John Calvin Commentary Hosea 11:5

"They shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be their king, because they refused to return [to me]." — Hosea 11:5 (ASV)

Here the Prophet denounces a new punishment: that the people hoped in vain that Egypt would be a place of refuge or an asylum for them, for the Lord would draw them away to another region.

The Israelites had cherished this hope that if, by any chance, the Assyrians should be too powerful for them, there would still be a suitable refuge for them in Egypt among their friends, with whom they had made a treaty.

Since, then, they promised themselves a hospitable exile in Egypt, the Prophet here exposes their vain confidence. He says, “This expectation of theirs, that they will find a way open to Egypt, will disappoint the people; it is shut up.”

He further says, They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be their king. By saying that the Assyrian would rule over them, he means that the people would become exiles under the Assyrians, which indeed happened.

He then anticipates here all the vain hopes by which the people deceived themselves and by which they hardened themselves against all the threats of God. “There is no reason for them,” he says, “to look towards Egypt, for the Lord will not allow them to go there; He will draw them to Assyria.”

He afterwards gives the reason: Because they have been unwilling, he says, to return. This word “return” is to be understood in another sense here; but there is a striking similarity in the words. They thought they would have free passage into Egypt, and yet they had been unwilling to return to God when He had so often called them.

The Prophet therefore says that a return to Egypt was now denied them, since they had been unwilling to return to God. The import of what is said is that when people perversely resist God, they hope in vain for freedom of movement in any direction, for the Lord will hold them tied and bound.

Just as is done with wild beasts that show too much ferocity and are shut up in cages or bound with chains, or as is usually done with frantic men who are bound with strong bonds, so also the Lord deals with obstinate people: He binds them fast, so that they cannot move a finger. This, then, is the meaning of the Prophet.

At the same time, we should understand an implied comparison here between the former bondage they endured in Egypt and the new bondage that awaited them. They had known what kind of hospitality Egypt offered, and yet such great blindness possessed their minds that they wished to return there.

Their fathers had been received kindly enough, but their descendants were grievously burdened; indeed, they were not far from being entirely destroyed. What madness was this, to wish of their own accord to return to Egypt, when they knew how great the ferociousness and cruelty of the Egyptians were? But as I have said, something more grievous awaited them; they were not worthy to return to Egypt.

To return there would indeed have been a dreadful calamity; the Lord, however, would not open a way for them to go there, for He would force them to go to another country. Indeed, they were to be forcibly dragged away by their conquerors into Assyria.

The main point of it all is that though the people had been cruelly treated in Egypt, a more grievous tyranny was now drawing near, for the Assyrians would double the injuries, the violence, and all kinds of wrongs and reproaches that had been inflicted on this people.

Some think that it was added for consolation that God, though greatly provoked by the people, was still unwilling to lead them again into Egypt, lest the former redemption should be made void. Instead, a middle course was prepared by which He would chastise the ungrateful and yet retain them as His peculiar possession. But I have already shown what I mostly approve. At the same time, whichever view is taken, we see how grievous and severe the Prophet’s denunciation was.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as you have deigned to choose us before the foundations of the world were laid, and included us in your free adoption when we were the children of wrath and doomed to utter ruin, and afterwards embraced us even from the womb, and have at length favoured us with a clearer proof of your love, in calling us by your gospel into a union and communion with your only-begotten Son, — O grant, that we may not be unmindful of so many and so singular benefits, but respond to your holy calling, and labour to devote ourselves wholly to you, and labour, not for one day, but for the whole time designed for us here, both to live and to die according to your good pleasure, so that we may glorify you to the end, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.