Will I deliver them from the power of Sheol? No, I will not!Will I redeem them from death? No, I will not! O Death, bring on your plagues! O Sheol, bring on your destruction! My eyes will not show any compassion! (Hosea 13:14 NET Bible).
The Apostle likely references this passage in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57:
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
How did Hosea 13:14 go from what it was to what it became in 1 Corinthians 15? Is the Apostle Paul working from a strange translation (as we often are)? Is it a misquote?
No. Jesus came, died, and rose from the dead. In his life he fulfilled the law, robbing death of its power. In dying he took the sting of sin, robbing death of its great weapon – eternal judgement. In rising, he demonstrated that the monster of death had been defeated entirely.
At the cross God unleashed hell on his Son, our Lord: Will I deliver him? No, I will not! Will I redeem him? No, I will not! O Death, bring on your plagues! O Sheol, bring on your destruction! My eyes will not show any compassion!
And because Jesus took this sting, we can say, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?
Death has no dart with which to wound us except sin, since death proceeds from the anger of God. Now it is only with our sins that God is angry. Take away sin, therefore, and death will no more be able to harm us (John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15).
