Bible Strands
Hosea 13:9
You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me—against your helper.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord speaks through the prophet Hosea to the northern kingdom of Israel at a moment of imminent judgment. The declaration follows immediate warnings of divine violence against apostasy.
The words — שִֽׁחֶתְ/ךָ֥ (shi.chet./kha) translates to "your destruction," and עֶזְרֶֽ/ךָ ('ez.re./kha) means "your helper." These terms frame the verse’s core contrast between Israel’s fate and its true source of aid.
The thread — The text links self-inflicted ruin to Jeremiah 2:17 and Jeremiah 2:19, where apostasy is shown as its own punishment. It contrasts this with Deuteronomy 33:26, which identifies the Lord as the only true aid who rides the heavens to rescue.
Why it lands — The text states Israel’s ruin results from rebelling against the Lord who serves as its helper. The passage demands a reader acknowledge that rejecting divine protection guarantees self-destruction.
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
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 2:17 Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?
- Jeremiah 2:19 Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- Deuteronomy 33:26 “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.
- Deuteronomy 33:29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
- Psalms 121:1 A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
- Psalms 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
- Proverbs 6:32 He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
- Isaiah 3:11 Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
- Jeremiah 5:25 Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.
- Hosea 14:1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.