Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 13:16
Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
16. become desolate ] Rather, be dealt with as guilty (as Hos 10:2).
their infants, &c.] Rather, their children (those of an age to play, comp. Jer 6:11; Jer 9:20). The same barbarities were predicted in Hos 10:14. Such a fate would be simply retributive justice (see 2Ki 15:16).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Samaria shall become desolate – Or shall bear her iniquity. Her iniquity should now find her out, and rest upon her. Of this, desolation was, in Gods judgments, the consequence. Samaria, the nursery of idolatry and rebellion against God, the chief in pride should be chief in punishment. For she hath rebelled against her God. It aggravated her sin, that He against whom she rebelled, was her own God. He who had chosen her to be His, and made Himself her God; who had showed Himself her God in the abundance of His loving-kindness, from the deliverance out of Egypt to that day. This her desolation, it is again said, should be Complete. Hope remains, if the people of a generation are cut off; yet not only should these fall by the sword; those already born were to be dashed in pieces; those as yet unborn were to be sought out for destruction, even in their mothers womb. Such atrocities were common then. Elisha foretold to Hazael that he would perpetrate both cruelties 2Ki 8:12, Shalmaneser clashed the young children in pieces 2Ki 10:14, as did the conqueror of NoAmmon Nah 3:10, and the Babylonians Psa 137:9 afterward. The children of Ammon ripped up the women with child in Gilead Amo 1:13, and the usurper Menahem in Tiphsah and its coasts 2Ki 15:16. Isaiah prophesies that Babylon should undergo, in its turn, the same as to its children Isa 13:16, and the Psalmist pronounces Gods blessing on its destroyer who should so requite him Psa 137:9.
Such was to be the end of the pride, the ambition, the able policy, the wars, the oppressions, the luxury, the self-enjoyment, and, in all, the rebellion of Samaria against her God. She has stood the more in opposition to God, the nearer she might have been to Him, and bare her iniquity. As a city of Gods people, it was never restored. The spot, in its pagan colonists, with which Assyrian policy repopulated it 2Ki 17:24, was still the abode of a mingled religion. Corruption clung, by inheritance, to its site. This too was destroyed by John Hyrcanus. He effaced thee marks that it had ever been a city . It was rebuilt by the Romans, after Pompey had taken Jerusalem . Herod reenclosed a circuit of two miles and a half of the ancient site, fortified it strongly, as a check on the Jews; repopulated it, partly with some who had served in his wars, partly with the people around; gave them lands, revived their idolatry by replacing their poor temple by one remarkable for size and beauty, in an area of a furlong and a half; and called the place Sebaste in honor of his pagan patron, Augustus .
A coin of Nero, struck there, bears the figure (it is thought) of its old idol, Ashtaroth . Jerome says, that John the Baptist was buried there . The pagan, who were encouraged in such desecrations by Julian the Apostate , opened the tomb, burned the bones, and scattered the dust . The city became a Christian See, and its Bishops were present at the four first General Councils . It is now but a poor village, connected with the strongly-fortified town of Herod by its pagan name Sebastieh, a long avenue of broken pillars, and the tomb of the great Forerunner . Of the ancient capital of Ephraim, not even a ruin speaks.
The prophet closes this portion of his prophecy, as other prophets so often do, with the opposite end of the righteous and the wicked. He had spoken of the victory over death, the irrevocable purpose of God for good to his own; then he speaks of utter final destruction. Then when the mercy of God shall be shown to the uttermost, and the victory over sin and death shall be accomplished, then shall all the pomp of the its riches, joys, luxuries, elegance, glory, dignity; perish and not a wreck be left behind of all which once dazzled the eyes of people, for which they forsook their God, and sold themselves to evil and the evil one.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. Samaria shall become desolate] This was the capital of the Israelitish kingdom. What follows is a simple prophetic declaration of the cruelties which should be exercised upon this hapless people by the Assyrians in the sackage of the city.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Samaria, the chief or royal city of the kingdom of Israel,
shall become desolate; besieged, taken, plundered, and sacked, probably it was razed to the foundation, by the Assyrians, provoked by the treachery first, and by the obstinacy next, of Hoshea, maintaining the siege against Shalmaneser three years, 2Ki 17:5.
