Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open. (Hosea 13: 16)
The fertility - the increase - sought through idoltry will be destroyed.
While the destruction is clear and awful enough, the immediate cause is not specified.
Is the cause an angry God or the absence of a loving God? Does the angry God intervene directly to destroy or is the loving God absent because of our failure to open ourselves to God?
Very bad things happen to very good people. I do not read in Hosea or elsewhere in scripture the possibilty of a sure-fire security contract.
But there is a recurring suggestion that our troubles are amplified by our self-chosen separation from God.
This verse is not assigned for the Sunday lectionary, but it falls between the Hosea passages assigned for Saturday and Monday. Above is a fresco of Hosea and the Delphic Sybil by Pinturicchio.
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