Early morning below Samaria’s hill: heavy white mist lying in the valley and beginning to lift, the walled city small and far off, dew bright on the grass and a spider’s thread in the foreground.

Return, O Israel

Hosea 13

What in your life feels solid now but could be gone by noon?

16 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–3Hosea’s marriageA wife, three names, and love bought back
4–6:3The LORD’s caseNo knowledge of God in the land
6–11Sowing the windMist, kings, calves, and a love that won’t let go
11–14Return, O IsraelJacob’s story, death undone, and the last callChapter 13

God’s Anger against Israel

Hosea

When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;

he was exalted in Israel.

But he incurred guilt through Baal,

and he died.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Hosea

Hosea

Now they sin more and more

and make for themselves cast images,

idols skillfully made from their silver,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

Hosea

People say of them,

“They offer human sacrifice

and kiss the calves!”

Hosea

At dusk on a threshing floor a lone man tosses grain with a wooden fork, the chaff streaming away gold on the wind, under a calm, wide evening sky.

Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that vanishes,

like chaff blown from a threshing floor,

like smoke through an open window.

God

Yet I am the LORD your God

ever since the land of Egypt;

you know no God but Me,

for there is no Savior besides Me.

Hosea 13:4

God

God

I knew you in the wilderness,

in the land of drought.

When they had pasture,

they became satisfied;

when they were satisfied,

their hearts became proud,

and as a result they forgot Me.

God

Question

Quick question

Hosea 13:4–6 tells how Israel came to forget the God who saved them. Read verse 6 again before you answer.

What made Israel forget the LORD (13:6)?

Death and Resurrection

God

You are destroyed, O Israel,

because you are against Me—

against your helper.

God

God

Where is your king now

to save you in all your cities,

and the rulers to 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.

God

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;

his sin is stored up.

Labor 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.

God

I 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?

Hosea 13:14

God

Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

Reflect

Paul hears 13:14 as a victory song over death, because Jesus rose: “Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting?” What death, fear or loss do you need to hear those words over?

Judgment on Samaria

Hosea

Harsh light on a hillside spring: its stone basin cracked and dry, a dead fern in it, and a hot east wind driving desert dust across the slope beyond.

Although he flourishes among his brothers,

an east wind will come—

a wind from the LORD

rising up from the desert.

His fountain will fail,

and his spring will run dry.

The wind will plunder his treasury

of every precious article.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Hosea

Samaria will bear her guilt

because she has rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword;

their little ones will be dashed to pieces,

and their pregnant women ripped open.

You’ve experienced

Hosea 13

0 of 14 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

Hosea 13:4

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