Hos 13:14, 1Cor 15:26, 54 | Barnes

Hosea 13:14

1 Corinthians 15:26

Verse 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. The other foes of God should be subdued before the final resurrection. The enmity of the human heart should be subdued by the triumphs of the gospel. The sceptre of Satan should be broken and wrested from him. The false systems of religion that had tyrannized over men should be destroyed. The gospel should have spread everywhere, and the world be converted to God. And nothing should remain but to subdue or destroy death, and that would be by the resurrection. It would be,

(1.) because the resurrection would be a triumph over death, showing that there was one of greater power, and that the sceptre would be wrested from the hands of death.

(2.) Because death would cease to reign. No more would ever die. All that should be raised up would live for ever; and the effects of sin and rebellion in this world would be thus for ever ended, and the kingdom of God restored. Death is here personified as a tyrant, exercising despotic power over the human race; and he is to be subdued.

(b) "be destroyed is death" Hoss 13:14, 2Ti 1:10, Rev 20:14

1 Corinthians 15:54

Verse 54. So when, etc. In that future glorious world, when all this shall have been accomplished.

Then shall be brought to pass. Then shall be fully accomplished; these words shall then receive their entire fulfilment; or this event shall meet all that is implied in these words.

The saying that is written. What is written, or the record which is made. These words are quoted from Isa 25:8; and the fact that Paul thus quotes them, and the connexion in which they stand, prove that they had reference to the times of the gospel, and to the resurrection of the dead. Paul does not quote directly from the Hebrew, or from the Seventy, but gives the substance of the passage.

Death. Referring here, undoubtedly, to death in the proper sense; death as prostrating the living, and consigning them to the grave.

Is swallowed up. κατεποθη (from καταπινω, to drink down, to swallow down) means to absorb, (Rev 12:16;) to overwhelm, to drown, (Heb 11:29;) and then to destroy or remove. The idea may be taken from a whirlpool, or maelstrom, that absorbs all that comes near it; and the sense is, that he will abolish or remove death; that is, cause it to cease from its ravages and triumphs.

In victory, ειςνικος. Unto victory; so as to obtain a complete victory. The Hebrew (Isa 25:8) is . The Seventy often render the word , which properly means splendour, purity, trust, perpetuity, eternity, perfection, by νικος, victory, 2Sam 2:26, Job 36:7, Lam 3:18, 5:20, Amos 1:11, 8:7. The Hebrew word here may be rendered either unto the end, i.e., to completeness or perfection, or unto victory, with triumph. It matters little which is the meaning, for they both come to the same thing. The idea is, that the power and dominion of death shall be entirely destroyed, or brought to an end.

(e) "is swallowed up" Isa 25:8