I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction - "from the power" - literally, from the hand, i:e., from the grasp of the grave. Applying primarily to God's restoration of Israel from Assyria partially, and in times yet future, fully, from all the lands of their present long-continued dispersion and political death (cf. Hosea 6:2, "After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight;" Isaiah 25:8; Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37:12, "O my people (Israel primarily), I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel"). God's power and grace are magnified in quickening what to the eye of flesh seems dead and hopeless (Romans 4:17; Romans 4:19, "God quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not, as though they were,") as in the case of Sarah's womb and Abraham's body, seemingly dead, and incapable of being parents. х 'epdeem (H6299)] "I will ransom" means, I will redeem to myself, setting free by paying a price. So the Lord Jesus, as our nearest kinsman, became our Goel or Redeemer, ransoming us at the price of His precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Since Israel's history, past and future, has a representative character in relation to the Church, this verse is expressed in language referring ultimately to Messiah's (who is the ideal Israel) grand victory over the grave and death, the first-fruits in His own resurrection, the full harvest to come at the general resurrection, first of His own people, then of the rest of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:23); hence, the similarity between this verse and Paul's language as to the latter (1 Corinthians 15:55). That similarity becomes more obvious by translating 'where,' instead of "I will be," as the Septuagint, which Paul plainly quotes from; and as the same Hebrew word ['ªhiy], which is translated, I will be, ought to be translated in Hosea 13:10, 'O death, where are thy plagues?' (paraphr ased by the Septuagint, 'thy victory'). 'O grave, where is thy destruction?' (rendered by the Septuagint, 'thy sting'). Our English version takes the Hebrew from the verb to be х haayaah (H1961)]: it is better made equivalent to the ordinary Hebrew for 'where' х ª'hiy (H165)]. The question is that of one triumphing over a foe, once a cruel tyrant, but now robbed of all х ª'hiy (H165)]. The question is that of one triumphing over a foe, once a cruel tyrant, but now robbed of all power to hurt.
Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes - i:e., I will not change my purpose of fulfilling my promise by delivering Israel, on the condition of their return to me (cf. Hosea 14:2-8; Numbers 23:19; Romans 11:29).