Hosea 13:13,14

These verses, at least down to the last clause of Hosea 13:14, seem a slight digression. The prophet declares that the troubles which are already closing around Israel, are in reality a last opportunity graciously vouchsafed of repentance. But he in his unwisdom neglects to embrace it, though every moment of delay increases his danger. Notice the two-fold application of the figure of childbirth. Israel is first of all the travailing woman, and then the child whose birth is imperilled by its weak will. Mr Huxtable well compares the abruptness with which St Paul shifts the application of an image; see e.g. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3; 2 Corinthians 3:13-15.

The sorrows … shall come Rather, The pangs … come (are in the process of coming). The divine judgment is compared to the pangs of trouble, as in Micah 4:9; Matthew 24:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

he is an unwise son Comp. Deuteronomy 32:6, -Do ye thus requite Jehovah, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father", &c.

for he should not, &c. Or better, -for at the (right) time he standeth not", &c. But as the rendering -at the (right) time" is doubtful, it is better still to alter the points (as in Ezekiel 27:34) and render, for now he standeth not in the place where children break forth. The passage is akin to Isaiah 37:2, where Judah's utter incapacity to emerge out of its troubles is compared to the inability of a woman to perform the act of bringing forth. Here, however, to suggest a moral lesson to Israel, the weak will of the child is represented as the cause of the failure. It is a new birth which Israel needs; and if calamity only had its right effect on the conscience, the language ascribed to Israel in Hosea 6:2 would be verified, -on the third day … we shall live in his sight." For the two-fold aspect in which Hosea here views the judgment, comp. Hosea 6:1.