Hosea 13

Hosea 13:1

And he - The Lord.

Hosea 13:5

Prophesied - Declared these promises. As I prophesied - While I was prophesying. A noise - A rattling of the bones in their motion. A shaking - A trembling or commotion among the bones, enough to manifest a divine presence, working among them. Came together - Glided nearer and nearer, ’till each bone met the bone to which it was to be joined. Of all the bones of all those numerous slain, not one was missing, not one missed its way, not one missed its place, but each knew and found its fellow. Thus in the resurrection of the dead, the scattered atoms shall be arranged in their proper place and order, and every bone come to his bone, by the same wisdom and power by which they were first formed in the womb of her that is with child.

Hosea 13:6

Came up - Gradually spreading itself.

Hosea 13:7

Prophesy - Declare what my will is. O breath - The soul, whose emblem here is wind; which, as it gently blew upon these lifeless creatures, each was inspired with its own soul or spirit.

Hosea 13:8

And the breath - The spirit of life, or the soul, Genesis 2:7.

Hosea 13:9

The whole house - The emblem of the house of Israel. Are dried - Our state is as hopeless, as far from recovery, as dried bones are from life.

Hosea 13:10

I will open - Though your captivity be as death, your persons close as the grave, yet I will open those graves.

Hosea 13:14

One stick - A writing tablet or a tally, such as is fit to be written upon. His companions - Benjamin and part of Levi, who kept with the tribe of Judah. Ephraim - Ephraim was the most considerable tribe in the kingdom of Israel, when divided from the other two. The house of Israel - The other nine tribes, who continued with Ephraim.