John Calvin Commentary Hosea 1:2

"When Jehovah spake at the first by Hosea, Jehovah said unto Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom; for the land doth commit great whoredom, [departing] from Jehovah." — Hosea 1:2 (ASV)

The Prophet here shows what charge was given him at the beginning: namely, to declare open war with the Israelites, and to be, as it were, very angry in the person of God, and to denounce destruction. He does not begin with smooth things, nor does he gently exhort the people to repentance, nor adopt a roundabout course to soften the harshness of his doctrine. He shows that he had used nothing of this kind, but says that he had been sent like heralds or messengers to proclaim war. The beginning, then, of what the Lord spoke by Hosea was this: “This people are an adulterous race, all are born, as it were, of a harlot; the kingdom of Israel is the filthiest brothel; and I now repudiate and reject them, I no longer own them as my children.” This was no common vehemence. From this, we see that the word beginning was not set down without reason, but deliberately, so that we may know that the Prophet, as soon as he undertook the office of teaching, was vehement and severe, and, as it were, fulminated against the kingdom of Israel.

Now, if it is asked, why was God so greatly displeased? Why did He not first recall these wretched men to Himself, since the usual method seems to have been that the Prophet tried, by a kind and paternal address, to restore to a sound mind those who had departed from the pure worship of God? Why, then, did God not adopt this ordinary course? But from this we gather that the diseases of the people were incurable. The Prophet, no doubt, distinctly intimates here that he was sent by God when the state of things was almost past recovery. We indeed know that God is not accustomed to deal so severely with men, except when He has tried all other remedies; and this may doubtless be easily learned from the records of Scripture.

The ten tribes, immediately after their revolt from the family of David, having renounced the worship of God, embraced idolatry and ungodly superstitions. They ought to have retained in their minds the recollection of this oracle:

The Lord has chosen Mount Zion, where He has desired to be worshipped; this, He said, is My rest forever; here I will dwell, for I have chosen it (Psalms 132:13–14).

And this prediction, we know, had not been repeated once or ten times, but a hundred times, so that it might be more firmly fixed in the hearts of men. Since, then, they ought to have had this truth fully impressed on their hearts—that the Lord would have Himself worshipped nowhere except on Mount Zion—it was monstrous stupidity for them to erect a new temple and to make the calves.

That the people, then, had so quickly fallen away from God was an instance of the most perverse madness. But, as I have said, they had reached the highest point of impiety. When God punished such great sins by Jehu, the people ought then to have returned to the pure worship of God, and there was some reformation in the land. However, they always reverted to their own nature; indeed, the event proved that they only dissembled for a short time, so blinded were they by a diabolical perverseness that they continually remained in their superstitions.

It is not, then, to be wondered at that the Lord made this beginning by Hosea: “You are all born of fornication, your kingdom is the filthiest brothel; you are not My people, you are not beloved.” Who, then, will not allow that God, by thundering in so dreadful a manner against this people, dealt justly with them, and for the best reason? The stubbornness of the people was so indomitable that it could be overcome in no other way. We now understand why the Prophet used this expression, The beginning of speaking which God made.

Then it follows, in Hosea. He had said in the first verse, The word of Jehovah which was to Hosea; he now says, נהושע, beusho, in Hosea. He adds that God spoke and said to Hosea, repeating the preposition used in the first verse. The word of the Lord is said to have been to Hosea, not simply because God addressed the Prophet, but because He sent him out with certain commissions, for it is in this sense that the word of God is said to have come to the Prophets.

God also addresses His word indiscriminately to others whomever He is pleased to teach by His word, but He speaks to and addresses His Prophets in a unique way, for He makes them the ministers and heralds of His word, and puts, as it were, into their mouth what they afterwards bring forth to the people. So Christ says that the word of God came to kings, because He constitutes and appoints them to govern mankind. If he calls them gods, he says, to whom the word of God came; and that psalm, we know, was written with a special reference to kings. We now perceive what this sentence in the first verse contains: The word of God came to Hosea. For the Lord did not simply address the Prophet in a common way, but furnished him with instructions, so that he might afterwards teach the people, as it were, in the person of God Himself.

It is now added in the second verse, The beginning of speaking, such as the Lord made by Hosea. Those who give this rendering, “with Hosea,” seem to explain the Prophet’s meaning coldly. The letter ב, beth, I know, often has this sense in Scripture; but the Prophet, no doubt, in this place represents himself as the instrument of the Holy Spirit.

God then spoke in Hosea, or by Hosea, for he produced nothing from his own mind, but God spoke by him; this is a form of speaking with which we shall often meet. On this, indeed, depends the whole authority of God’s servants: that they do not give themselves free rein, but faithfully deliver, as it were, from hand to hand, what the Lord has commanded them, without adding anything whatever of their own.

God then spoke in Hosea. It afterwards follows, The Lord said to Hosea. Now this, which is said the third time, or is three times repeated, is nothing other than the commission in different forms. He first said in general, “The word of the Lord which was to Hosea;” now He says, The Lord spoke thus, and He expresses distinctly what the word was to which He referred in the first verse.

Go, He says, take to yourself a wife of wantonness, and the children of wantonness; and the reason is added, for by fornicating, or wantoning, has the land grown wanton. He doubtless speaks here of the vices which the Lord had long endured with inexpressible forbearance. By wantoning then has the land grown wanton, that it should not follow Jehovah.

Here interpreters struggle greatly, because it seems very strange that the Prophet should take a harlot for a wife. Some say that this was an extraordinary case. Certainly, such a license could not have been tolerated in a teacher. We see what Paul requires in a bishop, and no doubt the same was required formerly in the Prophets: that their families should be chaste and free from every stain and reproach.

