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Hosea 13:14
Verse
Context
Death and Resurrection
13Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb. 14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
Sermons
Chuck Missler
David Guzik
J.C. Ryle
Horatius Bonar
David Wilkerson
Thomas Watson
John MacDuffSummary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Tyndale
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, Co1 15:54, Co1 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.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
But in order to preserve believers from despair, the Lord announces in Hos 13:14 that He will nevertheless redeem His people from the power of death. Hos 13:14. "Out of the hand of hell will I redeem them; from death will I set them free! Where are thy plagues, O death? where thy destruction, O hell! Repentance is hidden from mine eyes." The fact that this verse contains a promise, and not a threat, would hardly have been overlooked by so many commentators, if they had not been led, out of regard to Hos 13:13, Hos 13:15, to put force upon the words, and either take the first clauses as interrogative, "Should I ... redeem?" (Calvin and others), or as conditional, "I would redeem them," with "si resipiscerent" (supplied (Kimchi, Sal. b. Mel. Ros., etc.). But apart from the fact that the words supplied are perfectly arbitrary, with nothing at all to indicate them, both of these explanations are precluded by the sentences which follow: for the questions, "Where are thy plagues, O death?" etc., are obviously meant to affirm the conquest or destruction of hell and death. And this argument retains its force even if we take אהי as an optative from היה, without regard to Hos 13:10, since the thought, "I should like to be thy plague, O death," presupposes that deliverance from the power of death is affirmed in what comes before. But, on account of the style of address, we cannot take אהי even as an interrogative, in the sense of "Should I be," etc. And what would be the object of this gradation of thought, if the redemption from death were only hypothetical, or were represented as altogether questionable? If we take the words as they stand, therefore, it is evident that they affirm something more than deliverance when life is in danger, or preservation from death. To redeem or ransom from the hand (or power) of hell, i.e., of the under world, the realm of death, is equivalent to depriving hell of its prey, not only by not suffering the living to die, but by bringing back to life those who have fallen victims to hell, i.e., to the region of the dead. The cessation or annihilation of death is expressed still more forcibly in the triumphant words: "Where are thy plagues (pestilences), O death? where thy destruction, O hell?" of which Theodoret has aptly observed, παιανίζειν κατὰ θανάτου κελεύει. דּבריך is an intensive plural of debher, plague, pestilence, and is to be explained in accordance with Psa 91:6, where we also find the synonym קטב in the form קטב, pestilence or destruction. The Apostle Paul has therefore very properly quoted these words in Co1 15:55, in combination with the declaration in Isa 25:8, "Death is swallowed up in victory," to confirm the truth, that at the resurrection of the last day, death will be annihilated, and that which is corruptible changed into immortality. We must not restrict the substance of this promise, however, to the ultimate issue of the redemption, in which it will receive its complete fulfilment. The suffixes attached to 'ephdēm and 'eg'âlēm point to Israel of the ten tribes, like the verbal suffixes in Isa 25:8. Consequently the promised redemption from death must stand in intimate connection with the threatened destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Moreover, the idea of the resurrection of the dead was by no means so clearly comprehended in Israel at that time, as that the prophet could point believers to it as a ground of consolation when the kingdom was destroyed. The only meaning that the promise had for the Israelites of the prophet's day, was that the Lord possessed the power even to redeem from death, and raise Israel from destruction into newness of life; just as Ezekiel (ch. 37) depicts the restoration of Israel as the giving of life to the dry bones that lay scattered about the field. The full and deeper meaning of these words was but gradually unfolded to believers under the Old Testament, and only attained complete and absolute certainty for all believers through the actual resurrection of Christ. But in order to anticipate all doubt as to this exceedingly great promise, the Lord adds, "repentance is hidden from mine eyes," i.e., my purpose of salvation will be irrevocably accomplished. The ̔απ. λεγ. nōcham does not mean "resentment" (Ewald), but, as a derivative of nicham, simply consolation or repentance. The former, which the Septuagint adopts, does not suit the context, which the latter alone does. The words are to be interpreted in accordance with Psa 89:36 and Psa 110:4, where the oath of God is still further strengthened by the words ולא ינּחם, "and will not repent;" and לא ינחם corresponds to אם אכזּב in Psa 89:36 (Marck and Krabbe, Quaestion. de Hos. vatic. spec. p. 47). Compare Sa1 15:29 and Num 23:19.