Hosea 13 Study Notes

13:10-13 Verses 10-11 allude to 1Sm 8:4-5 where Israel demands a king “as all the other nations have.” Verse 12 means that Ephraim’s guilt must be contained and taken away. See Zch 5:5-11. Duane Garrett explains v. 13 as comparing Ephraim to a woman in labor whose child is breech, so that both woman and child will probably die. “In Hosea’s metaphor both the institutions of Israel (the mother) and her child (the people) are doomed.”

13:14 As in 6:1-2, although Israel was doomed, the Lord is able to bring life out of death. As Paul declared in 1Co 15:55, God’s power makes personal, bodily resurrection possible, as well as national renewal.

13:15 On the punishment of Ephraim, see note at 4:17.