John Calvin Commentary Hosea 13

Interpreters do not agree in their view of this verse. Some say that trembling was stirred up in Israel when Ephraim—that is, Jeroboam, who was from that tribe—exhorted the people to worship the calves. By the word רתת, retat, "trembling," they understand that the people were so astonished that they, without thinking, immediately obeyed the will, or rather the whim, of their impious king.

And if this sense is approved, the word "trembling" may be explained in another way: namely, that the people did not immediately embrace that perverted worship but dreaded it, as usually happens with new things that seem to have nothing reasonable in their favor.

But these interpreters, in my judgment, completely depart from the Prophet's intention. For, on the contrary, he here sets forth the twofold state of the kingdom of Israel, so that it might therefore be clear that the ten tribes had been rejected by the Lord through their own fault and had thus fallen from the dignity to which the Lord had raised them.

He therefore says, When Ephraim spoke formerly, his voice was dreaded, and he raised himself in Israel; that is, among the whole race of Abraham. But now he is dead, or is fallen, after he has begun to sin in Baal. Thus, in the first sentence, the Prophet records the honors with which God had favored that tribe.

Ephraim, we know, was the younger of Joseph's sons. Manasseh not only should have had preeminence but also should have reigned alone in that family, for the people were divided into twelve tribes. But God intended to raise up two chiefs in the house of Joseph and preferred the younger to the firstborn.

Hence Ephraim, who had increased in number and power and eventually obtained the royal dignity, should have acknowledged God's singular favor. And by way of reproach, the Prophet here says that all trembled at the mere voice of Ephraim—that is, when he became endowed with authority—and then, that he was exalted in Israel. He should have been considered of no account; he should have been inferior to his brother, who was the firstborn, and yet he excelled all the tribes.

Since, then, God had conferred so much honor on the tribe of Ephraim, his fault was all the more grievous that he afterwards fell away to idols; indeed, that he began his reign with superstition, when God was pleased to choose and anoint Jeroboam as king. And surely, for him—raised beyond all hope to the throne by God's hand—to immediately corrupt the whole worship of God instead of testifying his gratitude was extremely inconsistent.

But the Prophet says, in the second place, that they died from the time they had thus fallen away from true and lawful worship, so that they might understand that they received the just reward of their impiety when God's hand was against them and when they were oppressed by adversity.

We now perceive the Prophet's obvious meaning to be that the Israelites formerly flourished, especially the tribe of Ephraim from whom Jeroboam arose. By their voice alone, they subdued all their neighbors; and beyond human expectation, they suddenly emerged and erected a new kingdom among the children of Abraham.

He afterwards adds that after they had sinned by Baal, they became dead; for God deprived the tribe of Ephraim of the power with which He had previously adorned him, so that they were very nearly destroyed.

For though his kingdom had not wholly fallen, it had nevertheless come to such an extremity that the Prophet might justly say that they, being so far removed from their former state, were dead.

But when he says that they sinned by Baal, he does not mean that this was the beginning of their idolatry; for Jeroboam at first made the calves, and it was his successor who built for Baal and borrowed that superstition—as it is supposed—from the neighboring Sidonians.

But God records here what is more grievous and less excusable: that the Israelites polluted themselves with the filth of the Gentiles, so that they differed in no way from the profane and unbelieving, who had no knowledge of sound doctrine.

Moreover, we are taught in this place that when kings are endowed with any authority, when they are strong in power, all this comes from God. For unless God strikes terror into people, no one would accept the yoke of another; at least, all would desire equality, or one would exalt himself above others.

It is therefore certain that when anyone excels among many in power, this is done through the secret purpose of God, who brings the common people to order and causes them not to deny obedience to one man's command.

This is what Hosea now teaches when he rebukes the tribe of Ephraim concerning this terror. For if Ephraim had been formidable through his own power, there would have been no basis for the Prophet's rebuke;

but as this was the peculiar gift of God, the Prophet justly says that the tribe of Ephraim was in great honor until they fell into superstition.

In this verse, the Prophet amplifies the wickedness of the people, saying that they had not only cast aside the pure worship of God in one day and entangled themselves in superstitions, but that they had also been obstinate in their own depravity. They have added, he says, to their sin, and have made a molten thing of their silver. When Israel, as we have said, departed from the worship of God, they made calves, and they made them under a specious appearance. But when many superstitions were added, one after another, there was, as it were, an accumulation of madness, as if the Israelites intentionally wished to subvert the law of God and to show that they cared nothing for the only true God, by whom they had been redeemed.

