Hosea 13:13

He is an unwise son, etc.] Ephraim is like a foolish child that delays his own birth by staying in the passage from the womb. In other words, he has not the wisdom to rouse himself in this great crisis.

14. With a startling transition of thought, Hosea contemplates the power of Jehovah to save, even from death itself: cp. Isaiah 26:19. If it is too much to regard it as a definite prophecy of the resurrection, it is at least an example of faith in the unbounded mercies of God, and His power to trample even upon death and Hades.

O death.. destruction] RV 'O death, where are thy plagues? O grave' (RM 'Sheol'), 'where is thy destruction?' Cp. Hosea 13:10, where the same negative answer to the rhetorical question is intended. See 1 Corinthians 15:55, where St. Paul, quoting freely from LXX, gives a better rendering than AV. Sheol is the place of departed spirits, Hades, as in Isaiah 14:9, etc.

Repentance.. eyes] i.e. I will not relent in my purpose.

15. Suddenly again the hope vanishes. Ephraim in his prosperity is compared to a fertile country suddenly dried up by the east wind from the desert, and the failure of water.

Wind.. Lord] RV 'breath of the Lord,' the wind being poetically conceived of as God's breath, just as the thunder was His voice: cp. Genesis 1:2. He shall spoil] i.e. the east wind, or rather the enemy whom it typifies.