John Calvin Commentary Hosea 13:7-8

"Therefore am I unto them as a lion; as a leopard will I watch by the way; I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart; and there will I devour them like a lioness; the wild beast shall tear them." — Hosea 13:7-8 (ASV)

The Prophet again proclaims God's vengeance against the Israelites. Since they had become torpid through their own flatteries, as we have often observed before, he describes here the terrible judgment of God. His aim was to strike fear into the obstinate, so that they might finally perceive that they were dealing with God and begin to dread His power.

And this, as we have said, was very necessary when the prophets intended to awaken hypocrites. For self-confidence so inebriates them that they do not hesitate to despise all the threats of God. This is the reason why he adopts these three similitudes: he first compares God to a lion, then to a leopard, and then to a bear.

I will be, He says, like a lion, like a leopard, and then like a bear. God, we know, is by His own nature merciful and kind. When He says that He will be like a lion, He puts on, as it were, another character. But this is done on account of men’s wickedness, as it is said in Psalm 18:

With the gentle, You will be gentle;
with the perverse, You will be perverse.

For, although God speaks sharply and severely through His prophet, He nevertheless expresses something we must remember: He speaks this way because we do not permit Him to treat us according to His own nature—that is, gently and kindly. And when He sees us to be obstinate and untamable, He then contends with us (so to speak) with similar stubbornness. Not that perversity properly belongs to God, but He borrows this similitude from men for this reason: that men may not continue to flatter themselves when He is displeased with them. I shall therefore be like a lion, like a leopard in the way.

Regarding the word Assur, interpreters understand it in various ways. Some translate it as Assyria, though it is written here with Kamets. However, the Hebrews consider it an appellative, not the name of a place or country. Others translate it as, “I will look on them,” deriving it from שור (shur), and take the א (aleph) as indicating the future tense.

Others derive it from אשר (asher) and consider it to be in the Pual conjugation; and here again, they differ among themselves. Some translate it as, “I will lay in wait for them,” while others think it to be Shoar, meaning “I will be a layer-in-wait like a leopard.” But this variation regarding the meaning of the passage is of little importance, for we see the main point of the Prophet’s message.

The Prophet intends here to strip hypocrites of their vain confidence and to terrify them with the fear of God’s impending vengeance.

He therefore says that although God had until now spared them, and indeed had, in a way, kindly cherished them, yet since they continued to provoke His wrath, their condition would soon be very different. For He would come against them like a lion; that is, He would leap on them with the greatest fury.

He would also be like a leopard—and a leopard, we know, is a very cruel beast. Lastly, He compares God to a bereaved she-bear, or a bereaved bear.

But He afterwards adds, I will rend, or will tear, the inclosure of their heart. Those who understand "the inclosure of the heart" to mean their obstinate hardness seem to over-interpret the Prophet's words. We know, indeed, that the prophets sometimes use this manner of speaking, for they call a heart "hard" or "covered with fatness" when it is not pliant and does not willingly receive sound doctrine.

But the Prophet rather alludes to the savageness of the bear when He says He will rend or tear in pieces the membrane of the heart, and will devour you as a lion. For it is the most cruel kind of death when the lion, with its claws and teeth, aims at the heart itself and tears the bowels of man.

The Prophet therefore intended to portray this most cruel kind of death. “I will therefore,” He says, “tear asunder the pericardium, or the enclosure of the heart.” At the same time, I am not saying that the Prophet does not allude to the people's hardness while He retains His own similitude.

And the beast of the field shall rend them. He speaks now without a similitude, for God means that all the wild beasts would be His ministers to execute His judgment. “I will then send all the beasts of the field to rend and tear them, so that nothing among them shall remain safe.” We now see the purport of this passage and how it ought to be applied.

If we are by nature so slothful, indeed, and careless, and if we indulge our own delusions when God does not rouse us, we should notice those figurative representations. These tend to shake off our sluggishness and show us how dreadful the judgment of God is.

For the same purpose are those metaphors regarding the eternal fire and the worm that never dies. For God, seeing that human feelings are so torpid, has in Scripture used such descriptions that may correct their sluggishness.

Whenever, then, God puts on a character not His own, let us recognize that it is our fault. For we do not allow Him to deal with us according to His own nature, because we are intractable. Let us go on—