This is why the Prophet says that they progressed in wickedness and observed no moderation in sinning; and this is what usually happens unless God draws men back. As soon as they fall away, they rush headlong into evil, for they take greater liberty in sinning after they have turned their back on God.

Therefore, this reproof of the Prophet should be noticed, for he inveighs against the obstinate wickedness of Israel and says that they made for themselves of their silver a molten thing. As we have seen above, they abused the gifts of God by devoting to superstition what the Lord had destined for their use. The purpose for which God has bestowed silver, we know, is so that men may carry on commerce with one another and also apply it to other useful purposes. But when they make gods of silver for themselves, there is an astonishing stupidity in their ingratitude, for they pervert the order of nature and forget that silver is given for another purpose, which is, as we have said, for their use. The Prophet at the same time intimates that the Israelites were less excusable because when they were enriched, they became proud of their wealth. Satiety, we know, is the cause of wantonness, as it will be stated again shortly.

But what the Prophet adds should be especially observed: According to their own understanding. Here he severely reproves the Israelites because they had not subordinated all their thoughts to God but, on the contrary, followed what pleased themselves. It was then according to their own invention. The word that the Prophet uses is not unsuitable, even though “understanding”—the word the Prophet adopts—is among the Hebrews taken in a good sense.

But what is being discussed here is the worship of God, with respect to which all the prudence, all the reason, all the wisdom of men, and, in short, all their senses, should be suspended. For if, in this case, they adopt anything of themselves, however little, they inevitably corrupt the worship of God.

How so? Because obedience, we know, is better than all sacrifices. This then is the rule concerning the right worship of God: men must become foolish, they must not allow themselves to be wise, but they are only to listen to God and follow what he commands.

But when men’s presumption intrudes, so that they devise a new mode of worship, they then depart from the true God and worship mere idols. The Prophet, then, by the word understanding, condemns here whatever pleases the judgement and reason of men, as though he said, “The true rule of religion, concerning the worship of God, is that nothing human is to be mingled, that no one is to bring forward what is his own or what seems good to himself.”

In short, the understanding of men is here opposed to the command of God, as though the Prophet said, “One great difference between the true worship of God and all fictitious and degenerate modes of worship is obedience to the word of God; if we are wise according to our own judgement, all we do is corrupt.” How so? Because whatever men devise of themselves is a pollution of divine worship.

Therefore Paul, in Colossians 2, refutes all the fancies of men by this one argument: “They are,” he says, “the traditions of men, though they may have the show of wisdom.”

We now understand what the Prophet meant and why he added the word “understanding.” It was so that the Israelites might learn that all the worship that was in use among them was perverted and corrupt, for it was not founded on the command of God but flowed from a different source: the understanding of men. It then follows, as we have said before, that in religion nothing is to be attempted by us; instead, we are to follow this one law in worshipping God: simply to obey his word.

He afterwards adds, Idols, the work of artificers altogether. The Prophet, in the second place, derides the grossness that had fascinated the minds of the people, as they worshipped the works of men in the place of God. For it is usual with all the Prophets, in order to make the stupidity of men, as it were, palpable, to show that it is wholly unreasonable to worship idols, for a material cannot with any propriety be worshipped.

When a great mass or a great heap of gold or silver is before us, no one imagines that there is any divinity in it. When one passes through a wood, he does not transfer the glory due to God to trees; and the same may be said of stones.

But when the hand of the artificer is applied, the plate of gold begins to be a god; so also the trunk of a tree seems to take on the glory of God when it receives a certain form from the workman, and the same is the case with other things.

Now it is extremely absurd to suppose that an artificer, as soon as he has hewn some wood or as soon as he has melted gold or silver, can make a god and convey divinity to a dead thing; and yet it is well known that this is thought to be the case everywhere.

Superstitious men allege in excuse that this does not proceed from the hand of the artificer, but that, since they wish for some sign of God’s presence and cannot otherwise represent what God is, God is in that form. But this still remains true: workmen by their skill make gods of lifeless things, to which no honour can belong.

