To Elane:
Hosea 13:16 is a prediction that God will sit by and let it happen. I say it this way, because He is sovereign and deserves any kind of words to shock the description, that He is He, and has a right to do anything He wants. God not only loves, He hates, hates sin. Furthermore, look at what Jesus said, be afraid of the one who can destroy the soul. We must not be cavalier about sin or who we think we are. It is serious. At the same time His mercies prevail for a time, but at some point they run out, like on judgment day.