It would have then exposed the Prophet to the scorn of all if he had entered a brothel and taken a harlot for himself. For he is not speaking here of merely an unchaste woman, but of a ‘woman of wantonness,’ which means a common harlot. A ‘woman of wantonness’ is what she is called who has long accustomed herself to wantonness, who has exposed herself to all to gratify the desires of all, who has prostituted herself not once or twice, nor to a few men, but to all. That this was done by the Prophet seems very improbable.

But some reply, as I have said, that this ought not to be regarded as a common rule, for it was an extraordinary command of God. And yet it seems inconsistent with reason that the Lord should thus gratuitously make His Prophet contemptible. For how could the Prophet expect to be received when appearing before the public, after having brought such disgrace upon himself? If he had married a wife such as is here described, he ought to have hidden for life rather than undertake the prophetic office. Therefore, the opinion of those who think that the Prophet had taken such a wife as is here described is not probable.

Then another reason, utterly irrefutable, militates against them: for the Prophet is not only commanded to take a wife of wantonness, but also children of wantonness, begotten by whoredom. It is, therefore, the same as if he himself had committed whoredom. For if we say that he married a wife who had previously conducted herself with some indecency and lack of chastity (as Jerome at length argues in order to excuse the Prophet), the excuse is frivolous. He speaks not only of the wife but also of the children, since God would have the whole offspring to be adulterous, and this could not be the case in a lawful marriage. Thus, almost all the Hebrews agree in this opinion: that the Prophet did not actually marry a wife, but that he was commanded to do this in a vision. And we shall see in the third chapter (Hosea 3:1) almost the same thing described; and yet what is related there could not have been actually done, for the Prophet is commanded to marry a wife who had violated her marital faithfulness, and after having bought her, to retain her at home for a time. This, we know, was not done. It then follows that this was a representation exhibited to the people.

Some object and say that the whole passage, as given by the Prophet, cannot be understood as relating a vision. Why not? For the vision, they say, was given to him alone, and God was concerned with the whole people rather than with the Prophet. But it may be, and it is probable, that no vision was presented to the Prophet, but that God only ordered him to proclaim what had been given him in charge.

When, therefore, the Prophet began to teach, he started somewhat in this way: “The Lord places me here as on a stage, to make known to you that I have married a wife, a wife accustomed to adulteries and whoredoms, and that I have begotten children by her.” The whole people knew that he had done no such thing; but the Prophet spoke thus in order to set before their eyes a vivid representation. Such then was the vision: a figurative exhibition, not that the Prophet knew this by a vision, but the Lord had commanded him to relate this parable (so to speak), or this likeness, so that the people might see, as in a living portraiture, their depravity and treachery. It is, in short, an exhibition in which the thing itself is not only presented in words but is also placed, as it were, before their eyes in a visible form. The reason is added, for by wantoning has the land grown wanton.

We now then see how the words of the Prophet ought to be understood. For he assumed a character when appearing before the public, and in this character he said to the people that God had commanded him to take a harlot for his wife and to beget adulterous children by her.

His ministry was not on this account made contemptible, for they all knew that he had always lived virtuously and temperately; they all knew that his household was free from all reproach. But here he exhibited in his assumed character, as it were, a living image of the baseness of the people.

This is the meaning, and I see nothing strained in this explanation. At the same time, we see the meaning of this clause: By wantoning has the land grown wanton. Hosea might have said this in one word, but he had to address the deaf. We know how great and how stupid is the madness of those who delight in their own superstitions; they cannot bear any reproof.

The Prophet then would not have been listened to unless he had exhibited, as in a mirror before their eyes, what he wished them to understand, as if he had said, “If none of you can so know himself as to own his public baseness, if you are all so obstinate against God, at least know now by my assumed character that you are all adulterous and derive your origin from a filthy brothel, for God declares this concerning you. And as you are not willing to receive such a declaration, it is now set before you in my assumed character.”

That it should not follow Jehovah, literally, From after Jehovah, מאחרי, meachri. We here see what the spiritual chastity of God’s people is, and also what the meaning of the word “wantoning” is. The spiritual chastity of God’s people, then, is to follow the Lord. And what else is this “to follow” but to allow ourselves to be ruled by His word, willingly to obey Him, and to be ready and prepared for any work to which He may call us? When, then, the Lord goes before us with His instruction and shows the way, and we become teachable and obedient, look up to Him, and do not turn aside either to the right or to the left hand, but bring our whole life to the obedience of faith—this is truly to follow the Lord. And it is a most beautiful definition of the spiritual chastity of God’s people.

And we may also, from the opposite of this, learn what it is to grow wanton: we do so when we depart from the word of the Lord, when we listen to false doctrines, when we abandon ourselves to superstitions, when we, in short, wander after our own devices and do not keep our thoughts under the authority of the word of the Lord. But as to the word “wantoning,” more will be said in Chapter 2. I only wished now to briefly touch on what the Prophet means when he rebukes the Israelites for having all become wanton.

Prayer: Grant, Almighty God, that as You have once adopted us and continue to confirm this Your favor by calling us unceasingly to Yourself, and do not only severely chastise us but also gently and paternally invite us to Yourself and exhort us at the same time to repentance—O grant that we may not be so hardened as to resist Your goodness, nor abuse this Your incredible forbearance, but submit ourselves in obedience to You; that whenever You may severely chastise us, we may bear Your corrections with genuine submission of faith, and not continue untamable and obstinate to the last, but return to You, the only fountain of life and salvation; that as You have once begun a good work in us, You may perfect it to the day of our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]