You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me—against your helper.
Parallel translations
- WEB You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.
- KJV O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
- NKJV “O Israel, you are destroyed, But your help is from Me.
- NASB ¶It is to your own destruction, Israel, That you are against Me, against your help.
- NLT “You are about to be destroyed, O Israel— yes, by me, your only helper.
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
Israel is destroyed because they set themselves against God, their only helper. It pinpoints self-inflicted ruin from rejecting the source of their help.
Overview
The tragedy is that Israel's destruction comes from opposing the very One who could save them. God identifies himself as their "help," so to be against him is to be against their own life. The verse highlights both human responsibility for ruin and the grace still implied in God being their helper.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Jer 2:17Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?
- Jer 2:19Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- Deut 33:26“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.
- Ps 121:1–2A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
- Ps 146:5Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
- Isa 3:11Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
- Jer 5:25Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.
- Deut 33:29Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
- Hos 14:1Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
- Prov 6:32He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
- Eph 1:3–5Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
- Titus 3:3–7For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- Ps 46:1For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.
- Isa 3:9The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- Ps 33:20Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
- Mal 1:9“But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.
- Prov 8:36But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
- 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.
- 2 Kgs 17:7–17All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods
- Jer 4:18“Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the heart!”
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 13:9 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.