Hosea 13:16

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Samaria shall become desolate; for she has 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.

American King James Version (AKJV)

Samaria shall become desolate; for she has 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.

American Standard Version (ASV)

Samaria shall bear her guilt; 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.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.

Webster's Revision

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.

World English Bible

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 pregnant women will be ripped open."

English Revised Version (ERV)

Samaria shall bear her guilt; 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.

Clarke's Hosea 13:16 Bible Commentary

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.

Barnes's Hosea 13:16 Bible Commentary

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 God's 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 mother's womb. Such atrocities were common then. Elisha foretold to Hazael that he would perpetrate both cruelties 2 Kings 8:12, Shalmaneser clashed the young children in pieces 2 Kings 10:14, as did the conqueror of NoAmmon Nahum 3:10, and the Babylonians Psalm 137:9 afterward. The children of Ammon ripped up the women with child in Gilead Amos 1:13, and the usurper Menahem in Tiphsah and its coasts 2 Kings 15:16. Isaiah prophesies that Babylon should undergo, in its turn, the same as to its children Isaiah 13:16, and the Psalmist pronounces God's blessing on its destroyer who should so requite him Psalm 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 God's people, it was never restored. The spot, in its pagan colonists, with which Assyrian policy repopulated it 2 Kings 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.

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