Rebelled against her God; both cast off his worship and set up idolatry, and also shook off the yoke of Davids house and set up new kings, and maintained both long against God.
They, the inhabitants of Samaria, and also the subjects of the kingdom of Israel, shall fall by the sword; be cut off in war by the prevailing arms of the king of Assyria.
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces; a most barbarous piece of cruelty, yet usually practised in those countries when they were enraged against a people.
Their women with child shall be ripped up; another kind of like or greater inhumanity. Thus Shalman raged against Arbel in the day of battle, and this confirms what the prophet saith Hos 10:14. And this was no doubt executed upon Samaria when it was taken, so their springs (women and children, which are as fountains) were all dried up.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. This verse and Ho13:15 foretell the calamities about to befall Israel before herrestoration (Ho 13:14), owingto her impenitence.
her Godthe greatestaggravation of her rebellion, that it was against her God (Ho13:4).
infants . . . dashed inpieces, c. (2Ki 8:122Ki 15:16; Amo 1:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Samaria shall become desolate,…. With this verse the fourteenth chapter begins in the Hebrew copies, and in the Targum, and in many versions; but seems better to conclude the present chapter; since it is in close connection with Ho 13:15, and explains the figurative expressions there used. Samaria was the head of Ephraim, Isa 7:9; or the metropolis of the ten tribes of Israel; whose desolation is here prophesied of, and was accomplished by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, signified by the east wind; by whom it was not only besieged and taken, but very probably its houses were demolished, its walls broken down, and razed to the very foundation; see 2Ki 17:5; and, as this was the head city, it may be put for all the rest, and even for the whole land, which was at the same time laid waste. The Targum is,
“Samaria shall be guilty;”
that is, shall be found guilty of many sins; her transgression shall be revealed, as Jarchi, become manifest by the just punishment inflicted on her;
for she hath rebelled against her God; and bitterly provoked him to wrath and anger, as the word u signifies; by relinquishing him and his worship, and by serving idols, the calves at Dan and Bethel, Baal and other idols; when the Lord was their God, not only by creation, as of all men, but by the choice he made of them, and the covenant he made with them; by a national adoption of them, attended with various blessings and privileges, and by their profession of him; all which were an aggravation of their rebellion against him;
they shall fall by the sword: the inhabitants of Samaria, and of the land, particularly the men thereof; and especially their armed men, their men of war, that fought for them, and defended them; these should fall by the sword of the Assyrian;
their children shall be dashed to pieces; against stones, walls, and pavements; who should have perpetuated their name to future ages, and inherited their possessions:
and their women with child shall be ripped up; things which are often done by cruel enemies, when cities are sacked and plundered; and which Shalmaneser might be provoked unto by the perfidy of the king of Israel, and by the city of Samaria holding out a three years’ siege. This, though we have no account of as done at that time, yet no doubt was; even as the same things are predicted of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and which were to be done to them, in retaliation for them, though there is no narrative of them; see Ps 137:8.
u “ad amaritudinem concitavit”, V. L. “significat amaricare, [vel] amaritudine replere”, Rivet.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb. Bibl. Hos 14:1). “Samaria will atone, because it has rebelled against its God: they will fall by the sword; their children will be dashed to pieces, and its women with child ripped up.” , to atone, to bear the guilt, i.e., the punishment. It is not equivalent to shamem in Eze 6:6, although, as a matter of fact, the expiation consisted in the conquest and devastation of Samaria by Shalmanezer. The subject to yipp e lu (will fall) is the inhabitants of Samaria. The suffix to (its women, etc.) refers to the nation. The form is one derived from , for (Ewald, 189, c). The construction with the masculine verb , in the place of the feminine, is an anomaly, which may be explained from the fact that feminine formations from the plur. imperf. are generally very rare (see Ewald, 191, b). For the fact itself, compare Hos 10:14; 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16; Amo 1:13.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
This is the conclusion of the discourse: this verse has then been improperly separated from the former chapter (99); for the Prophet enters not here on a new subject, but only confirms what he had said of the ultimate destruction of Samaria and of the whole kingdom. Samaria then shall be desolated; as though he said “I have already often denounced on you what you believe not, that destruction is nigh at hand; of this be now persuaded; but if you believe not, God will yet execute what he has determined, and what he now pronounces by my mouth.” At the same time he adds the cause, For they have provoked their God That they might not complain that they were severely dealt with, he says, that they only suffered the punishment which they deserved. He also specifies the kind of destruction that was to be, They shall fall by the sword, their children shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women shall be torn asunder, that the child may be extracted from the womb. In saying that the citizens of Samaria, and the inhabitants of the whole country, shall fall by the sword, he doubtless intimates that God would make use of this kind of punishment by sending for enemies who would consign them to destruction.
