Hosea 12-14

There seems to be some difference of understanding as to the best translation of Hosea 13:14.

Is God telling Israel that he will call forth death and the grave?

 

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?
Shall I redeem them from death?
O Death, where are your thorns?
O Sheol, where is your sting? 

Compassion will be hidden from My sight. (NASB)

 

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?
    Shall I redeem them from Death?
O Death, where are your plagues?
   O Sheol, where is your sting?
   Compassion is hidden from my eyes. (ESV)

 

Should I, the LORD, rescue you

   from death and the grave?

   No! I call death and the grave

   to strike you like a plague.

   I refuse to show mercy. (CEV)

That is a far cry from the challenge God sends out to death and the grace in 1 Corinthians 15:55. An idea that more closely supports the thought in the NIV.

 

I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
   I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
   Where, O grave, is your destruction?

  I will have no compassion,  (NIV)

 

I wonder if the message from Hosea was focused on the failure of the Law to redeem people. Was the message from Paul was a “conversion” of Hosea’s words to celebration the change God made in the world through the cross?

 

Stuart