1 Corinthians 15:55
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Study Note
Study Note
Paul's triumphant taunt — 'where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' — quotes and adapts Hosea 13:14 in a rhetorical climax to his argument for bodily resurrection. The rhetorical question treats death as a defeated enemy already in the past tense, anticipating the eschatological victory declared in verse 54. The 'sting of death is sin' (verse 56) grounds the metaphor: sin's condemning power gives death its lethal force, and Christ's resurrection has defanged both. Handel's setting of this passage in Messiah ('O Death, where is thy sting?') made it one of the most recognized pieces of biblical poetry in Western musical culture.
Other Translations
O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?
where, O Death, thy sting? where, O Hades, thy victory?'
O death, where is your power? O death, where are your pains?
Cross References
It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of …
Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why …
For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is …
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so …
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the …
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more …