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Applying primarily to God's restoration of Israel from Assyria partially, and, in times yet future, fully from all the lands of their present long-continued dispersion, and political death (compare Hos 6:2; Isa 25:8; Isa 26:19; Eze 37:12). God's power and grace are magnified in quickening what to the eye of flesh seems dead and hopeless (Rom 4:17, Rom 4:19). As Israel's history, past and future, has a representative character in relation to the Church, this verse is expressed in language alluding to Messiah's (who is the ideal Israel) grand victory over the grave and death, the first-fruits of His own resurrection, the full harvest to come at the general resurrection; hence the similarity between this verse and Paul's language as to the latter (Co1 15:55). That similarity becomes more obvious by translating as the Septuagint, from which Paul plainly quotes; and as the same Hebrew word is translated in Hos 13:10, "O death, where are thy plagues (paraphrased by the Septuagint, 'thy victory')? O grave, where is thy destruction (rendered by the Septuagint, 'thy sting')?" The question is that of one triumphing over a foe, once a cruel tyrant, but now robbed of all power to hurt. repentance shall be hid from mine eyes--that is, I will not change My purpose of fulfilling My promise by delivering Israel, on the condition of their return to Me (compare Hos 14:2-8; Num 23:19; Rom 11:29).
John Gill Bible Commentary
I will ransom them from the power of the grave,.... That is, "when" or "at which time" before spoken of, and here understood, as the above interpreter rightly connects the words, "I will" do this and what follows: I will redeem them from death; these are the words, not of Jehovah the Father, as in Hos 1:7; but of the Son, who redeemed Israel out of Egypt, which was a typical redemption, Hos 13:4; in whom is the help of his people laid and found, Hos 13:9; the Word of the Lord, as the Targum; who is the true God, the mighty God, and so equal to this work of redemption and who is also the near kinsman of the redeemed as one of the words here used implies, and so to him belonged the right of redemption: the persons redeemed are not Israel after the flesh, but spiritual Israel, whether Jews or Gentiles; a special and peculiar people, chosen of God, and precious, out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; and who, in their nature state, are under sin, in bondage to it, and liable to the curse of the law, the wrath of God, hell and damnation; which are meant by the "grave" and "death", and so needed a Redeemer to ransom them: for the word for "grace" should be rendered "hell" (q), as it often is; and "death" intends not corporeal one only, but eternal death, or the second death; and both signify the wrath of God due to sin, and which God's elect are deserving of, and Christ has bore, and delivered them from; and the curse of the law, which he has redeemed them from, being made a curse for them; and eternal death, the equivalent to which he has suffered, and so has saved them from it, and all this by redeeming them from their sins, the cause of it; and which he has done by giving a redemption or ransom price, which is his blood, his life, yea, himself, and which the first of the words here used imports. It is indeed true, that, in consequence of all this, there will be a redemption by him from a corporeal death, and from the grave; not as yet, for the ransomed of the Lord die as others, and are laid in the grave, the house appointed for all living; but in the resurrection morn there will be a redemption, a deliverance of the bodies of the saints from the grave, from mortality and corruption; yea, of them from the moral corruption of sin, and all the defilements of it, as well as from all afflictions and diseases, and from death itself, which shall have no more dominion over them; to which purpose the words are applied by the apostle; See Gill on Co1 15:55; and so by some ancient Jews (r) to the Messiah, and his times; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grace, I will be thy destruction; that is, the utter destruction of them for the plague or pestilence is a wasting destruction, Psa 91:6; it is the same which in New Testament language is the abolishing of death, Ti2 1:10; which is true of eternal death with respect to the redeemed, which Christ's death is the death of, he having by his death reconciled them to God, and opened the way to eternal life for them, which he has in his hands to give unto them; and of corporeal death and the grave, which Christ has utterly destroyed with respect to himself having loosed the builds of death, and set himself free, and on whom that shall have