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”?
Parallel translations
- WEB Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes?’
- KJV 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?
- NKJV I will be your King; Where is any other, That he may save you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?
- NASB Where then is your king, That he might save you in all your cities; And your judges, to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?
- NLT Now where is your king? Let him save you! Where are all the leaders of the land, the king and the officials you demanded of me?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks where the king and rulers are who were supposed to save Israel. It exposes the failure of the human kingship they had demanded.
Overview
Israel had once clamored for a king to deliver them, but no king can rescue them now from God's judgment. The rhetorical questions expose the emptiness of trusting human rulers over the Lord. True salvation belongs not to earthly kings but to God, fulfilled in the King who truly saves, Jesus Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Hos 8:4They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
- 1 Sam 8:5–6“Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.”
- Hos 10:3Surely now they will say, “We have no king, for we do not revere the LORD. What can a king do for us?”
- Zech 14:9On that day the LORD will become King over all the earth—the LORD alone, and His name alone.
- Ps 10:16The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations perish from His land.
- Jer 2:28But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.
- John 1:49“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
- 1 Kgs 12:20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.
- Isa 33:22For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King. It is He who will save us.
- 2 Kgs 17:4But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.
- Deut 32:37–39He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
- Ps 149:2Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
- Isa 43:15I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, and your King.”
- 1 Sam 8:19–20Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.
- Ps 74:12Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.
- Ps 89:18Surely our shield belongs to the LORD, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.
- Hos 13:4Yet 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.
- Judg 2:16–18Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.
- Ps 47:6–7Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises!
- Ps 44:4You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob.
- 1 Sam 12:11–12So the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.
- Jer 8:19Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 13:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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