David's Prophecy


Obvious meaning

The New Testament recognizes two Old Testament prophecies of the Resurrection. The first is Psalm 16:10.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Psalm 16:10

Our confidence that this text is speaking of Christ's return from the grave rests on the authority of Peter's sermon given at Pentecost.

22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:

26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:

27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

Acts 2:22–28

In the original prophecy, the word "Holy One" (chasid1) does not in itself necessarily betoken Christ. It simply means a godly man (Psa. 145:10).2 "Thine Holy One" might also be translated "thy saint."3 But notice that God would grant the Holy One a most unusual deliverance. The Holy One would share the ordinary human experience of death, and after death, His soul, like the souls of other men, would go to the realm of the dead. This is the place signified by the Hebrew word sheol, translated "hell."4 Yet God would not leave His soul in Sheol. By implication, God would remove it by an act of direct intervention. But where would the soul of the Holy One be taken?

The verse goes on to say that although the Holy One would die, He would escape corruption." The corresponding Hebrew word, shachath, is usually rendered "pit" by the KJV5 because it was another name for Sheol.6 But in this verse, "pit" is not the correct translation, for whereas the Holy One would temporarily reside in Sheol, He would never see shachath. Shachath is the noun form of a verb that, in its many occurrences, always carries the sense "corrupt" or "destroy."7 Thus, many standard versions including the KJV agree that shachath in Psalm 16:10 refers to corruption.8 Of the various Greek words available to translators of the Septuagint, they chose diaphthora, which means "corruption."9 Unquestionably, the prophecy contains the thought that no corruption would touch the body of the Holy One after His death. What would happen to avert normal degenerative processes?

The most straightforward resolution of these questions supposes that a single event would both terminate His soul's stay in hell and spare His body from decay. The event that the prophecy foreshadows must be a resurrection, reuniting His soul and body in new, unending life. To forestall the corruption of His body, the resurrection would have to take place soon after His death, within a few days at most.

The Holy One's attainment of immortality almost immediately after death marks Him out as no ordinary man. He is, in fact, Christ. The psalm is a prophetic vision of Christ triumphing over death and the grave.


Answer to an objection

The heading of Psalm 16 identifies the writer as David. A casual reader might assume that when David speaks of the Holy One, he is referring to himself. The proof that the subject of the prophecy in verse 10 is not David but Christ was furnished by Peter.

29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

Acts 2:29-32

Here, Peter answers the question, who is the Holy One? Peter's argument is simple and irrefutable. The Holy One surely cannot be David, because David died and his tomb is still among us. Therefore, the Holy One must be Christ.

But the psalmist claims the Holy One's soul as his own. He calls it "my soul." How can David use the first person when speaking of another man? Peter gives two explanations.

  1. Peter says that when David wrote the psalm, God had already "sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne" (v. 30). The oath is recorded in the Second Book of Samuel.

    And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

    2 Samuel 7:12

    From this promise of God, David knew that Christ would be "the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh." Thus, in Psalm 16, he is entitled to treat Christ's experience as his own, just as any of us might legitimately think of ourselves as living in and through our children.

    The word translated "set up" in 2 Samuel 7:12 means "raise up"10 or "cause to rise."11 Peter supplies the translation anastesion12 (Acts 2:30), a word commonly used with reference to the raising of Christ from the dead.13 Therefore, as David reflected upon the mysterious divine words, "I will raise up thy seed after thee," he may have taken the promise to mean that Christ would occupy His forefather's throne only after He had been raised from death. David's assertion in Psalm 16:10 that the Holy One would rise again may have rested on an insight culled from previous revelation.

  2. Also, Peter affirms that David is speaking as "a prophet" (v. 30). Since a prophet is a mouthpiece of God, it is, in a sense, God Himself speaking in Psalm 16:10. The person involved in the expression "my soul" can therefore be understood as a person of the Godhead. We infer that this divine person would die and rise again.

Despite its foursquare cogency, Peter's argument leaves the critics unmoved. They insist that the writer of Psalm 16:10 (they doubt it was David) has no one in mind but himself. The text, they say, is not Messianic prophecy, but merely an expression of pious hope that the writer will someday live again through the power of God. But if the writer is predicting his own resurrection in the distant future, his language is certainly sloppy. The words point to a resurrection soon after death. Yet to claim that David looked forward to overcoming death within a few days after he died is not an option for critics. So far as we know, not one Old Testament figure believed that his death would be followed quickly by resurrection. Why would any of them expect such a future for himself when there was no record in Hebrew tradition of anyone else who rose soon after death to life immortal? It is certain that David suffered no such delusion. When upon his death bed, he said,

1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,

2 I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man.

1 Kings 2:1-2

Indeed, God had clearly told David that at his death, he would lie down with his fathers, and that his place would be taken by his descendants (2 Sam. 7:12).

