1 Corinthians 15:55

1 Corinthians 15:55. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? (Hosea 13:14). The textual evidence for this reading of so familiar a verse is decisive; and though it may be less grateful to the ear accustomed to the old form of it, it will be found on reflection to be more expressive. The challenge to “death,” to say where is now its “victory,” seems the natural sequel of the immediately preceding words, “Death is swallowed up in victory;” as if he had said, ‘The tables are turned upon thee now: till now the victory was thine indeed; for “the wages of sin was death,” and thou hadst a right to see them duly paid. But thy sting has been extracted, and where is it now?' And this view of the exclamation explains sufficiently the emphatic repetition of “death” in both members of the question, instead of “grave” in the second question (an addition from the LXX.); for the dreaded enemy is really “death,” the grave being but its sequel.