John Calvin Commentary Hosea 13:4-5

"Yet I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt know no god but me, and besides me there is no saviour. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." — Hosea 13:4-5 (ASV)

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—