Although all conservatives agree that Psalm 16:10 is Messianic, many today have abandoned the traditional view that the prophecy is strictly Christocentric, with no reference to David. It is fashionable to posit a simultaneous double reference, taking in both the speaker and his exalted scion. Yet, Peter says that "David speaketh concerning him" (v. 25). The antecedent of "him" is "Jesus of Nazareth" (v. 22). Moreover, Peter says that "he [David] seeing this before spake [in this prophecy] of the resurrection of Christ" (v. 31). The crux of Peter's argument is that the psalm does not fit David's experience—that it makes sense only as Messianic prophecy. On the authority of the New Testament, we may therefore affirm that Christ is the sole subject of Psalm 16:10.


Hosea's Prophecy


The Old Testament reveals not only that Jesus would rise from the dead, but also specifies the day after His burial when the Resurrection would take place. Jesus said that the prophets indicate the third day.

Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.

For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:

And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

Luke 18:31–33

Paul agreed that Christ's resurrection on the third day is a fact revealed by the Scriptures.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

1 Corinthians 15:4

Where does the Old Testament divulge this information? The primary source is Hosea 6:1-2.

1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Hosea 6:1-2

Here is a difficult prophecy, but when we examine it carefully, we find that there is only one reasonable interpretation. In verse 2, who is "us?" Further light appears in the previous chapter.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

Hosea 5:13

This flashback reveals who needs the healing mentioned in verse 1. It is Ephraim and Judah—in other words, the nation of Israel. So, it is Israel who will be healed and raised up after three days.

The usual interpretation is that Hosea is merely restating the message of many other prophets that a time will come when God will again look favorably on Israel. They will secure His blessing when they turn from their sins. Indeed, His love for the nation is so great that He will respond to their repentance by quickly restoring them to spiritual life.14

But this interpretation founders on the question, what are the exact starting and finishing points of the interval measured as a span of two days coming to a third day? If the prophet is foreseeing spiritual revival, how can it be meaningfully placed after an interval of precisely three days? What interval is he referring to? All who favor this interpretation must treat the interval as figurative language describing a quick divine response to repentance. But the true meaning is an amazing prophecy proclaimed by the literal sense of its words.

We find its true meaning in Ephesians 4:8-10.

8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:8-10

When Paul speaks of those in "captivity," he is referring to the souls of Old Testament saints. After His death, Christ went to their abode in the "lower parts of the earth;" specifically, in the underworld known as "Sheol" in Hebrew and "Hades" in Greek, both names sometimes unfortunately translated "hell" (Jon. 2:2;15 Luke 16:2316). Hades was divided into two portions separated by a great gulf (Luke 16:26). All the souls of the ungodly dead resided on one side, a place of fiery torment, whereas all the souls of the righteous dead resided on the opposite side, a place of peaceful rest. To emphasize that death could not steal the godly away from the love of God, the name Jesus chose for their dwelling place in Hades was Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22). After Jesus died on the cross, He went this portion of the underworld and preached the gospel to the souls of Old Testament saints so that they could meet their Savior and respond to Him in love. During their lives on earth, they had believed in God and trusted in Him for salvation, but they had not known Jesus, whose coming was still future. They became acquainted with Him, as it were, only after His death and descent into Hades. Yet He did not visit them briefly and then depart, with the intent of leaving them exiled from His presence for the next two thousand years. Rather, He brought them out of Hades and took them to heaven so that they might live forevermore in the presence of both Himself and the Father. Previously, they were denied admission to the Father's presence because their sins were not yet covered by the finished work of Christ. Lacking identification with Christ in His perfection, they had no standing before God and no right to dwell in heaven.

This interpretation allows a full explanation of everything stated in Hosea 6:2.

  1. It says He would "revive us." They must be revived because they are dead.
  2. It says He would "raise us up." They must be raised because their souls reside in the underworld.
  3. The raising would occur "after two days"—to be precise, "in the third day." The deliverance of Old Testament saints from Hades was in fact accomplished when Christ rose from the dead on the third day after His burial. Yet He did not immediately take them to heaven. On Resurrection Sunday, many were seen walking about Jerusalem.

    52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

    53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

    Matthew 27:52–53

    The ones seen must have had a bodily presence. We therefore surmise that their dead bodies had been reunited with their souls and resurrected. But these embodied saints could not have included all the saints just delivered from Hades, for Scripture teaches that many of God's people from the Old Testament era will not be resurrected until the Tribulation, the period of unprecedented trouble that will precede Christ’s glorious return to this world (Matt. 24:21).17

    1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

    2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

    Daniel 12:1–2

    "Many" of Daniel’s fellow Israelites will be raised "at that time" but not all. Some were raised on Easter Sunday. Soon afterward, doubtless on the same day, these risen saints together with all the souls of dead saints who had not regained a bodily presence must have been lifted to heaven. It is likely that Jesus Himself conducted them to their eternal home. When He met Mary Magdalene soon after daybreak on Sunday morning, He forbade her to touch Him. The reason He gave was that He had not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). Yet probably before another hour had gone by, He let other women hold His feet (Matt. 28:9). Thus, in the interim He must have ascended and returned. We might think the time lapse was too short to allow not only a journey to heaven and back, but also the heavenly ceremonies that must have greeted His arrival there. But we dare not suppose that our pace of events is the same as heaven's. God can proceed through time at any rate that He chooses.
  4. The passage in Hosea 6 says that "we shall live in his sight." After being removed from Hades, they would literally live in the sight or presence of God.

