Hosea continues to remind the northern kingdom, Israel, of their heritage in Jacob and of their stubborn disobedience.
Hosea 13:1-3, Like the morning mist
When Ephraim spoke,
men trembled;
he was exalted in Israel.
But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
Now they sin more and more;
they make idols for themselves from their silver,
cleverly fashioned images,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of these people, "They offer human sacrifice
and kiss the calf-idols."
Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,
like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,
like smoke escaping through a window.
The absurdity and decadence of the people of Israel is captured in the fact that they offer human sacrifices and even kiss calf idols! Because the people of Ephraim (Israel) have put Baal as their god, they will evaporate like the morning mist, like the morning dew. (This verse reflects words of 6:4, in which the inconstant love, of Ephraim and Judah for YHWH, vanishes like the morning mist. 🌫 )
Hosea 13:4-6, I fed you and protected you
"But I am the LORD your God,
[who brought you] out of Egypt.
You shall acknowledge no God but me,
no Savior except me.
I cared for you in the desert,
in the land of burning heat.
When I fed them,
they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied,
they became proud;
then they forgot me.
YHWH has always been the God of Israel, feeding them, protecting them, caring for them in the desert.
Hosea reminds the people again (both in 12:9 and 13:4, here) of God's extraordinary choice of their nation, repeating the sentence "But I am the LORD your God, [who brought you] out of Egypt." Verse 4 echoes the First Commandment, Exodus 20:2-3.
Hosea 13:7-8, Wild animals
So I will come upon them like a lion,
like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
Like a bear robbed of her cubs,
I will attack them and rip them open.
Like a lion I will devour them;
a wild animal will tear them apart.
In the past, God protected the people from the attacks of wild animals. Now He will pounce on them like the leopards, lions and bears would have done in the absence of His protection. As in 8:7, the people have sowed the wind and will now reap the whirlwind.
Hosea 13:9-13, Kings are useless
"You are destroyed, O Israel,
because you are against me,
against your helper.
Where is your king, that he may save you?
Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said, `Give me a king and princes'?
So in my anger I gave you a king,
and in my wrath I took him away.
The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
his sins are kept on record.
Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,
but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time arrives,
he does not come to the opening of the womb.
When stubborn Israel wanted a king, God gave them one. When they stayed disobedient, He took kings away. (During the last thirty years of Israel's existence, as Hosea prophesizes, the kingdom went through five kings!) Because of their unfaithfulness, YHWH will remove their protections from them; they will suffer like a woman in childbirth; indeed, Israel is like a child that refuses to leave the womb!
Hosea 13:14a, Ransom
"I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?
An interlude looks to a future redemption from death. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul quotes verse 14 in 1 Corinthians 15:55, along with a similar passage from Isaiah 25:8, to argue that this "redemption from death" points to a future resurrection.
Hosea 13:14b-16, No compassion
"I will have no compassion,
even though he thrives among his brothers.
An east wind from the LORD will come,
blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
and his well dry up.
His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.
The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
their pregnant women ripped open."
The passage began with an interlude, the promise of forgiveness, but then ends with a reminder of horrors to come. The soldiers of Assyria were notoriously brutal and this is judgment in coming.
First published June 20, 2025; updated June 20, 2025
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