Hosea 13:9-16, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Hosea 13:9-16
Failed Kingship, Stored Sin, Blocked Birth, Death Wordplay, and Samaria's Horror
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. The sentence is terse, and translations differ on the destruction-and-help grammar. I 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? I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
The demanded monarchy cannot save. That is not a program against every government, and it is not a warrant for anti-government violence. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid — stored, not vanished.
Birth stalls, 13:14 will not sit still, and Samaria's last lines are atrocity
The 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. Labor arrives; the child does not come through. The image is failed decision and missed life, not a blame on women, infertility, or birth.
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. KJV hears a promise. Many readings hear questions or a summons to death's plagues. 1 Corinthians 15 later uses the death-and-grave address as a victory taunt. That Christian reception is real and hopeful. It does not settle Hosea's grammar or erase the judgment around it. An east wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness. Samaria shall become desolate. The infant and the pregnant woman are dashed in the closing horror. Those acts are not holy. They do not authorize killing children, attacking pregnant people, collective punishment, or ethnic hatred of Samaritans, Jews, Israelis, Assyrians, or anyone else.
How this should shape us
Teach Paul's later song beside Hosea's dark line without pretending they are the same sentence. Draw an absolute boundary against violence toward children and pregnant people, and do not turn failed kings into a present political campaign.
Teach it back
Explain Hosea 13:9-16 in your own words. Include its place in Hosea's prophetic movement, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Promise, rhetorical question, and death-summons readings of 13:14 must remain visible. Paul's reuse develops the text's reception rather than making all alternatives dishonest. The war ending remains ethically horrific on every reading.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Hosea 13:9-16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew, morphology, syntax, names, wordplay, repetitions, and the base text for translation questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hos.xml, 13:9-16
Supports: Verse-level translation, textual, grammatical, historical, rhetorical, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Hosea PDF, printed pp. 1695, translation and notes on 13:9-16
Supports: Whole-book movement, eighth-century setting, literary boundaries, composition, Baal polemic, empire, and verse-level alternatives.
John Day, 'Hosea,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 578, discussion of 13:9-16
Supports: Competing scholarly positions on difficult Hebrew, genre, history, religion, knowledge, metaphor, gender, and composition.
Kelle, 'Hosea 4-14 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship,' pp. 318-360; text pp. 318-321, rhetoric pp. 321-324, composition pp. 325-332, history pp. 333-345, theology pp. 346-349, literary and gender analysis pp. 350-360; applied to 13:9-16
Supports: Inscription-anchored late northern political history, Pekah, Hoshea, annexation, deportation claims, and the limits of imperial self-presentation.
SAAO, 'Israel, the House of Omri,' with Tiglath-pileser III 42 lines 15b-17a and 44 lines 17-18; historical control for 13:9-16
Supports: Promise, rhetorical-question, threat, polyvalence, textual traditions, and 1 Corinthians 15 reception of Hosea 13:14.
Popko, 'Why Paul Was Not Wrong in Quoting Hosea 13:14,' pp. 499-509
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Hosea 13:9-16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Hosea
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew, morphology, syntax, names, wordplay, repetitions, and the base text for translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hos.xml, 13:9-16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Hosea with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, textual, grammatical, historical, rhetorical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Hosea PDF, printed pp. 1695, translation and notes on 13:9-16
Open source ↗scholarly commentary article
Hosea
John Day
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Whole-book movement, eighth-century setting, literary boundaries, composition, Baal polemic, empire, and verse-level alternatives.
Exact location: John Day, 'Hosea,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 578, discussion of 13:9-16
Open source ↗peer reviewed research survey
Hosea 4-14 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship
Brad E. Kelle
Currents in Biblical Research 8.3, 2010
Supports: Competing scholarly positions on difficult Hebrew, genre, history, religion, knowledge, metaphor, gender, and composition.
Exact location: Kelle, 'Hosea 4-14 in Twentieth-Century Scholarship,' pp. 318-360; text pp. 318-321, rhetoric pp. 321-324, composition pp. 325-332, history pp. 333-345, theology pp. 346-349, literary and gender analysis pp. 350-360; applied to 13:9-16
Open source ↗scholarly historical synthesis with primary inscription links
Israel, the House of Omri
Karen Radner
Assyrian Empire Builders, University College London and Oracc, 2025 digital edition
Supports: Inscription-anchored late northern political history, Pekah, Hoshea, annexation, deportation claims, and the limits of imperial self-presentation.
Exact location: SAAO, 'Israel, the House of Omri,' with Tiglath-pileser III 42 lines 15b-17a and 44 lines 17-18; historical control for 13:9-16
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
Why Paul Was Not Wrong in Quoting Hosea 13:14
Lukasz Popko
The Biblical Annals 9.3, 2019
Supports: Promise, rhetorical-question, threat, polyvalence, textual traditions, and 1 Corinthians 15 reception of Hosea 13:14.
Exact location: Popko, 'Why Paul Was Not Wrong in Quoting Hosea 13:14,' pp. 499-509
Open source ↗