What Does Hosea 5:14 Mean in the King James?

For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

Hosea 5:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Here, tearing and carrying away are one act: the voice that takes the prey leaves no second hand able to retrieve it.

THE MEANING

The verse presents divine power as a predator that tears, withdraws, and carries away. Its violence is deliberate, and the sentence leaves no rescuer able to retrieve what is taken.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that the divine voice appears only as shelter: here, the speaker names himself as the lion and declares that no one can rescue the one taken.

THE ROOT

אֶטְרֹף

etroph

GROWS FROM

טרף

taraph

to tear at, seize as prey

The verb translated “tear” shares its root with the noun for prey and the word for a predator. The lion image is therefore more than a comparison: the sentence names the act of a predator taking its prey.

ALSO GROWS

teref: prey; food torn from a kill

טֶרֶף

The same word family names what the lion takes, joining the tearing to the one made prey.

toreph: a predator; one who tears or preys

טֹרֵף

The verb and the predator grow from the same root, making the speaker’s action match the lion’s nature.

terefah: a torn animal or torn flesh

טְרֵפָה

This branch makes the violence concrete: the root can name what remains after the tearing.

אֶשָּׂא

esa

GROWS FROM

נשא

nasa

to lift, carry, or bear

The verb translated “take” also means to lift, carry, or bear. The line depicts more than removal: the lion carries away what it has torn, beyond the reach of another hand.

ALSO GROWS

nose: one who carries or bears

נֹשֵׂא

This participle shows the carrying sense within the same root as the taking in the verse.

massa: a burden or load

מַשָּׂא

The root can name what is carried; here, the one seized is borne away.

THE PATTERN

When judgment is pictured as God’s own grasp, no rival rescuer can take the threatened one beyond it.

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

Deuteronomy 32:39 · KJVThe repeated “I” places both the wounding and the absence of any deliverer in the reach of one divine hand.

Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

Psalm 50:22 · KJVThe warning joins tearing directly to the absence of anyone who can deliver.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:31 · KJVThe verse presents falling into God’s hands as a fearsome exposure to a power no rival hand can overrule.

THE THREAD

Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

Psalm 7:2 · KJV

The same Hebrew root translated “tear” appears in both verses, alongside the absence of a deliverer. Psalm 7 fears a lion and asks for rescue; Hosea gives the lion’s voice to the divine speaker.

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