Bible Strands
Hosea 13:10
Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel through the prophet Hosea at the moment of impending national collapse. The rhetorical question confronts the people immediately after declaring their destruction for opposing their own helper.
The words — אֱהִ֤י ('e.Hi) translates literally as "where?" and מַלְכְּ/ךָ֙ (mal.ke./Kha) means "your king." The construction pairs this with אֵפ֔וֹא ('e.Fo'), meaning "then," to form the direct challenge "Where is your king now?"
The thread — The demand for human leadership echoes 1 Samuel 8:5 when Israel first requested rulers like surrounding nations. Hosea 8:4 records that they established these kings without divine approval, and Hosea 10:3 notes their subsequent realization that a king cannot replace reverence for the LORD.
Why it lands — The text forces the reader to confront the futility of trusting political structures for deliverance. It demands a direct assessment of whether human authority can fulfill the role assigned to God alone.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?
Cross-references
- Hosea 8:4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
- 1 Samuel 8:5 “Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.”
- Hosea 10:3 Surely now they will say, “We have no king, for we do not revere the LORD. What can a king do for us?”
- Zechariah 14:9 On that day the LORD will become King over all the earth—the LORD alone, and His name alone.
- Deuteronomy 32:37 He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
- Judges 2:16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.
- 1 Samuel 8:19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.
- 1 Samuel 12:11 So the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.
- 1 Kings 12:20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.
- 2 Kings 17:4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.