Hosea 13:14

Hosea 13:14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave If we apply this promise to Ephraim, or the Israelites spoken of before, it may signify, that though they should be in never so desperate a condition, God would in due time deliver them out of it: see the like expressions, Psalms 30:3; Psalms 71:20; Psalms 86:13. But there is a more sublime and spiritual sense contained in the words, as appears by the following clause. O death, I will be thy plagues It is usual for the prophets, when they foretel temporal deliverances, to be carried away by the influence of the prophetic spirit, to predict the greater mercies and deliverances which belong to the gospel state: so here the prophet takes occasion, from foretelling temporal mercies, to enlarge his views, and set forth that great and final deliverance of the faithful from the power of sin and death, which shall be completed by Christ, when he shall swallow up death in victory, 1 Corinthians 15:54. That St. Paul understood the words in this sense appears from the next verse of the same chapter, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? which is almost an exact quotation of the Septuagint translation of this passage of the prophet. For the word אהי , which we translate, I will be, is rendered by them, where, as it also signifies, Hos 13:10 th of this chapter. The apostle, indeed, seems to have quoted the text from his memory, and therefore rather gives the sense than keeps exactly close to the letter of it. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes I will never alter my purpose concerning these mercies prepared for my people.