We now then see what is included in the words of the Prophet. He first shows that it was all over with Samaria and the whole kingdom of Israel; as God could by no means bring them to repentance, he would now take vengeance on so desperate an obstinacy. He afterwards shows that God would do this justly, because he had been provoked; and, lastly, he shows what kind their punishment would be. That they might not think that the Assyrians would come by chance, the Prophet says that this army, which was to invade and destroy the country of Samaria, would be, as it were, conducted by the hand of God; for though the Assyrians wished to extend their own borders, and were influenced by their own avarice and cupidity, yet God would use them as instruments to execute his own judgement; and that they might know how dreadful the vengeance would be, he relates two kinds of evils, — that their children would be dashed in pieces, and that their women would be rent asunder, and their offspring extracted from their wombs. Even to speak of this is horrible; and it is what never takes place, except when enemies are greatly enraged and extremely provoked. We now then comprehend the meaning of the Prophet.
But if any one objects and says, that infants, and babes as yet concealed in the wombs of their mothers, deserve not such a grievous punishment, as they have not hitherto merited such a thing; it may be answered, that the whole human race are guilty before God, so that infants though not yet come forth to the light, are yet included as being under guilt; so that God cannot be charged with cruelty, though he may use his own right towards them. And further, we hear what he declares in many places, that he will devolve the sins of parents on their children. Since it is so, let us learn to acquiesce in these awful judgements of God, though very repugnant to our feelings; for we know that we must not contend with God, and that it would be extreme presumption to do so; nay, it would be impious audacity. Though then the reason for this punishment may not appear to us, we ought yet reverently to regard this judgement of God. We may moreover thus reason — If infants be not spared, even those as yet hid in the mother’s womb, what will become of adults? what will become of the old, who through their whole life have continued to provoke the vengeance of God? The Lord no doubt intended by these words to terrify those godless despisers of his word, with whom he had to do. “How great a judgement,” he says, “hangs over you, and how tremendous! since your infants shall not be exempted: for I shall involve you in the same judgement, when they shall be dashed against the stones, after having been drawn out of their mothers’ womb. When such a dreadful punishment shall be inflicted on them, what shall be done to you? for the cause of the evil exists in you.” We have now then explained this verse. Then follows an exhortation.
(99) The fourteenth chapter begins in the original with this verse; but it has been thought better to retain the division of our own version.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
‘Samaria will bear her guilt,
For she has rebelled against her God,
They will fall by the sword,
Their infants will be dashed in pieces,
And their women with child will be ripped up.