no more dominion; and, with respect to his pie, he has destroyed him that had the power of it, which is the devil; he has put away and abolished sin, the cause of it; he has took away that which is its sting; so that it may be truly said, as the apostle quotes these words, "O death, where is thy sting?" he has removed the curse from it, and made it a blessing; he has abolished it as a penal evil, so theft it is not inflicted as a punishment on his people; and in the last day will entirely deliver them from the power of that, and of the grave; and then that which has slain its millions and millions, a number not to be numbered, will never slay one more: and that grave, which devoured as many, will never be opened more, or one more put into it; and then it may be said, "O grave, where is thy victory?" thou shall conquer no more, but be at an end; see Co1 15:55; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes; that is, the Lord will never repent of his decree of redemption from hell, death, and the grave; nor of the work of it by Christ; nor of the entire destruction of these things; which being once done, will never be repented of nor recalled, but remain so for ever. (q) "inferni", Schmidt. (r) Gloss. Heb. in Lyra in loc. Vid. Galatin. Arcan. Cathol. Ver. l. 6. c. 21.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
13:14 The term here translated the grave (Hebrew Sheol) refers to the realm of the dead (see Job 3:11-19; see also study note on Job 7:9). The Lord is sovereign even over Sheol, and he could redeem Israel if he chose to. But he will not take pity on the Israelites, and he calls upon death to punish them.
Hosea 13:14
Death and Resurrection
13Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb. 14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
- Scripture
- Sermons
- Commentary
Hosea #8 Ch. 13-14 Hosea
By Chuck Missler2.8K1:12:17HoseaISA 43:11ISA 55:4HOS 13:4HOS 13:14HOS 14:1In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the book of Hosea and its teachings about the character of God. The book emphasizes four key characteristics of God: sovereignty, holiness, justice, and love. The preacher highlights the importance of not just intellectually understanding God's prophecy, but also discerning how it applies to our lives. The sermon also emphasizes the consequences of disobedience, stating that sin not only causes spiritual death but also the death of family life, culture, and even nations.
(Hosea) True Wisdom Turns Us Back to God
By David Guzik1.3K42:27HOS 13:14HOS 13:16HOS 14:6In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the theme of forgetting God when times are good and turning back to Him in times of crisis. He highlights the tendency of humans to forget God's blessings and go their own way when they are materially abundant. The preacher also mentions how during times of crisis, such as war or recession, people are more likely to turn to God and seek His help. The sermon emphasizes the importance of repentance and returning to the Lord, and concludes with the promise of God's redemption and forgiveness for those who repent.
Sickness
By J.C. Ryle1Faith in TrialsSicknessPSA 90:10ISA 53:4HOS 13:14MAT 8:17MAT 25:36JHN 11:3JHN 14:14ROM 8:281CO 3:22HEB 10:37J.C. Ryle's sermon 'Sickness' emphasizes the profound message sent by Martha and Mary to Jesus, 'The one You love is sick,' illustrating the importance of turning to Christ in times of trouble. He highlights that sickness is not a sign of God's displeasure but rather a means through which God can teach us valuable lessons about faith, humility, and dependence on His love. Ryle encourages believers to view sickness as a blessing that can lead to spiritual growth and a deeper understanding of God's purpose. He also stresses the need for Christians to be prepared for sickness and to support one another in times of need, reflecting Christ's compassion. Ultimately, Ryle reassures that Christ's love remains constant, even in our suffering, and calls for a life of faith and communion with Him.
Rev. 20:14. Death and the Grave
By Horatius Bonar0Hope of ResurrectionVictory over DeathPSA 6:5SNG 8:6ISA 38:18HOS 13:14JHN 11:25ROM 5:121CO 15:551TH 4:142TI 1:10REV 20:14Horatius Bonar preaches on Revelation 20:14, emphasizing God's ultimate victory over death and the grave, which are personified as twin enemies of humanity. He explains that death and the grave, having caused immense suffering and sorrow, will be cast into the lake of fire, symbolizing God's abhorrence of these forces and His determination to abolish them forever. Bonar highlights that God shares our disdain for death, viewing it as a criminal that disrupts His creation and inflicts pain upon His people. The sermon reassures believers of the hope of resurrection and eternal life, affirming that through Christ's victory, death will be rendered powerless. Ultimately, Bonar calls for a celebration of life and the promise of resurrection, as God will redeem His people from the clutches of death.
