How does the oracle join threatened destruction with redemption from death?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Ephraim’s idolatry and forgotten provision meet predatory images, failed kingship and a redemption announcement.

Chapter breakdown

When Ephraim speaks, horror seizes Israel; he sins in Baal and dies. Increasing sin produces a molten silver likeness of idols, wholly craftsmen's work, with the accusation Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves. They will pass like morning cloud, early dew, threshing-floor dust driven by whirlwind and chimney smoke. The Lord has been their God from Egypt: they must know no other god, and there is no other savior. He knew them in the wilderness. Filled according to their pastures, they raised their hearts and forgot him.

He will meet them like a lioness, a leopard on the Assyrians' way and a bear robbed of her whelps, rending the inner liver and devouring like a lion. Israel owns its destruction; help is only in God. The oracle asks where the requested kings and judges are to save their cities. A king is given in wrath and taken in indignation. Ephraim's iniquity is bound and sin hidden. Labor sorrows come upon him as an unwise son who will not stand in the children's breach.

God announces deliverance and redemption from death: he will be death to death and a bite to hell; comfort is hidden from his eyes. The edition's argument identifies Christ's future redemption as the chapter's hope. The final verse speaks of separation between brothers and a burning desert wind drying springs, desolating the fountain and carrying away desirable vessels' treasure. The wind is not identified as an eastern imperial force, and the redemption announcement is not a general promise of immediate physical survival.

The story inside

Human-made silver idols precede four transient images. Israel’s destruction contrasts with help only in God. The final wind follows separation among brothers.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Human-made silver idols precede four transient images.
2
Israel’s destruction contrasts with help only in God.
3
The final wind follows separation among brothers.

Test your recall

What is hidden from the speaker’s eyes after the death announcement?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 100006–100016
13:1. When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal, and died. 13:2. And now they have sinned more and more: and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves. 13:3. Therefore they shall be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
Lines 100018–100033
13:4. But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no saviour beside me. 13:5. I knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness. 13:6. According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me. 13:7. And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians. 13:8. I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them. 13:9. Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in me.
Lines 100043–100048
13:13. The sorrows of a woman in labour shall come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children. 13:14. I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.