John Calvin Commentary Hosea 10:11

"And Ephraim is a heifer that is taught, that loveth to tread out [the grain]; but I have passed over upon her fair neck: I will set a rider on Ephraim; Judah shall plow, Jacob shall break his clods." — Hosea 10:11 (ASV)

Some read the two words, “taught” and “loves,” separately, מלמדה, melamde, and אהבתי, aebti; for they think that at the beginning of the verse a reproach is conveyed, as though the Prophet had said that Ephraim was wholly unteachable. Though God had from childhood brought him up under His discipline, he still showed such great stubbornness that he did not even cease to rebel against God and went on obstinately in his own wickedness. Ephraim then is like a trained heifer.

But this meaning seems too far-fetched. I therefore connect the whole together in one context and follow what has been more approved: Ephraim is a heifer trained to love, or, that she may love, threshing; that is, Ephraim has been accustomed to love threshing.

Here, there is an implied comparison between ploughing and threshing. We know there is more labor and toil in ploughing than in threshing, for oxen are coupled together and then compelled to obey. When joined together, they pull here and there in vain.

But when oxen thresh, they are loose, and the labor is less toilsome and heavy. The Prophet then means this: Ephraim pretended some obedience, yet would not take the yoke so as to be really and in everything submissive to God.

Other nations did not understand what it was to obey God. However, there was some appearance of religion in Israel; they indeed professed to worship the God of Israel and had temples among them. But the Lord derides this hypocrisy and says, Ephraim is like a heifer, which will not submit her neck to the yoke. Instead, she will only, for recreation’s sake, pass through the threshing-floor and tread the corn, as hypocrites are accustomed to do. For they do not wholly repudiate every truth but receive it in part. Yet, when the Lord presses on them too much, they then fiercely resist and show that they wish to act according to their own will.

Indeed, almost the whole world exhibits some appearance of obedience—though of what kind, I do not know. But they wish to make a compact with God, that He should not require more than what their pleasure may allow. When one is a slave to many vices, he desires that he be allowed liberty for these; in other things, he will yield some obedience.

We now understand the Prophet's meaning and see what he had in view. He then derides the hypocritical service that the Israelites rendered to God, for they were at the same time unwilling to bear the yoke and were untamable. They were not unwilling to come to the threshing; for when God commanded anything easy, they either willingly performed it or at least discharged their duty somehow in that particular. However, they would not accustom themselves to plough.

Since this was so, God says, I have passed over upon her beautiful neck. God shows why He treated Ephraim with severity: for Ephraim had to be made to submit because he was so obstinate. I have passed over upon the goodness of her neck; that is, “When I saw that she had a fat neck and refused the yoke, I tried by afflictions whether such stubbornness could be subdued.”

Some refer this to the teaching of the law, saying that God had passed over upon the beautiful neck of Israel because He had delivered His law in common to all the posterity of Abraham.

But this is foreign to the context. I therefore do not doubt that the Prophet's meaning was this: God here declares that it was not without reason that He had been so severe in endeavoring to tame Israel, for He saw that Israel could not otherwise be brought to obedience.

“Since, then, Ephraim only loved treading, I wished to correct this delusion and ought not to have spared him. If he had been a wearied ox, or an old one broken down, emaciated, and with no strength, some consideration ought to have been had for him. But as Israel had a thick and fat neck, was strong enough to bear the yoke, and yet loved his own pleasures and refused the yoke, it was necessary that he should be tamed by afflictions. I have therefore passed over upon the goodness, or the beauty, of the neck of Ephraim.”

But as God effected nothing by mildly chastising Israel, He now adds, I will make him to ride. Some render it, “I will ride,” but as the verb is in Hiphel (the causative mood), it is necessary to explain it thus: God will make Israel to ride. But what does this mean?

Those who render it, “I will ride,” saw that they departed from what grammar requires, but necessity forced them to this strained interpretation. Others would have על, ol (on), understood, leading to “I will make to ride on Ephraim,” and they insert another word, making it, “I will make the nations to ride on Ephraim.” But the sentence will best accord with the context if we make no change to the Prophet’s words.

Indeed, those who offer the interpretations I have mentioned destroy the elegance of the expression and pervert the meaning.

Thus, then, God speaks: “Since Ephraim loves treading, and the moderate punishments by which I meant to subdue him are of no avail, I will hereafter deal with him in another way. I will make him, He says, to ride; that is, “I will take him away, as it were, through the clouds.”

The Prophet alludes to the lasciviousness and intemperance of Israel, for lust had so carried away that people that they could not walk straight or with a steady step, but staggered here and there, as Jeremiah also says that they were untamable bullocks (Jeremiah 31:18). What does God declare?

I will make them to ride; that is, I will deal with this people according to their disposition. There is a similar passage in Job, where the holy man complains that he was forcibly snatched away, that God made him ride on the clouds. God, he says, made me to ride (he uses the same word there). What does it mean?

This means that the Lord had forcibly carried him here and there. So also the Prophet says here: “Israel is delicate and, at the same time, I see so much voluptuousness in his nature that he cannot take the yoke; nothing then remains for him but to ride on the clouds.”

But what sort of riding will this be? “It will be the kind where the people will be carried away into exile. Since they cannot rest quietly in the land of Canaan, since they cannot enjoy God’s blessings, they shall ride; that is, they shall quickly be taken away into a far country.”

We now see then how God dealt with Israel when He saw what his disposition required. For Israel could not be constrained to obedience in his own land; it was then necessary to remove him elsewhere, as was indeed done.

He afterwards adds, Judah shall plough, Jacob shall harrow for himself; that is, the remaining portion of the people shall remain in their afflictions. These punishments were indeed grievous when considered in themselves, but it was far easier and more tolerable for Judah to plough and to harrow among his people than if he had to ride.

Judah then suffered grievous losses, and the Lord also chastised him with afflictions. But this punishment, as I have said, was much less than the other.

It was the same as when an ox, drawn out of the stall, is led into the field and forced to endure its daily labor. Its toil is indeed heavy and grievous, but the ox at least lives after its work and refreshes itself with rest during the night. It also undergoes some toil by harrowing and grows weary, but it returns to the stall. Then its master is not so cruel that he does not grant the ox some indulgence.

Thus we see the meaning of this comparison: that Judah shall plough, and that Jacob (that is, the remaining part of the people) shall harrow. This means that the rest of the people shall break the clods—for “to harrow” among the Latins means to break the clods—but the Lord will make Ephraim to ride.

This, I do not doubt, is the genuine meaning of the passage, but I leave to others their own free judgment.