John Calvin Commentary Hosea 11:2

"The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them: they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images." — Hosea 11:2 (ASV)

The Prophet now repeats the ingratitude of the people in neglecting to keep in mind their redemption. The word “called” is here to be taken in a different sense. For God effectually called, as they say, the people, or his Son, from Egypt; he has again called by the outward voice or teaching through his Prophets.

Hence, when he said before that he called his Son from Egypt, it ought to be understood, as they say, of actual liberation; but now when he says, They have called them, it is to be understood of teaching. The name of the Prophets is not expressed, but that they are intended is plain.

And the Prophet seems intentionally to have said in an indefinite manner that the people had been called, so that the indignity might appear more evident, as they had been called so often and by so many, and yet had refused. Hence, they have called them. When he speaks in this way, he is not to be understood as referring to one or two men, or to a few, but as including a great number of men, doing this everywhere.

And so they have called them; that is, this people have been called, not once or twice, but constantly. God has not only sent one messenger or preacher to call them, but there have been many Prophets, one after the other, often so employed, and yet without any benefit. We now perceive what the Prophet meant.

They have called them, he says, so they went away from their presence. The particle so, כן, can, is introduced here to enliven the description, for the Prophet points out, as if pointing with his finger, how wickedly they conspired to execute their own plans, as if they wished purposely to show openly their contempt.

So they went away; when the Prophets called them to one path, they proceeded in an opposite one. We then see that to point out their conduct in this way was not superfluous, when he says that they went away in this manner.

And then he says, from their face. Here he shows that the people sought hiding-places and shunned the light.

We may indeed conclude from these words that so great was the perverseness of the people, that they not only wished to be alienated from God, but also that they would have nothing to do with the Prophets. It is indeed a proof of extreme wickedness when instruction itself is a weariness and ministers cannot be endured; and no doubt the Prophet meant to highlight this sin of the people.

He afterwards says that they sacrificed unto Baalim and burnt incense to graven images. In the former clause, he shows the contumacy of the Israelites: that they refused to listen to God’s servants. He now adds that they made incense to graven images, and also offered worship to their idols.

By Baalim, as it has been already stated, the Prophet means the inferior gods. For no such stupidity prevailed among the people as not to think that there is some chief deity; indeed, even profane Gentiles confessed that there is some supreme God.

But they called their advocates (patronos) Baalim. As we see to be the case today under the Papacy, this same office is transferred to the dead; they are to procure for people the favor of God. The Papists then have no grounds for seeking an evasion by words, for the very same superstition prevails currently among them as prevailed formerly among Gentiles and the people of Israel.

Here the Prophet enhances the wickedness of the people, for they not only contemptuously neglected every instruction in religion but also openly perverted the whole worship of God and abandoned themselves to all abominations, so as to burn incense to their own idols. Let us go on—