1 Corinthians 15:55

O death, where is thy sting?.... These words, with the following clause, are taken out of Ho 13:14 and that they belong to the times of the Messiah, the ancient Jews acknowledge; and the Chaldee

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? From Hosea 13:14 substantially, but freely quoted by the warrant of the Spirit. The Hebrew may be translated, 'O death, where are thy plagues?

The apostle, in the contemplation of this blessed day, triumpheth over death, in a metaphorical phrase: Where is thy sting? What hurt canst thou now do unto believers, more than a wasp, or hornet, or bee, that hath lost its sting? O grave, or O hell, (the same word signifieth both), where now is thy victory? The conqueror of all flesh is now conquered, the spoiler of all men is spoiled; it had got a victory, but now, O death, where is thy victory?

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Ver. 55. Death, where is thy sting?] This is the sharpest and the shrillest note, the boldest and the bravest challenge, that ever man rang in the ears of death. Sarcasmo constat et hostili derisione, qua mors ridenda propinatur, saith one. Death is here out-braved, called craven to his face, and bidden do his worst ( Tollitur mors, non ne fiat, sed ne obsit. Aug.). Death destroy, let it not happen but let it not hurt. So Simeon sings out his soul, Hilarion chides it out, Ambrose is bold to say, I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die. Anne Askew, the martyr, thus subscribeth her own confession: Written by me, Anne Askew, that neither wisheth for death, nor feareth his might; and as merry as one that is bound towards heaven. Mr Bradford being told he should be burned the next day, put off his cap, and lifting up his eyes, praised God for it.

(55) O death, where is thy sting?—In the prophet Hosea, where these words originally occur, the passage reads thus—“Where is thy victory, O death? Where is thy sting, O hell?”—the word “hell” referring, not to the place of torment, but to the Hades of departed spirits. This difference between St. Paul’s words and those of the prophet has given rise to a variety of readings in the Greek text here. The weight of evidence is in favour of the reading, “Where is thy sting, O death? Where is thy victory, O death?” the word “Hades,” or “grave,” not being introduced at all. The passage is not a quotation, but the adaptation of the form of a familiar Old Testament phrase.

Verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?] Πουσου, Θανατε, τοκεντρον·πουσου, ᾁδη, τονικος· These words are generally supposed to be taken from Hosea 13:14, where the Hebrew text stands thus: אהי דבריך מות אהי קטבך שאול ehi debareyca maueth; ehikatabca sheol: which we translate, O death! I will be thy plagues; O grave! I will be thy destruction; and which the Septuagint translate very nearly as the apostle, πουἡδικησου, Θαντε;πουτοκεντρονσον, ᾁδη; O death, where is thy revenge, or judicial process? O grave, where is thy sting? And it may be remarked that almost all the MSS., versions, and many of the fathers, interchange the two members of this sentence as they appear in the Septuagint, attributing victory to death; and the sting, to hades or the grave; only the Septuagint, probably by mistake or corruption of copyists, have δικη, dike, revenge or a judicial process, for νικος, nikos, victory: a mistake which the similarity of the words, both in letters and sound, might readily produce. We may observe, also, that the אהי ehi (I will be) of the Hebrew text the Septuagint, and the apostle following them, have translated που, where, as if the word had been written איה where, the two last letters interchanged; but אהי ehi, is rendered where in other places; and our translators, in the 10th verse of this same chapter (Hosea 13:10) render אהי מלך ehi malca, "I will be thy king," but have this note in the margin, "Rather, where is thy king? King Hoshea being then in prison." The apostle, therefore, and the Septuagint, are sufficiently vindicated by the use of the word elsewhere: and the best Jewish commentators allow this use of the word. The Targum, Syriac, Arabic, Vulgate, and some MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi, confirm this reading. Having vindicated the translation, it is necessary to inquire into the meaning of the apostle's expressions. Both Death and Hades are here personified: Death is represented as having a sting, dagger, or goad, by which, like the driver of oxen, he is continually irritating and urging on; (these irritations are the diseases by which men are urged on till they fall into Hades, the empire of Death;) to Hades, victory is attributed, having overcome and conquered all human life, and subdued all to its own empire. By the transposition of these two members of the sentence, the victory is given to Death, who has extinguished all human life; and the sting is given to Hades, as in his empire the evil of death is fully displayed by the extinction of all animal life, and the destruction of all human bodies. We have often seen a personification of death in ancient paintings-a skeleton crowned, with a dart in his hand; probably taken from the apostle's description. The Jews represent the angel of death as having a sword, from which deadly drops of gall fall into the mouths of all men. Hades, which we here translate grave, is generally understood to be the place of separate spirits.

55. O death, where is thy sting?] This quotation follows neither the Septuagint nor the Hebrew of Hos 13:14. The former is ‘Where is thy penalty, O death, where is thy sting, O Hades?’ following, most probably, a different reading from the present Hebrew text, which runs thus: ‘I will be thy plagues, O death, I will be thy pestilence, O grave’ (or ‘Hades,’ for the Hebrew word has both significations). See next note.O grave, where is thy victory?] In the Greek, O Hades. The Vulgate (which is followed by Tyndale) as well as most of the best MSS. read death here for Hades. So do Irenaeus and Tertullian, writing in the second century. But the ancient Syriac version reads Hades. Bishop Wordsworth suggests that the text was altered from a fear lest the passage should give any countenance” to the idea of a god of the shades below, known to the Greeks by the name of Hades. But in later Greek and in the Septuagint its use to denominate the place of departed spirits was well established.

“O death.” This triumphant exclamation is the commencement of the fourth division of the chapter, the practical consequences of the doctrine.

55. In this verse, no doubt, Hosea 13:14 was running through St. Paul’s mind, but he does not seem so much to quote as to parallel the prophet.