Hosea 13:14

O Death, Where Is Thy Sting

Quoted by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15:55, in the older Greek wording

Side by Side

The Older Text

Septuagint, translated before Messiah

I will deliver them out of the power of Hades, and will redeem them from death: where is thy penalty, O death? O Hades, where is thy sting? comfort is hidden from mine eyes.

The Later Text

Masoretic, word for word

From the hand of Sheol I will ransom them; from death I will redeem them. Where are thy plagues, O death? Where is thy destruction, O Sheol? Repentance is hidden from mine eyes. (Your KJV reads “I will be thy plagues.”)

Quoted in 1 Corinthians 15:54–55

Paul on the resurrection of the dead

Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Your KJV reads: “I will be thy plagues” in Hosea, a reading some older interpreters gave the Hebrew, and the Greek “where is thy sting?” in Corinthians.

See what changed and why ↓

What Your Bible Says

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15:55 KJV

Paul closes his great chapter on the resurrection with a taunt. Death has been beaten, and he mocks it: where is your sting now?

What Hosea Says in Your KJV

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.
Hosea 13:14 KJV

A reader who turns back from Paul to Hosea finds a threat, not a question. The words Paul quoted seem to be missing.

What Changed

Less than it seems. The small Hebrew word is ehi. It appears only three times, all in Hosea 13. Hebrew dictionaries say it means “where.” Some older interpreters took it as “I will be,” and your KJV followed them.

The Jewish scholars who made the Greek before Messiah read “where.” So did Paul. Other words differ too. Where the Hebrew has “plagues” and “destruction,” the Greek has “penalty” and “sting.” Paul’s “sting” is the Greek’s word.

Which One Is Right?

The Greek Bible reads “where.”

Paul quoted that question as a shout over death.

Hosea 13:10, the same word three verses earlier, reads naturally as “where is thy king?” Israel had asked for a king, and the king could not save them.

The Masoretic text has the same letters. They allow “where.” The difference is in the English.

Purpose of the Change

No motive evident: wording variation only. The pair still matters because Paul took the wording of his shout over death, “sting” and all, from the Greek Hosea.

The Bottom Line

Hosea asked “where?” before Paul did. The Greek kept the question, Paul quoted it, and death has no answer.

John saw the end of the enemy: “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14), “and there shall be no more death” (Revelation 21:4).

Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it

Three Times in One Chapter

Ehi appears in Hosea 13:10 and twice in 13:14. Many modern Bibles read 13:10 “Where is your king?” and 13:14 “O death, where are your plagues?” They have moved back toward the Greek. Paul also blends Hosea with Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death in victory,” so his wording is not word for word from either.

Comfort or Repentance

The last line differs too. The Hebrew word nocham can mean comfort or a change of mind. The Greek chose “comfort,” the KJV “repentance.” This one is a translation choice, nothing more.

Hades and the Grave

The Hebrew word is Sheol, the grave. The Greek used Hades, a word that carried Greek ideas of an underworld the Hebrew never had. Your KJV renders it “grave” in 1 Corinthians 15:55. See “Words Your Bible Borrowed.”

Through Our Lord

Paul ends: “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Yahushua Messiah” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Yahuah gives the triumph. The Son is the One through whom it comes, and He “shall be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).