The same interpretation makes sense of verse 3 in Hosea 6.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Hosea 6:3

The first assertion can be translated, "Then shall we know, we who press on to know the Lord."18 They had always looked for the Redeemer's coming, but now they would see Him face-to-face. They would know Him personally.

The expression, "his going forth," refers to His resurrection. The next expression, "prepared as the morning," can be translated, "as certain as the morning."19 The prophet is declaring that just as day must follow night, so resurrection must follow the Savior's death.

The word "morning" in this verse also has a deeper meaning. The Hebrew word is shachar,20 which occurs one other time in Hosea.

15 So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

Hosea 10:15-11:1

According to Matthew, verse 1 in chapter 11 foretells that Christ would live for a time in Egypt.

14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt

15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

Matthew 2:14–15

So, there can be little doubt that the king of Israel mentioned in Hosea 10:15, the verse preceding Hosea 11:1, is Christ. So, there can be little doubt that the king of Israel in Hosea 10:15, the verse preceding Hosea 11:1, is Christ. His death happens in a morning. The imagery is teaching us that Christ is the Light of the world (John 8:12) and that His coming to the earth would be like a rising sun, but in the same morning He would die. Thus, when Hosea says in Hosea 6:3 (quoted above) that His going forth is as certain as the morning, he means not only that Jesus' conquest of death would be as sure as daybreak after darkness. He means also that it would be as sure as His entrance to this world for the purpose of dying as our Savior.

According to the same verse, Hosea 6:3, His going forth would take place after He came to Israel like rain. What truth do we draw from this comparison? The explanation appears later in the book of Hosea.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

Hosea 10:12

In other words, after Christ finished His work of redemption, He would bring righteousness to the dead who died in faith and who dwell in Hades. As a result, they would be accounted worthy to enter the presence of God. According to Hosea 6:1–2 (also quoted above), their translation would occur after a period of two days.

The prophet’s words here in Hosea 10:12 illuminate the well-known prophecy a few verses later in Hosea 11:1, speaking of God's Son sojourning in Egypt. Since the former text, Hosea 10:12, reveals that God’s intent is to bring righteousness to Israel, the latter text may therefore be interpreted as telling us both His motive and His method. His motive will be love. His method will be to bring His Son into the nation.

These prophecies together with later texts in Hosea convey a message similar to John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

John states God's program for the whole world; Hosea, His program for Israel. In both programs, the motive is love. In both, God acts by putting His Son in danger. In one, the Son is sent from heaven's tranquility into a world that would crucify Him. In the other, He is brought out of safety in Egypt to the place where men had conspired to kill Him and where eventually they would succeed. Both Hosea and John reveal that through the Son's victory over death, He would obtain life for us.

I will ransom them from the hand of Sheol; I will redeem them from death: O death, where are your plagues; O Sheol, where is your ruin: . . . .

Hosea 13:1421

God is speaking prophetically about the time when Christ would remove the saints of Israel from Sheol, providing them with eternal life.

Hosea concludes his message to Israel by telling them exactly how they can receive the righteousness that God wishes to provide.

1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

Hosea 14:1–9

Footnotes

  1. Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Bible, 22d American ed., revised by Wm. B. Stevenson (repr., Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 488.
  2. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic (n.p., 1906; repr., Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), 339.
  3. In nineteen instances, the KJV gives "saint" for chasid. See, for example, 1 Samuel 2:9, Psalm 145:10, and Proverbs 2:8.
  4. Young, 474; Brown et al., 982.
  5. Young, 204; Wm. B. Stevenson, Index Lexicons to the Old and New Testaments, in Analytical Concordance to the Bible, by Robert Young, 22d American ed., revised by Wm. B. Stevenson (repr., Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), 43.
  6. Brown et al., 1001.
  7. Stevenson, 43; Merrill F. Unger and William White, Jr., Nelson's Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980), reprinted in, An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, by W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White, Jr. (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984), 96.
  8. NASB; NIV; NKJV.
  9. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, eds., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 189.
  10. Jay P. Green, Sr., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew/English, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1983), 2:819.
  11. Young, 868.
  12. George Ricker Berry, Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (n.p., 1897; repr., Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1981), 426.
  13. Young, 792.
  14. C. Von Orelli, The Twelve Minor Prophets, trans. J. S. Banks (n.p.: T. & T. Clark, 1897; repr., Minneapolis, Minn.: Klock & Klock Christian Publisher, 1977), 37; H. Ronald Vandermey, "Hosea," in Hosea and Amos, by H. Ronald Vandermey and Gary G. Cohen (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), 45–46.
  15. Strong, Concordance, 478; Strong, Hebrew Dictionary, 108.
  16. Berry, 282.
  17. Rickard, Daniel, 389–394.
  18. Strong’s Concordance, 807; Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, 54.
  19. Green, 3:2082.
  20. Young, 669.
  21. Jay P. Green, Sr., trans., The Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (Lafayette, Ind.: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2001).