Since this is so, the Prophet now justly says that what the people of Israel worshipped was the work of artificers; and he said this so that they might know that they became shamefully foolish when they left the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and prostrated themselves before idols made by hands.

But he adds that they say to one another while they sacrifice men, Let them kiss the calves. Though this passage is explained in various ways, I am still content with the obvious meaning of the Prophet. He again derides them for exhorting one another to worship the calf, for by “kissing” he means, by a figure of speech, a profession of worship or adoration, as is evident from other parts of Scripture.

It is said in 1 Kings, I have preserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee before Baal, nor kissed him. To kiss Baal then was a sign of reverence. And this practice, we see, has been retained by the superstitious, as is the case to this day with the Papists, who observe this special custom of kissing their idols.

But what does the Prophet now say? They encourage one another, he says, in the worship of the calves, and in the meantime they sacrifice men. The Prophet doubtless condemns here that abominable and savage custom of parents sacrificing their children to Moloch.

It was utterly repugnant to human nature for parents to immolate their own children. For though this was once commanded to Abraham, we still know that the design was that God intended by this test to try the obedience of his servant; but Abraham was not at last permitted to do what he purposed.

They then immolated men. If it was right to sacrifice men, surely such a service should have been rendered at least to the only true God. If it was lawful to sacrifice one man for the sake of another, it was certainly ridiculous to do so to conciliate the calf; and it was especially strange when parents did not hesitate to appease dead statues with the blood of their children.

This absurdity, then, the Prophet now points out as if with his finger, so that he might try to make the Israelites ashamed of their base conduct. “See,” he says, “how brutish you are; for you immolate to the calves and kiss them, and more still, you sacrifice men. Is there so much worthiness in the calf that man, who far excels it, must be killed before it? Is not this wholly inconsistent with everything like reason?”

We now understand what the Prophet meant: They say then one to another, while they immolate men, Let them kiss the calves.

But we learn from this and similar passages that we should notice those absurdities in which wretched men involve themselves when they are lost in their own devices after having left the word of God. For this word is to be a bridle for us, to keep us from going astray with them in their monstrous devices. For when we observe these delirious things that even nature itself abhors, it is evident that God thereby restrains and preserves us, as it were, by his outstretched hand.

With this design, the Prophet now shows how stupid the Israelites were and how prodigious their frenzy was when they kissed the calves with great reverence and also sacrificed men. So today, with respect to those under the Papacy, we should not only adopt this argument—that they departed from the true God when they sought new and strange modes of worship for themselves, without the warrant of his word—but we should also bear in mind that their childish behaviors are to be ascribed to the same cause.

And we see how God has given them up to a reprobate mind, so that they throw aside no kinds of absurdities.

And this consideration, as I have said, will serve to awaken those who are still curable, when they understand that they have been infatuated; having been admonished in this manner, they may return to the right way.

And so that we ourselves may give thanks to God, and detest more and more that filth in which we were for a time involved, and remember that there is nothing more to be dreaded than that the Lord should give us free rein, the very example of his vengeance on all idolaters is made known to us. For as soon as they departed from the pure worship of God, they gave themselves up, as we have stated, to the most shameful stupidity.

Let us proceed.

The Prophet here employs four similes to show the condition of Israel. However much they flourished for a time and might be considered happy, their state would still be fading and evanescent. He says:

1. They shall be, he says, as the morning cloud: though they are loftily proud, the Lord will still shake off from them whatever power they may have.
2. They shall be as the dew that rises up in the morning—having nothing substantial in them.
3. They shall be as the chaff which is driven from the floor by a whirlwind.
4. They shall be, he says, as the smoke; for as the smoke produces thick darkness and, after having gone out of the chimney, disperses and disappears, so these proud people, however much they may have praised themselves, would not continue in a permanent condition.

From this we conclude that the Israelites were not so much like the dead, yet they still had some power remaining in them. For God would otherwise have threatened to no purpose that they should be made like a cloud, the dew, the chaff, and the smoke. However, they had already been largely consumed.

And God here denounces utter destruction on them, so that they might not think they had already suffered the final punishment, and so that they might not suppose they could gather new strength. For proud men entertain vain confidence, through which they put God’s judgment far from them. Therefore, lest they should delude themselves with such allurements, the Prophet here declares that their condition would be fading, one that would soon come to ruin.

