John Trapp on Hosea 13:14

Verſe 14. I will ranſom them from the power of the grave, &c.] Some read it thus,Calvin. Tigurin. Iſid. Clar. Danaeus. Druſius. I would have ranſomed them, &c. I would have redeemed them, &c. had they been wiſe, or oughts, (as we ſay) had not their incurable hardneſſe and obſtinacy hindered; had they put forth into my hands, as unto a midwife, &c. But (alas) it is no ſuch matter: therefore that that will die, let it die.

repentance ſhall be hid from mine eyes.] I am unchangeably reſolved to ruine them: Or, repentance ſhould have been hid from mine eyes, my goodneſſe toward them ſhould never have altered, &c. But let us rather look upon the words as a moſt ſweet and comfortable promiſe of a mighty redemption, and glorious reſurrection to the Remnant, according to the election of grace, whom God would not have to want comfort, I will ranſom them. Here therefore he telleth his Heirs of the promiſes, that he will bring them back out of captivity wherein they [illegible: 1 letter]ay for dead, as it were: and that this their deliverance ſhould be an evident argument and ſure pledge of their reſurrection to life eternall. To which purpoſe the Apoſtle doth aptly and properly alledge it, 1 Cor. 15. and thereupon rings in Deaths ears (out of this Text, and Eſay 25.8.) the ſhrilleſt, and ſharpeſt Note, the boldeſt and braveſt challenge, that ever was heard from the mouth of a mortall; Death, where is thy ſting? Hell where's thy victory, &c? Oh thanks be to God, who hath given us victory through our Lord Jeſus Chriſt, and thereby hath made us more then conquerours, that is, Triumphers, 2 Cor. 2.14. But to return to the Text. Be it, ſaith the Prophet, that the Common-wealth of Iſrael, both mother and child muſt periſh for want of wiſdom, as was threatned in the foregoing verſe: yet let not the penitent among them deſpair: for I the Lord Chriſt, will ranſom them, by laying down a valuable price (ſo the word ſignifieth) from the power,]Ephdem. Heb. hand: of the grave, or of hell, that though hell had laid hands on them, yea cloſed her mouth upon them, as once the Whale had upon Jonas, yet I would open the doors of that Leviathan, and fetch them thence with a ſtrong hand.

I will redeem them from death,] by becoming their near kinſman according to the fleſh, whereby I ſhall have the next right of redemption. But how ſhall all this be done? After a wonderfull manner.

O death I will be thy plagues,] Not one, but many plagues, even ſo many, as ſhall certainly do thee to death. The Vulgar rendreth it, Ero mors tua, O mors, morſus tuus, O inferne. The Apoſtle for plagues hath ſting: for the plague hath a deadly ſting, and ſo hath ſinne much more; the guilt thereof is by Solomon ſaid to bite like a ſerpent, and ſting like a cockatrice, Prov. 23.32. Now Chriſt by dying put ſinne to death, Rom. 1.25. Epheſ. 1.7. Heb. 2.14. We read of a certain Cappadocean, Sphinx. Phil. pag. 750. whom when a Viper had bitten, and ſuckt his blood, the Viper her ſelf died, by the venemous blood that ſhe had ſuckt. But Chriſt (being life eſſential) prevailed over death: and ſwallowed it up in victory, as Moſes his ſerpent ſwallowed up the ſorcerers ſerpents, or as Fire ſwalloweth up the fuell that is caſt upon it: yea by death, he deſtroyed him that had the power of death, the devil; whoſe practiſe it was to kill men with death, Rev. 2.23. this is the ſecond death.

O grave (or, O hell) I will be thy deſtruction,] thy deadly ſtinging diſeaſe, joyned with the peſtilence, Pſal. 91.6. Death to a beleever is neither totall, nor perpetuall, Rom. 8.10, 11. Chriſt hath made it to him, of a curſe a bleſſing, of an enemy a friend, of a puniſhment an emolument, of the gate of hell the portall of heaven, a poſtern to let out temporall, but a ſtreet-door to let in eternall life. And to aſſure all this; Repentance ſhall be hid from mine eyes,] i. e. there ſhall be no ſuch thing as repentance in me, for all things that are at all are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, Heb. 4.13. The meaning is, I will never change my minde for this matter, my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.Pſal. 89.34. Confer Pſal. 110.4. Rom. 11.29. Some render it (but not ſo well) Conſolation is hid from mine eyes, and ſo make them to be the words of the Church, q. d. I ſee not this promiſe with mine eyes, but I receive it, and accept of it by my faith.