John Calvin Commentary Hosea 14:1-2

"O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so will we render [as] bullocks [the offering of] our lips." — Hosea 14:1-2 (ASV)

Here the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance and still sets forth some hope of mercy. This may seem inconsistent, as he had already testified that there would be no remedy anymore because they had extremely provoked God. The Prophet seems in this case to contradict himself. But the solution is readily available: in speaking before of the final destruction of the people, he was referring to the whole body of the people, but now he directs his discourse to the few who had still remained faithful.

This distinction, as we have reminded you in other places, should be carefully noticed; otherwise, we will find ourselves perplexed in many parts of Scripture. So now we see for what purpose the Prophet added this exhortation after having asserted that God would be implacable to the people of Israel. For concerning the whole body, there was no hope of deliverance; God had now indeed determined to destroy them, and He wished this to be made known to them by the preaching of Hosea.

Yet God had always some seed remaining among His chosen people. Though the body, as a whole, was putrid and corrupt, yet some sound members remained, just as in a large heap of chaff some grains may be found concealed. Since God then had preserved some (as He always does), He sets forth His mercy to them. And as they had been carried away, as it were, by a tempest—when iniquity so prevailed among the people that there was nothing sound—the Prophet addresses them here because they were not completely incurable.

So let us understand that the irreclaimable, the whole body of the people, are now dismissed; for they were so obstinate that the Prophet could address them with no prospect of success. Then his sermon here should be especially applied to the elect of God, who, having fallen away for a time and become entangled in the common vices of the age, were yet not completely incurable.

The Prophet now exhorts them and says, Return, Israel, to Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. This reason is added because men will never repent unless they are made humble. And from where does true and genuine humility come, except from a sense of sin? Unless then men become displeased with themselves and acknowledge that they are worthy of perdition, they will never be touched by a genuine feeling of penitence.

These two things are then wisely joined together by Hosea: that Israel had fallen by their iniquities, and then, that it was time to return to Jehovah. How is this so? Because, when we are convinced that we are worthy of destruction, indeed, that we are already doomed to death for having so often provoked God, then we begin to hate ourselves; and a detestation of sin drives us to seek repentance.

But he says, Turn thou, Israel, to thy God. The Prophet now kindly invites them, for he could not succeed by severe words without mingling a hope of favor, as we know that there can be no hope of repentance without faith. Then the Prophet not only shows what was necessary to be done but also says, ‘You are Israel, you are an elect people.’ He does not, however, as it has been already stated, address all indiscriminately, but those who were the true children of Abraham, though they had for a time degenerated. “Turn then, Israel, to your God; for however much you have for a time fallen away, yet God has not rejected you: only return to Him, and you will find favor, for He is forgiving to His own people.”

He afterward shows the way of repentance, and this passage deserves to be noticed, for we know that men bring forward mere trifles when they speak of repentance. Hence when the word repentance is mentioned, men imagine that God is to be pacified with this or that ceremony, as we see to be the case with those under the Papacy.

And what is their repentance? It is this: if on certain days they fast, if they mutter short prayers, if they undertake vowed pilgrimages, if they buy masses—if with these trifles they weary themselves, they think that the right and the required repentance is brought before God: but all this is completely absurd.

As then the world does not understand what repentance means, and to what it leads, the Prophet here sets forth true repentance by its fruits. He therefore says, Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah; and say to him, Take away all iniquity and bring good, and we will render to thee the calves of our lips. When he instructs them to take or find words to present instead of sacrifice, he no doubt alluded to what the law teaches.

First, it is certain that the Prophet does not speak of insincere words, for we know what God declares by Isaiah (Isaiah 29:13):

This people draw nigh me with their lips,
but their heart is from me far distant.

But he instructs them to take words by which they might show what was conceived and felt in their heart. Then he means this first: that their words should correspond with their feeling.

Secondly, it must be noticed that the Prophet does not speak here of just any sort of words, but that there is to be a mutual relation between the words of God and the words of men. How then are we to bring words to God, words that prove the genuineness of our piety?

We do this by being teachable and submissive: by suffering willingly when He chastises us, by confessing what we deserve when He reproves us, by humbly seeking to avert vengeance when He threatens us, and by embracing pardon when He promises it.

