Does God destroy the fetuses of those who do not worship him?

Question

Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Hos 13:16

Answer 1

The text you quote is found in Hosea 13:16. Notice in the text itself that the people have rebelled. Does God say that He Himself will rip up their pregnant women? No. The text does not say anything near this. It simply foretells what will occur.

When people rebel against God, God is no longer able to protect them. It is then that the Enemy is able to harm them. Unprotected because of their own rebellion, these bad things will happen. God knows the future and sees what will happen. He warns the people of what will happen because He does not want to see them go down that path. Yet when they rebel against Him, ignoring the warning, it cannot be blamed on God that these evil things come as a result.

In Hosea 13:16 both of the two Hebrew verbs translated as "shall be dashed in pieces" and "shall be ripped up" are in the pual form, which means they are Hebrew passive voice. Because it is impossible for commands in Hebrew to be in the passive voice, these words cannot possibly be interpreted as commands of God. They are simply predictions, and God cannot be said to have caused these things.

A related question was asked and answered HERE.

Answer 2

Who is responsible for the destruction of the wicked?

When looking at examples of mass killings that happen as a result of divine curses or divine judgement, it's tempting to say that somehow Satan or man is the one doing the killing, which I think is exegetically unsound.

Let's look at prophecies against Israel. Here is Zephaniah 1:2-3 (LEB)

“I will surely destroy everything from the face of the earth”—a declaration of Yahweh. “I will destroy humanity and beast; I will destroy the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked. And I will cut off humankind from the face of the earth”—a declaration of Yahweh."

Another proof text in Amos 9.7-8 (all of Amos is a proof text)

“Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares Yahweh. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? Look, the eyes of my Lord Yahweh are on the kingdom of sin, and I will destroy it from the surface of the earth. However, I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares Yahweh.

For the specific case of Hosea, here is Hos 1.4 (LEB)

And Yahweh said to him, “Name him Jezreel; because in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Hosea 13.7-9 (LEB)

And I will be like a lion to them; I lie in wait beside the way, like a leopard. I will attack them like a bear robbed of her offspring, and I will tear open the covering of their heart; there I will devour them like a lion, like an animal of the field would mutilate them. I will destroy you, who will help you?

Here, I, refers to YHWH.

God is clear that He is the actor, not Satan, not any human. Of course God may have many instruments to use (see below), but He is the one in control of what is happening.

Does this happen as a result of faithlessness?

Ezekiel 14.12-22:

And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting very unfaithfully, then I will stretch out my hand against it, and I will break for it the supply of food, and I will send against it famine, and I will cut it off, both human and animal. And if even the three of these men were in the midst of it—Noah, Daniel, and Job—they, through their righteousness, would save only themselves!” declares the Lord Yahweh.

“If a fierce animal I should let cross through the land, and it should make it childless and it will be a desolation, so that there will not be one crossing over the land due to the presence of the animal, even if these three men were in the midst of it, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord Yahweh, “surely they will not save sons and daughters; they themselves alone, they will be saved, but the land will be a desolation. Or, if I bring a sword over that land, and I say, ‘Sword, let it cross over into the land!’ And I will cut off from it both human and animal. And if these three men were in the midst of it, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord Yahweh, “they will not save sons and daughters, but they alone will be saved.

And if I were to send a plague to that land, and I pour out my rage on it with blood to cut it off, both human and animal, and if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of her, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord Yahweh, “surely not a son, surely not a daughter will they save by their righteousness; they would save themselves.” For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “How much more when I send my four punishments—the evil sword, and famine, and a fierce animal, and a plague—to Jerusalem to cut it off, both human and animal! But look! A remnant will be left over in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. Look! They are coming out to you, and you will see their way, and with their deeds you will be consoled with respect to the evil that I brought over Jerusalem, all of it that I brought over it.

Note that even in the examples of destruction physically done by humans, God is claiming agency "if I bring a sword over that land, and I say, ‘Sword, let it cross over into the land!’ And I will cut off from it both human and animal". The scriptures are very clear that God has agency -- there may be debates about freewill, but there is no exegetical debate about God's will.

Note that God is responsible for bringing plagues, slaughter by sword, slaughter by wild animals, and also famines and droughts to those who sin against him by acting very unfaithfully. One need only look at Noah's flood, or the plagues sent to earth in Revelation, or the plagues sent on Egypt or on the tribes in the wilderness, or pretty much any prophecy, to see many more proof texts. This is one of the clearest and easiest conclusions to draw from both old and new testament exegesis, where in both the new and old testaments we are supposed to learn from these events as a result of reading them. To read them and then sit in judgement of God is to miss the point in a pretty colossal way.

1 Pet 2.4-6

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly

1 Cor 10.1-12

For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all went through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with the majority of them, for they were struck down in the desert. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil things, just as those also desired them, and not become idolaters, as some of them did, just as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play,” nor commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day, nor put Christ to the test, as some of them tested him, and were destroyed by snakes, nor grumble, just as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to those people as an example, but are written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, the one who thinks that he stands must watch out lest he fall.