For Samaria, Ephraim’s capital and leadership source, must now bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God. She is finally responsible for all the idolatry and all the covenant-breaking, and thus she must face the curses threatened by YHWH in Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28. Her people will fall by the sword, their infant children will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open. God is not, of course, responsible for the detail. That results from man’s inhumanity to man. But it is He Who has willed the event and allowed it to happen.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
REFLECTIONS
AMIDST numberless beauties which this Chapter furnisheth for the most blessed improvements under grace; methinks I would attend to what my Lord hath said concerning his ransom of his people from the power of the grave, as eminently important; and indeed as including all blessings in one. For if Jesus hath indeed in his own glorious person, conquered both sin, and death, and hell! (as that he hath most assuredly,) in that victory all his people are implicated, and interested in all his triumphs. And as under the Holy Ghost’s teachings, every believing soul is led to see the truth of what the Lord hath said in this Chapter; O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; it must be blessed indeed to be equally convinced of what the Lord saith, in me is thine help. Look up then my soul, look up Reader, and hear thy Redeemer’s well known voice, when he declares that he hath ransomed his people from the power of the grave, and redeemed them from death. And hath he not most completely and most effectually done it, by the assumption of our nature, and in that nature vanquished death by his own death, and subdued the dominion of the grave in arising from the grave in the triumphs of his cross? Hath he not done all this, as the head of his body the Church, and in our nature opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers? He hath paid our ransom with his blood. He hath answered the whole demands of divine justice by his righteousness. He hath shown the satisfaction wrought out, and made to all the Father’s perfections. And as it was impossible that the grave should detain such a prisoner, so is it impossible that any of his seed, for whom he hath purchased redemption, should remain in the prison of the grave; for he hath said, because I live, ye shall live also. Hail! thou glorious Lord! thou art indeed the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in thee, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in thee shall never die. Well may every faithful child of God cry out in the triumphant voice of the Apostle, thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
Ver. 16. Samaria shall become desolate ] Here many begin the fourteenth chapter, but not so well; for this verse evidently cohereth with the former, and showeth that Ephraim shall not only be plundered, but butchered by the Assyrian by their own default. “Samaria shall become desolate,” or be found guilty, rea peragetur, (as the Chaldee hath it, and the words may bear). How can she be otherwise, whereas
she hath rebelled against her God
They shall fall by the sword
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces
And their women with child shall be ripped up
Sanguine fundata est Ecclesia, sanguine crescit.
By blood the church is established, by blood she thrives.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Samaria. See 2Ki 17:6.
their. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Aramaean, Septuagint, and Syriac, read “and their”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Samaria: Fulfilled, 2Ki 17:6, 2Ki 17:18, 2Ki 19:9-11, Isa 7:8, Isa 7:9, Isa 8:4, Isa 17:3, Amo 3:9-15, Amo 4:1, Amo 6:1-8, Amo 9:1, Mic 1:4, Mic 6:16
their infants: Hos 10:14, Hos 10:15, 2Ki 8:12, 2Ki 15:16, Psa 137:8, Psa 137:9, Isa 13:16, Amo 1:13, Nah 3:10
Reciprocal: Deu 28:50 – shall not 2Ki 18:10 – they took it Isa 10:13 – robbed Isa 13:18 – shall dash Isa 17:9 – General Jer 7:15 – I will Hos 5:9 – Ephraim Hos 9:13 – shall Hos 11:6 – the sword Amo 6:11 – he will Amo 8:14 – sin Amo 9:8 – and I Mic 1:6 – I will make Mic 6:9 – Lord’s Mic 6:13 – in Mat 24:19 – General Mar 13:17 – General Luk 23:29 – Blessed Rev 8:10 – the fountains
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 13:16. Samaria shall become desolate is a prediction that was to he fulfilled literally, for that city was the capital of the 10-tribe kingdom, and it was destined to be overthrown by the Assyrians. The reason for such a fate against the people of Israel is stated in the words for she hath rebelled against her Lord.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 13:16. Samaria shall become desolate, for she hath rebelled, &c. The prophet foretels the final destruction of Samaria, for her idolatry and other impieties, by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, &c. These were the barbarous practices of conquerors when they took cities by storm, or put all to the sword without distinction of age or sex: see the margin.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
This verse begins chapter 14 in the Hebrew Bible, but its connection is clearly with the preceding verse rather than with those that follow. Yahweh would hold Samaria, a metonymy for Israel, guilty for rebelling against Him, her covenant lord and God (cf. Hos 7:13; Hos 8:1). Israel’s soldiers would die in battle (cf. Lev 26:25), her children would suffer unmerciful executions (cf. Deu 28:52-57; Deu 32:25), and the Assyrians would even cut open her pregnant women with their swords (cf. 2Ki 15:16; Amo 1:13). This gruesome form of execution killed both the mother and the unborn child making it impossible for the coming generation eventually to rise up and rebel against the conqueror. These were curses that the Lord warned would follow rebellion against the terms of His covenant (cf. Lev 26:25; Deu 28:21; Deu 32:24-25; Amo 4:10).