John Calvin Commentary Hosea 13:2

"And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." — Hosea 13:2 (ASV)

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.