“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me! Let them die, for they have rebelled against me. I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
- KJV Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
- BSB Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.
- NKJV “Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, Because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me.
- NASB Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me! I would redeem them, but they have spoken lies against 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
Woe and destruction come upon them for straying and rebelling, for though God longs to redeem them they speak lies against Him.
Overview
God pronounces woe over a people who have wandered far and rebelled against Him. Even as He expresses His desire to redeem them, they repay His grace with falsehood. The tension between God's redemptive longing and the people's stubborn lies highlights the costly love that, in the gospel, redeems sinners despite their rebellion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 36
- Hos 9:12Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!
- Matt 23:13–29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
- Lam 5:16The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned.
- Hos 11:12Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.
- Ps 139:7–9Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?
- Isa 59:13transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
- Ezek 34:6My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was no one who searched or sought.
- Jonah 1:10Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them.
- Rev 8:13I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe for those who dwell on the earth, because of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!”
- Ezek 18:2“What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
- Hos 9:17My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.
- Jer 14:10Yahweh says to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.”
- 1 Pet 1:18–19knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
- Jonah 1:3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
- Isa 43:1But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
- Ps 106:10He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
- Mic 6:4For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
- Hos 7:3They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
- Jer 44:17–18But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.
- Jer 18:11–12“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you. Everyone return from his evil way now, and amend your ways and your doings.”’
- Isa 41:14Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- Job 22:17who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
- Ezek 18:25“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?
- Deut 15:15You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today.
- Mal 3:13–15“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
- Isa 31:1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh!
- Jer 42:20For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:’
- 1 Jn 1:10If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
- Isa 63:8For he said, “Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely;” so he became their Savior.
- Hos 11:2They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.
- Hos 7:1When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.
- Neh 1:10“Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.
- Job 21:14–15They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
- Matt 23:37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
- Ps 107:2–3Let the redeemed by Yahweh say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
- Ezek 16:23“‘“It has happened after all your wickedness. Woe, woe to you!” says the Lord Yahweh,
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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 7:13 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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