A Glorious Christmas Reminder!
By David Wilkerson0ResurrectionEternal LifeHOS 13:14MAT 4:16JHN 6:38JHN 11:25ROM 6:4David Wilkerson emphasizes that the birth of Jesus in the manger is intrinsically linked to His resurrection, highlighting that He was fully human yet a manifestation of the eternal. He references prophecies from Hosea and the teachings of Jesus, illustrating that His purpose was to grant eternal life to believers. The sermon encourages the faithful to remember the significance of resurrection during the Christmas season, viewing the manger as a bridge to eternal life with Christ. Wilkerson reminds us that resurrection life is available to us now, urging a celebration of both Christ's birth and His victory over death.
The Lord's Supper
By Thomas Watson0ISA 53:5HOS 13:14MAT 26:26ROM 5:81CO 11:27COL 3:22TH 1:9HEB 9:17Thomas Watson preaches about the significance of the Lord's Supper, emphasizing the deep meaning behind Jesus' sacrifice of His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. He delves into the bitter, lingering, painful, shameful, and cursed aspects of Christ's death on the cross, highlighting the immense love displayed by God the Father and Jesus Christ in giving Himself for humanity. Watson urges believers to surrender to God with self-examination, seriousness, intelligence, longing, penitence, sincerity, humility, heavenly-mindedness, zeal, and universal subjection to Christ, reflecting the gratitude for Christ's sacrifice through courage, fruitfulness, zeal, and heavenly living.
The Rainbow in the Clouds (31 Day Devotional)
By John MacDuff0GEN 9:16EXO 3:7EXO 33:14DEU 23:25JOB 1:21PSA 35:27PSA 93:1ISA 32:2ISA 57:1JER 31:3HOS 13:14MAL 3:6JHN 13:7ROM 8:32TIT 2:13HEB 12:61PE 1:6John MacDuff preaches about the unchanging and everlasting love of God, assuring believers that all trials and tribulations are part of God's eternal plan of love and redemption. He emphasizes the sovereignty of God, His loving purpose in prosperity and adversity, the safe refuge found in Christ during life's storms, the reason for divine chastisement as a sign of God's love, and the immutability of God's character and promises. MacDuff encourages believers to trust in God's divine sympathy, gracious conditions, and the blessed hope of Christ's return, reminding them of the ultimate victory over death and the eternal rest and deliverance promised to those who love God.
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Tyndale
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, Co1 15:54, Co1 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.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
But in order to preserve believers from despair, the Lord announces in Hos 13:14 that He will nevertheless redeem His people from the power of death. Hos 13:14. "Out of the hand of hell will I redeem them; from death will I set them free! Where are thy plagues, O death? where thy destruction, O hell! Repentance is hidden from mine eyes." The fact that this verse contains a promise, and not a threat, would hardly have been overlooked by so many commentators, if they had not been led, out of regard to Hos 13:13, Hos 13:15, to put force upon the words, and either take the first clauses as interrogative, "Should I ... redeem?" (Calvin and others), or as conditional, "I would redeem them," with "si resipiscerent" (supplied (Kimchi, Sal. b. Mel. Ros., etc.). But apart from the fact that the words supplied are perfectly arbitrary, with nothing at all to indicate them, both of these explanations are precluded by the sentences which follow: for the questions, "Where are thy plagues, O death?" etc., are obviously meant to affirm the conquest or destruction of hell and death. And this argument retains its force even if we take אהי as an optative from היה, without regard to Hos 13:10, since the thought, "I should like to be thy plague, O death," presupposes that deliverance from the power of death is affirmed in what comes before. But, on account of the style of address, we cannot take אהי even as an interrogative, in the sense of "Should I be," etc. And what would be the object of this gradation of thought, if the redemption from death were only hypothetical, or were represented as altogether questionable? If we take the words as they stand, therefore, it is evident that they affirm something more than deliverance when life is in danger, or preservation from