Hosea 13:12
in Hosea 13The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store.
KJV
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
⋯
This verse in Hosea 13
Commentary
9 notes on this verse"The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his hidden sin is enfolded. Pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for now he does not present himself at the opening of the womb." LXX: "The congregation of iniquity of Ephraim; his sin is concealed. Labor pains shall come upon him as of a woman giving birth. This is your wise son, for he will not now be able to stand the test of the sons' contrition."
This site's exposition
his sin is hid
on Hosea 13:12-13
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hid, pictures guilt kept safe like a document sealed away, ready to be produced when the reckoning comes rather than forgotten. Verse 13 turns to birth imagery used nowhere else in the book quite this way, the sorrows of a travailing woman coming upon Ephraim, and then the sharp reversal, he is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. Gill and Wesley both read the image as a labor that stalls at the point of delivery, the nation offered a way out of judgment and refusing to come to it.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Is bound up - As sins unpardoned; for to loose sins is to forgive, and to bind sins is to charge them upon the sinner, Matt. xvi, 19. Hid - Not from God, but laid up with God against the day of recompense.
It is laid up in safety, and will not be forgotten, nor the evidence against him lost; but it is laid up in secret; it is hid; the sinner himself is not aware of it. It is bound up in God's omniscience, in the sinner's own conscience. Note, The sin of sinners is not forgotten till it is pardoned, but an exact account is kept of it, which will be opened in proper time.
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
Those among them that yet retain a respect for their God are here encouraged to hope that he will yet appear for their relief, though their kings and princes, and all their other supports and succours, fail them,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
bound up . . . hid--Treasures, meant to be kept, are bound up and hidden; that is, do not flatter yourselves, because of the delay, that I have forgotten your sin. Nay (Ho 9:9), Ephraim's iniquity is kept as it were safely sealed up, until the due time comes for bringing it forth for punishment (De 32:34;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up - It is registered in my court of justice; the death warrant is in store, and will be produced in due time. Though there be not at present the judgment inflicted which such glaring transgressions demand, yet it will surely come. Such crimes cannot go unpunished.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up - (As in a bag or purse, and so, “treasured up”), as Job saith, using the same word, “My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and Thou sewest up mine iniquity.” Job 14:17. “His sin” is “hid” i. e., as people lay up hidden treasure, to be brought out in its season. What Job feared for himself; was to be the portion of Ephraim. All his sins should be counted, laid by, heaped up. No one of them should escape His eye who sees all things as they pass, and with whom, when past, they are present still. One by one, sins enter into the treasure-house of wrath; silently they are stored up, until the measure is full; to be brought out and unfolded in the Great Day. Ephraim thought, as do all sinners, that because God does not punish at once, He never will. They think, either that God will bear with them always, because He bears with them so long; or that He does not see, does not regard it, is not so precise about His laws being broken. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” Ecc 8:11. But God had forewarned them; “Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures? To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time” Deu 32:34, Deu 32:5; and, “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was altogether such an one as thyself; I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes” Psa 50:21. Unrepented sin is an evergrowing store of the wrath of God, hid out of sight in the depths of the divine judgments, but of which nothing will be lost, nothing missing. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up I did not overlook it; it is laid up with Me.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
for [it is] a time For a time of trouble has come upon him, from which he will not be able to stand and endure.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| צָרוּר֙ | tzarur | [is] bound up | H6887 → | |
| עֲוֹ֣ן | ʾavon | [the] iniquity of | H5771 → | 233 times |
| אֶפְרָ֔יִם | ʾefrayim | Ephraim | H669 → | 180 times |
| צְפוּנָ֖ה | tzefunah | [is] stored up | H6845 → | |
| חַטָּאתֽוֹ׃ | chatato | sin his | H2403 → | 295 times |
צָרוּר֙[is] bound up
tzarurH6887 →
עֲוֹ֣ן[the] iniquity of
ʾavonH5771 →233 times
אֶפְרָ֔יִםEphraim
ʾefrayimH669 →180 times
צְפוּנָ֖ה[is] stored up
tzefunahH6845 →
חַטָּאתֽוֹ׃sin his
chatatoH2403 →295 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Romans 2:5But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
- Romans 1:18
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
- Romans 2:2–3
And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
- Hebrews 3:15
As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”
- Jude 1:6
And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.
- Ecclesiastes 12:14
Through
Job 21:19It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.
it leads to
- Exodus 20:5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
- Ezekiel 18:19–20
Yet you may ask, ‘Why shouldn’t the son bear the iniquity of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right, carefully observing all My statutes, he will surely live.
- Exodus 20:5
Through
Job 14:17My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and You would cover over my iniquity.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:34
“Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults?
- Deuteronomy 32:34
About Hosea
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 13:12-13; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.