What Does Hosea 13:16 Mean in the King James?
Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew verb translated “ripped up” means “split open,” making the judgment land with literal force on bodies.
THE MEANING
This verse confronts you now with judgment in its most bodily form: infants are dashed apart and pregnant women are ripped open. It places Samaria’s rebellion beside the violence that overtakes the city, refusing to let collective ruin remain abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that judgment can be discussed as an abstraction without bodies inside it.
THE ROOT
יְבֻקָּעוּ
yevuqqaʿu
GROWS FROM
בקע
To split, cleave, or break open.
The KJV’s “ripped up” comes from a form of “split open.” The same root divides the sea in Exodus 14:16; here its object is a pregnant body, so the verb’s physical force stays in view.
ALSO GROWS
bāqaʿ: To split or cleave.
בָּקַע
This verb divides the sea in Exodus 14:16; here the same concrete action is done to a body.
beqaʿ: A half, including a half-shekel.
בֶּקַע
The noun preserves the root’s idea of dividing a whole, making the physical division embedded in the word family visible.
מָרְתָה
mārtāh
GROWS FROM
מרה
To rebel, resist, or defy.
“rebelled” in this verse is mārtāh. The verb names Samaria’s relation to God as defiance. The rest of the verse keeps that rebellion beside the violence in material detail, rather than letting “rebellion” remain an abstract charge.
ALSO GROWS
merî: Rebellion or defiance.
מְרִי
This noun makes the root’s sense of resistance explicit, echoing the verse’s description of Samaria.
mamrîm: Rebelling or rebellious.
מַמְרִים
This related form carries the same root into a description of those in defiance, showing the family beyond this single verb.
תֶּאְשָׁם
teʾasham
GROWS FROM
אשם
To be guilty, incur liability, or bear guilt.
Alongside the ruin carried by “desolate,” the Hebrew verb can carry the sense of becoming guilty or liable. Its word family names both guilt and a reparation offering, so accountability sounds alongside devastation.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshām: Guilt; also a reparation or guilt offering.
אָשָׁם
This related noun keeps liability and its consequences within the same word family.
ʾashmāh: Guilt or offense.
אַשְׁמָה
This noun makes the culpability shade audible alongside the city’s ruin.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names the victims of collective violence instead of leaving devastation as an abstraction.
And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.THE THREAD
But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.The Hebrew verb translated “divide” is the same root as Hosea’s “ripped up.” Exodus uses it for the sea’s opening; Hosea uses it for bodies, so the shared root makes the physical force of the word unmistakable.
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