When we thus take words from God’s mouth and bring them to Him, this is what it means to take words according to what the Prophet intends in this place. Hence we see the significance of the Prophet’s exhortation when he instructs us to take words. But I cannot proceed further now.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as we now carry about us this mortal body, indeed, and nourish through sin a thousand deaths within us—O grant that we may always by faith direct our eyes towards heaven and to that incomprehensible power which is to be manifested at the last day by Jesus Christ our Lord, so that in the midst of death we may hope that You will be our Redeemer and enjoy that redemption which He completed when He rose from the dead. May we not doubt that the fruit which He then brought forth by His Spirit will also come to us when Christ Himself shall come to judge the world. And may we thus walk in the fear of Your name, that we may be truly gathered among His members to be made partakers of that glory which by His death He has procured for us. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

Take with you words and turn to Jehovah and say to him, Take away all iniquity, and bring good, and we will pay thee the calves of our lips. We mentioned in our last lecture the sort of words the Prophet here instructs the Israelites to take while exhorting them to repent. For as they had been previously deaf and mute, he commands them to be not only attentive to the word of the Lord but also prompt to respond, so that there might be a mutual consent between the doctrine heard and their own confession. He now explains himself and says, Take away all iniquity, and bring good. These are the words with which he instructs them to come to God. He dictates to them the confession which the Lord requires.

He first instructs them to ask for remission and the pardon of sins. For if a sinner desires to return into favor with God and yet does not confess his guilt, he adopts a very strange way. The very beginning must be a confession, such as the Prophet here describes. For the Israelites, by asking God to remit their sins, at the same time confessed themselves to be guilty before Him; indeed, they condemned themselves that they might obtain gratuitous absolution. And emphatic is what they said: Take away all iniquity. Thus they confessed themselves to be guilty not only of one sin but also of many sins, for which God might justly punish them if He had not been propitious to them. In short, they acknowledge here their various and multiplied guilt.

But they add, Bring good. This sentence is commonly explained as if the Israelites said that they had previously been barren and empty of good works, but that now, being reconciled, they would be useful and profitable servants of God.

But this sense does not seem to me suitable to this place, for he afterward adds the evidence of gratitude: We shall pay the calves of our lips. He here speaks, I doubt not, of God’s blessing, which flows from the gratuitous pardon of sins.

For God does not simply receive us into favor, but also truly shows that He is not reconciled to us in vain, for He adds the fruits of His paternal love by favoring us with His kindness.

As then the Prophet commanded the Israelites to bring words before God, so now he introduces them as praying that God would bring good. Scripture commonly joins these two together: the favor of God, by which He freely remits sins, and His blessing, which He grants to His children after He has embraced them in His paternal love.

Hence bring good; that is, “O Lord, first receive us into favor, and then prove in reality that You are propitious to us, even by outward benefits.”

It now follows, And we shall pay, or render, the calves of our lips. In this passage, the faithful confess that they have nothing with which they can pay God in return, when He has bountifully granted them all things, except that they will celebrate His goodness in their praises and confess that they owe all things to Him. This is then a remarkable passage, for it sets forth God’s goodness towards men, and then it teaches that men can render no mutual compensation, but can only bring praises by which they celebrate God’s goodness, and nothing more, as it is said in Psalm 116:

What shall I repay the Lord for all the benefits which he has conferred on me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

There also the Prophet testifies that God is not liberal towards men because He expects or demands anything from them (for what can they give?) but that He still requires thanksgiving and that He is content with the sacrifice of praise, as we also find said in Psalm 116.

But we learn the same thing from this passage. O Lord, they say, bring good; that is, “Though we have in various ways exposed ourselves to Your judgment, having by our innumerable sins provoked Your wrath, yet let Your goodness surpass all our iniquities; having made us clean, bring also that good which has been previously, as it were, far away from us.” For while God shows signs of His wrath, we are destitute of all His blessings.

They therefore ask God, after restoring them to favor, to manifest His kindness to them. And what do they at last say? “O Lord, we promise You no compensation, for You require none, nor is it in our power to give any; but we will pay to thee the calves of the lips; that is, ‘We will confess that we owe all things to You; for it is only the sacrifice of praise that we can render You, when You have loaded us with all kinds of blessings.’”

And calves of the lips the Prophet fitly calls the praises which God requires as the chief sacrifice, for under the law, some offered calves when they paid their vows. But the Prophet shows that God does not regard external sacrifices, but only those exercises which men perform in another way, even the sacrifices of thanksgiving. This then is the meaning of the metaphor, as though he said, “The calves which are usually offered are not the true sacrifices in which God delights, but tend rather to show that men are to offer praise to God.” So now we perceive the meaning of this verse.