The Prophet now repeats the sentence we noted in the last chapter to amplify the people's sin. For if they had never known sound doctrine, if they had never been brought up in the Law, there would have been some basis for lessening their fault, because they might have excused themselves by saying that, since they had never known true religion, they had gone astray according to common human practice. But since they had been taught sound doctrine from infancy, since God had brought them up, as it were, in His own bosom, and since they had learned from their earliest years what it was to worship God purely, when they then turned to the superstitions of the pagans, what excuse could there be for them? We then see the significance of the complaint when God says that He had been the God of Israel from the land of Egypt.

I am then, He says, Jehovah your God. By calling Himself Jehovah, He alludes to all their fictitious gods, as though He said, “I am doubtless justly, and in My own right, your God; for I am of Myself—I am the Creator of the world; no one can take away My power. But from where do these get their divinity, except from the madness of men?” He says further, I am your God, O Israel; that is, “I have manifested Myself to you from the land of Egypt, from your very birth. When I redeemed you from Egypt, I brought you out, as it were, from the womb to the light of life, for Egypt was like the grave to you. You then began to live and to be a distinct people when I stretched out My hand to you.”

We should also note what I have said before: that the people were redeemed on this condition, that they should devote themselves wholly to God. As we are Christ’s today, and none of us ought to live according to our own will (for Christ died and rose again for this purpose, that He might be the Lord of the living and of the dead), so also then, the Israelites had been redeemed by God that they might offer themselves wholly to Him. And since God ruled by this right over the people of Israel, how shameful and inexcusable was their defection when the people willfully abandoned themselves to the superstitions of the pagans?

A God, He says, besides Me you ought not to know. The Prophet had not used these words before. This sentence, then, is fuller, for it more clearly explains the meaning of what He had said: that God had purchased Israel for Himself by bringing them out of Egypt, which means that Israel ought to have been content with this one Redeemer and not seek other gods for themselves. A God, then, besides Me you shall not know. For if this one God was sufficient for redeeming His people, what do the people now mean when they wander and seek aid here and there? For they ought to render to God the life received from Him, which they now enjoy, and ought to acknowledge themselves to be sufficiently safe under His protection. We now then see why this was added: You shall not know a God besides Me.

A reason confirming this follows: For no one, He says, is a Saviour except Me. The conjunction ו (waw) ought to be regarded here as causative: For no one, etc., or, Surely no one is a Saviour except Me. And this is a remarkable passage, for we learn that the worship of God does not consist in words but in faith, hope, and prayer.

The Papists of the present day think that they do not profane the worship of God, though they fly to statues, though they pray to dead men, though they look here and there for the fulfillment of their hopes. How so? Because they always retain the only true God; that is, they do not ascribe the name of God to Christopher or to Antony. The Papists think themselves free from all blame since God retains His own name.

But we see how differently the Lord regards the matter. “I am,” He says, “the only true God.” How is this? “Because I am the only Saviour. Do not imagine another God for yourself, for you shall find none that will save you.”

Therefore, God places special value on the honor that is due to Him from hope and prayer; that is, when our soul rests on Him alone, and when we seek and hope for salvation from no other but from Him. We see then how useful the doctrine contained in this passage is, in which the Prophet clearly shows that the Israelites acted absurdly and shamefully when they formed another god for themselves, for no Saviour, except the one true God, can be found.

He afterwards adds, I knew you in the desert, in the land of droughts. God here confirms the truth that the Israelites had acted very absurdly in turning their minds to other gods, for He Himself had known them. The knowledge mentioned here is twofold: that of humans and that of God.

God declares that He had care for the people when they were in the desert, and He designates His paternal solicitude by the term knowledge: I knew you; that is, “I then chose you as a people for Myself, and familiarly manifested Myself to you, as if you were a near friend to Me. But then it was necessary that I should have also been known by you.” This is human knowledge. Now when people are known by God, why do they not apply all their faculties so that they may remain fixed on Him? For when they divert them to other objects, they extinguish, as much as they can, this benefit from God. So also Paul speaks to the Galatians:

After you have known God, or rather after you are known by Him (Galatians 4:9).

