifies, rescued them by the payment of a price, the word rendered “redeem,” relates to one, who, as the nearest of kin, had the right to acquire anything as his own, by paying that price. Both words, in their exactest sense, describe what Jesus did, buying us “with a price,” a full and dear price, “not of corruptible things, as of silver and gold, but with His precious blood” 1 Peter 1:18-19; and that, becoming our near kinsman, by His Incarnation, “for which cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren Hebrews 2:11, and “little children” John 13:33.

This was never done by God at any other time, than when, out of love for our lost world, “He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16; and He “came to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, add 1 Timothy 2:6). Then only was man really delivered from the “grasp” of the “grave;” so that “the first death” should only be a freedom from corruption, an earnest, and, to fallen man, a necessary condition of immortality; man “the second death” should “have no power over” them Revelation 20:6.: Thenceforward “death, the parent of sorrow, ministers to joy; death, our dishonor, is employed to our glory; the “gate of hell” is the portal to the kingdom of heaven; the “pit of destruction” is the entrance to salvation; and that to man, a sinner.” At no other time, “were men freed from death and the grave, so as to make any distinction between them and others subject to mortality.” The words refuse to be tied down to a temporal deliverance. A little longer continuance in Canaan is not a redemption from the power of the grave; nor was Ephraim so delivered. Words of God, “cannot mean so little, while they express so much.” Then and then alone were they, in their literal meaning, fulfilled when God the Son “took” our flesh, “that, through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage” Hebrews 2:14-15.

The Jews have a tradition wrapped up in their way, that this was to be accomplished in Christ.: “I went with the angel Kippod, and Messiah son of David went with me, until I came to the gates of hell. When the prisoners of hell saw the light of the Messiah, they wished to receive him, saying, this is he who will bring us out of this darkness, as it is written, ‹I will redeem them from the hand of hell. ‹“

: “Not without reason is the vouchsafed mercy thus once and again outspoken to us, “I will ranson them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.” It is said in regard to that twofold death whereby we all died in Adam, of the body and of the soul.” “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” So full is God‘s word, that the sense remains the same, amid much difference of rendering. Christ was the death of death, when He became subject to it; the destruction of the grave when He lay in the tomb. Yet to render it in the form of a question is most agreeable to the language. “O death, where are thy plagues? O grave, where is thy destruction?” It is a burst of triumph at the promised redemption, then fulfilled to us in earnest and in hope, when “Christ,” being “risen from the dead, became the First-fruits of them that slept” 1 Corinthians 15:20, and we rose in Him. But the Apostle teaches us, that then it shall be altogether fulfilled, when, at the Last Day, “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality” 1 Corinthians 15:54. “Then shall death and hell deliver up the dead which shall be in them, and themselves be cast into the lake of fire” Revelation 20:13-14. “Then shall there be no sting of death; sorrow and sighing shall flee away; fear and anxiety shall depart; tears shall be no more, and in place thereof shall be boundless pleasure, everlasting joy, praise of the glory of God in most sweet harmony.” But now too, through death, the good man “ceases to die, and begins to live;” he “dies wholly to the world, that he may live perfectly with God; the soul returns to the Author of its being, and is hidden in the hidden presence of God”.

Death and hell had no power to resist, and God says that He will not alter His sentence; “Repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes;” as the Apostle says, “the gifts and calling of God are with out repentance” Romans 11:29.

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

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.

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SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7

14. I will ransom. Commentators are divided as to the application of this passage. Taken by itself it appears to be a beautiful promise of the resurrection and of the ultimate annihilation of death and she’ol. However, such an interpretation does not seem appropriate to the context. Verses 12, 13 speak of the inevitability of judgment at hand. Verse 15 continues the subject. Furthermore, the statement, “Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes,” does not appear to accord naturally with the preceding statements; even less so when it is observed that the word translated “repentance” is probably more correctly rendered “compassion.” This consideration has led many expositors to search for a meaning that will accord fully with the context. They point out that by translating the passage as a series of questions instead of a series of positive assertions, complete harmony is achieved. The following translation is based on these considerations: “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion is hid from my eyes” (RSV). Viewed in this way the passage warns that because “the iniquity of Ephraim is bound up,” God will not rescue the people from death; that He is, in fact, calling upon death and she’ol to do their work; and that compassion will be absent from Him while He does what is for Him a “strange work” (Isa. 28:21).

Those who hold that this passage is a promise of the resurrection point out that the words may be a sudden outburst by the prophet in view of the glorious future prospect, and therefore appears to be detached from the context. They interpret the passage, “Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes,” as asserting that God’s merciful purposes for His people will not be changed.

Paul’s triumphant outburst in 1 Cor. 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” is perhaps an allusion to Hosea 13:14. The apostle’s words are more like the LXX than like the Hebrew. The corresponding clauses in the LXX read, “Where is thy punishment, O death? Where is thy sting, O Hades?”

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Ellen G. White
In Heavenly Places, 44.1

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. Hosea 13:14. HP 44.1

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Ellen G. White
Prophets and Kings, 240

Jesus comforts our sorrow for the dead with a message of infinite hope: “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.” Hosea 13:14. “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, ... and have the keys of hell and of death.” Revelation 1:18. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. PK 240.1

Like the Saviour of mankind, of whom he was a type, Elisha in his ministry among men combined the work of healing with that of teaching. Faithfully, untiringly, throughout his long and effective labors, Elisha endeavored to foster and advance the important educational work carried on by the schools of the prophets. In the providence of God his words of instruction to the earnest groups of young men assembled were confirmed by the deep movings of the Holy Spirit, and at times by other unmistakable evidences of his authority as a servant of Jehovah. PK 240.2

It was on the occasion of one of his visits to the school established at Gilgal that he healed the poisoned pottage. “There was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.” PK 240.3

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