“Should I ransom them from the grave? Should I redeem them from death? O death, bring on your terrors! O grave, bring on your plagues! For I will not take pity on them.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- KJV 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.
- BSB 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? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
- NKJV “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”
- NASB Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? Death, where are your thorns? Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.
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 declares he will ransom his people from the power of death and the grave. It is a striking promise of redemption that triumphs over death itself.
Overview
Interpreters differ on whether this verse is read as a sure promise of redemption or, in light of the closing line about hidden compassion, as a summons of death's plagues in judgment. Faithful readers note both the immediate context of judgment and the deeper redemptive hope. Paul cites these words in 1 Corinthians 15:55 to celebrate Christ's victory over death, showing how God ultimately fulfills this ransom in the resurrection.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 25
- Isa 25:8He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
- 1 Cor 15:52–57in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
- Rev 21:4He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
- Isa 26:19Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.
- Jas 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
- Ps 49:15But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.
- 1 Cor 15:21–22For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
- Ps 30:3Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
- Job 33:24then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’
- Ezek 37:11–14Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
- Ps 86:13For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
- 1 Sam 15:29Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
- Rom 11:29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
- Rev 20:13The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
- 1 Th 4:14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
- Ps 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- Mal 3:6“For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
- Hos 6:2After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.
- Job 19:25–27But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
- Rom 11:15For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
- 2 Cor 5:4For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened; not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- Ps 16:10For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
- Phil 3:21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
- Jer 15:6You have rejected me,” says Yahweh. “You have gone backward: therefore I have stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.
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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 13:14 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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