---
title: Hosea 13:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hosea-13-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hosea-13-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hosea 13:4
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hosea 13:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "But I am Jehovah your God from the land of Egypt; You knew no God except me, And besides me there is no savior."

## JW Usage

Cited alongside Isaiah 43:11 and 45:21 to establish that Jehovah is the only Saviour. On the Watchtower reading this settles the matter: since Jehovah alone saves, Jesus must save in a derived sense — as the ransom Jehovah provided and the channel through which Jehovah's salvation reaches people.

## Protestant Usage

The verse is exclusive by design: besides me there is no saviour. That is the first half of a dilemma the New Testament completes. The second half is Acts 4:12 — "there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Peter is speaking about Jesus, to a Jewish council, in a Jewish city, quoting the vocabulary of a Bible that says Jehovah alone saves. The "agency" answer cannot bridge this one, and it is worth showing why rather than just asserting it. Agency would work if Hosea had said Jehovah is the greatest saviour, or the ultimate source of salvation. He says there is no saviour besides him — the word itself is reserved, not just the rank. When Peter says no other name saves, he is not naming a second-tier saviour; he is using the exact form of Hosea's exclusive claim and attaching it to Jesus. Ask the question plainly and kindly: if Jehovah said no name but his own saves, and the apostles said no name but Jesus' saves, how can both be true unless those names belong to one God? Compare Isaiah 45:21, Matthew 1:21, Luke 24:47.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Every Title For Yahweh Is Given To Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/yahweh-titles-applied-to-jesus.md) — Isaiah 44:6 / Acts 4:12 / Romans 10:9 / Hosea 13:4 / Revelation 22:13 [Deity of Christ]