death. To redeem or ransom from the hand (or power) of hell, i.e., of the under world, the realm of death, is equivalent to depriving hell of its prey, not only by not suffering the living to die, but by bringing back to life those who have fallen victims to hell, i.e., to the region of the dead. The cessation or annihilation of death is expressed still more forcibly in the triumphant words: "Where are thy plagues (pestilences), O death? where thy destruction, O hell?" of which Theodoret has aptly observed, παιανίζειν κατὰ θανάτου κελεύει. דּבריך is an intensive plural of debher, plague, pestilence, and is to be explained in accordance with Psa 91:6, where we also find the synonym קטב in the form קטב, pestilence or destruction. The Apostle Paul has therefore very properly quoted these words in Co1 15:55, in combination with the declaration in Isa 25:8, "Death is swallowed up in victory," to confirm the truth, that at the resurrection of the last day, death will be annihilated, and that which is corruptible changed into immortality. We must not restrict the substance of this promise, however, to the ultimate issue of the redemption, in which it will receive its complete fulfilment. The suffixes attached to 'ephdēm and 'eg'âlēm point to Israel of the ten tribes, like the verbal suffixes in Isa 25:8. Consequently the promised redemption from death must stand in intimate connection with the threatened destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Moreover, the idea of the resurrection of the dead was by no means so clearly comprehended in Israel at that time, as that the prophet could point believers to it as a ground of consolation when the kingdom was destroyed. The only meaning that the promise had for the Israelites of the prophet's day, was that the Lord possessed the power even to redeem from death, and raise Israel from destruction into newness of life; just as Ezekiel (ch. 37) depicts the restoration of Israel as the giving of life to the dry bones that lay scattered about the field. The full and deeper meaning of these words was but gradually unfolded to believers under the Old Testament, and only attained complete and absolute certainty for all believers through the actual resurrection of Christ. But in order to anticipate all doubt as to this exceedingly great promise, the Lord adds, "repentance is hidden from mine eyes," i.e., my purpose of salvation will be irrevocably accomplished. The ̔απ. λεγ. nōcham does not mean "resentment" (Ewald), but, as a derivative of nicham, simply consolation or repentance. The former, which the Septuagint adopts, does not suit the context, which the latter alone does. The words are to be interpreted in accordance with Psa 89:36 and Psa 110:4, where the oath of God is still further strengthened by the words ולא ינּחם, "and will not repent;" and לא ינחם corresponds to אם אכזּב in Psa 89:36 (Marck and Krabbe, Quaestion. de Hos. vatic. spec. p. 47). Compare Sa1 15:29 and Num 23:19.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Applying primarily to God's restoration of Israel from Assyria partially, and, in times yet future, fully from all the lands of their present long-continued dispersion, and political death (compare Hos 6:2; Isa 25:8; Isa 26:19; Eze 37:12). God's power and grace are magnified in quickening what to the eye of flesh seems dead and hopeless (Rom 4:17, Rom 4:19). As Israel's history, past and future, has a representative character in relation to the Church, this verse is expressed in language alluding to Messiah's (who is the ideal Israel) grand victory over the grave and death, the first-fruits of His own resurrection, the full harvest to come at the general resurrection; hence the similarity between this verse and Paul's language as to the latter (Co1 15:55). That similarity becomes more obvious by translating as the Septuagint, from which Paul plainly quotes; and as the same Hebrew word is translated in Hos 13:10, "O death, where are thy plagues (paraphrased by the Septuagint, 'thy victory')? O grave, where is thy destruction (rendered by the Septuagint, 'thy sting')?" The question is that of one triumphing over a foe, once a cruel tyrant, but now robbed of all power to hurt. repentance shall be hid from mine eyes--that is, I will not change My purpose of fulfilling My promise by delivering Israel, on the condition of their return to Me (compare Hos 14:2-8; Num 23:19; Rom 11:29).