In the first clause, he shows that they had acted very wickedly in turning to various devices after the light of the gospel had been offered to them; but he increases their sin by the next clause, when he says, Rather after you are known by Him; as though he said, “God has anticipated you by His gratuitous goodness. Since, then, God has thus first known you and first favored you with His grace, how great and how shameful is your ingratitude now in not seeking to know Him in return?” We now then see why the Prophet added that the Israelites had been known by God in the desert, in the land of droughts.

And express mention is made of the desert, for it was then necessary for the people to be sustained miraculously by the Lord. For unless God had rained manna from heaven and had also given them water to drink, the people must have miserably perished.

Since, then, God had thus supported the people contrary to the usual course of nature, so that without His paternal care there could have been no hope of life, the Prophet now rightly adds, In the desert, in the land of droughts; that is, in that dry solitude where not a grain of corn grew, so that the people could not live unless God had, as it were, with His own hand, given them food and put it in their mouths.

We now see that the extreme impiety of the people is here clearly proven; for having been taught in God’s Law and encouraged by so many benefits, they still went astray after profane superstitions. And the Prophet, at the same time, adds—

The Prophet shows here that the people were in every way intractable. He has indeed handled this argument in other places, but the repetition is not superfluous.

After he had said that the people were ungrateful for not continuing in the service of their Redeemer—by whom they had been so kindly and bountifully treated in the desert, where they would have perished through famine and want if the Lord had not, in an unusual manner, brought them help in their great necessity—he now adds, “The Lord would also have allured you by other means, had you not been of a wholly wild and barbarous disposition; but from this it is clear that you are utterly disobedient, for after you have been brought out of the desert, you came to rich pastures.”

The land of Israel is here compared to rich and fertile pastures, as if he said, “God has placed you in an inheritance where you might eat to the full, as when a shepherd leads his sheep to a spot especially fertile.”

What did take place? To their pastures they came, and were filled; they were filled, and elevated became their heart, and they forgot me.

Therefore, since the Israelites had extinguished the memory of their redemption, after the Lord had fed them when hungry in the desert, and since in their fullness they rejected God, shook off His yoke, and, like ferocious horses, kicked against Him, it became evident that their nature was so unnameable that they could by no means be reduced to obedience or submission. We will defer the rest until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You do so kindly call on us daily by Your voice, meekly and calmly to offer ourselves to be ruled by You, and since You have exalted us to a high degree of honor by freeing us from the dread of the devil, and from that tyranny which kept us in miserable fear, and have also favored us with the Spirit of adoption and of hope—O grant, that we, being mindful of these benefits, may ever submit ourselves to You, and desire only to raise our voice for this purpose, that the whole world may submit itself to You, and that those who seem now to rage against You may at last be brought, as well as we, to render You obedience, so that Your Son Christ may be the Lord of all, to the end that You alone may be exalted, and that we may be made subject to You, and be at last raised up above, and become partakers of that glory which has been obtained for us by Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We observed in yesterday's lecture that the Israelites were condemned because, when fed in rich pastures, they were like mettlesome horses; and this is what commonly happens. And even Moses foretold this in his song:

My chosen, having become fat, kicked against me (Deuteronomy 32:15).

What the Prophet said was now fulfilled; fullness had produced ferocity in the people of Israel. According to their pastures, he says, they were filled; they were satiated, and their heart was elevated. Ezekiel declares the same of Sodom; when their stomach was well filled they became proud (Ezekiel 16:49). But the Prophet speaks there of their cruelty towards men, for he says that the Sodomites, while abounding in all blessings, were full of cruelty, so that they contemptuously despised the poor. But the prophet condemns here a worse thing in the people of Israel, for their heart was inflated with pride against God.

And there is, in the last place, a mention made of their forgetfulness of God. It is impossible for people who are blinded by willful self-confidence not to cast aside every fear of God and every concern for religion. And this passage teaches us that we ought to use our abundance temperately and frugally, and that we ought, in the first place, to beware lest the bounty of God should lead to a forgetfulness of Him. For it is an extreme perversion that the more generously God pours His gifts upon us, the narrower our hearts become, and that His benefits should be like veils to cover our eyes. We ought then to labor, that the benefits of God may, on the contrary, renew the recollection of Him in our minds; and then, as I have said, let moderation and frugality be added.