“Shall I ransom them
From the power
Of Sheol?
Shall I redeem them
From Death?
O Death!
Where are your plagues?
O Sheol!
Where is your destruction?
Compassion is hidden
From my eyes.”
Yahweh, via Hosea, wanted to know if he should ransom Israel from the power of Sheol, the shadowy afterlife experience. Should Yahweh redeem them from death. Then, he like Paul later in his description of death in I Corinthians, chapter 15, wondered where was the sting or the power of death. Where were the plagues and destruction of Death and Sheol? Yahweh would not have compassion on them, because it was hidden from his eyes.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 