John Gill Bible Commentary
I will ransom them from the power of the grave,.... That is, "when" or "at which time" before spoken of, and here understood, as the above interpreter rightly connects the words, "I will" do this and what follows: I will redeem them from death; these are the words, not of Jehovah the Father, as in Hos 1:7; but of the Son, who redeemed Israel out of Egypt, which was a typical redemption, Hos 13:4; in whom is the help of his people laid and found, Hos 13:9; the Word of the Lord, as the Targum; who is the true God, the mighty God, and so equal to this work of redemption and who is also the near kinsman of the redeemed as one of the words here used implies, and so to him belonged the right of redemption: the persons redeemed are not Israel after the flesh, but spiritual Israel, whether Jews or Gentiles; a special and peculiar people, chosen of God, and precious, out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; and who, in their nature state, are under sin, in bondage to it, and liable to the curse of the law, the wrath of God, hell and damnation; which are meant by the "grave" and "death", and so needed a Redeemer to ransom them: for the word for "grace" should be rendered "hell" (q), as it often is; and "death" intends not corporeal one only, but eternal death, or the second death; and both signify the wrath of God due to sin, and which God's elect are deserving of, and Christ has bore, and delivered them from; and the curse of the law, which he has redeemed them from, being made a curse for them; and eternal death, the equivalent to which he has suffered, and so has saved them from it, and all this by redeeming them from their sins, the cause of it; and which he has done by giving a redemption or ransom price, which is his blood, his life, yea, himself, and which the first of the words here used imports. It is indeed true, that, in consequence of all this, there will be a redemption by him from a corporeal death, and from the grave; not as yet, for the ransomed of the Lord die as others, and are laid in the grave, the house appointed for all living; but in the resurrection morn there will be a redemption, a deliverance of the bodies of the saints from the grave, from mortality and corruption; yea, of them from the moral corruption of sin, and all the defilements of it, as well as from all afflictions and diseases, and from death itself, which shall have no more dominion over them; to which purpose the words are applied by the apostle; See Gill on Co1 15:55; and so by some ancient Jews (r) to the Messiah, and his times; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grace, I will be thy destruction; that is, the utter destruction of them for the plague or pestilence is a wasting destruction, Psa 91:6; it is the same which in New Testament language is the abolishing of death, Ti2 1:10; which is true of eternal death with respect to the redeemed, which Christ's death is the death of, he having by his death reconciled them to God, and opened the way to eternal life for them, which he has in his hands to give unto them; and of corporeal death and the grave, which Christ has utterly destroyed with respect to himself having loosed the builds of death, and set himself free, and on whom that shall have no more dominion; and, with respect to his pie, he has destroyed him that had the power of it, which is the devil; he has put away and abolished sin, the cause of it; he has took away that which is its sting; so that it may be truly said, as the apostle quotes these words, "O death, where is thy sting?" he has removed the curse from it, and made it a blessing; he has abolished it as a penal evil, so theft it is not inflicted as a punishment on his people; and in the last day will entirely deliver them from the power of that, and of the grave; and then that which has slain its millions and millions, a number not to be numbered, will never slay one more: and that grave, which devoured as many, will never be opened more, or one more put into it; and then it may be said, "O grave, where is thy victory?" thou shall conquer no more, but be at an end; see Co1 15:55; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes; that is, the Lord will never repent of his decree of redemption from hell, death, and the grave; nor of the work of it by Christ; nor of the entire destruction of these things; which being once done, will never be repented of nor recalled, but remain so for ever. (q) "inferni", Schmidt. (r) Gloss. Heb. in Lyra in loc. Vid. Galatin. Arcan. Cathol. Ver. l. 6. c. 21.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
13:14 The term here translated the grave (Hebrew Sheol) refers to the realm of the dead (see Job 3:11-19; see also study note on Job 7:9). The Lord is sovereign even over Sheol, and he could redeem Israel if he chose to. But he will not take pity on the Israelites, and he calls upon death to punish them.