John Calvin Commentary Hosea 2:13

"And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, unto which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith Jehovah." — Hosea 2:13 (ASV)

He confirms what he taught previously. We have said before that this admonition is very necessary: whenever God deals severely with people, He thus visits their sins and inflicts a just punishment. For though people may consider themselves to be chastised by the Lord, they still do not thoroughly search and examine themselves as they should.

Therefore, the Prophet repeats what we have encountered before, namely, that this chastisement would be just. At the same time, he shows us, as if pointing with his finger, what chiefly displeased God in the Israelites: that they had corrupted religion. For there is nothing more necessary to be known—so that people may continually accustom themselves to worshiping God in a pure manner—than that it should be testified to them that all superstitions are such an abomination to God that He cannot bear them.

Therefore, he says, I will visit upon her the days of Baalim; that is, when the Israelites find themselves to be without a temple, deprived of sacrifices and new moons, and no longer having any external form of worship, let them know that they are punished in this way because they worshiped Baalim instead of the only true God.

The Prophet, at the same time, alludes again to harlots, who adorn themselves more finely and with greater care when they look for their lovers, so that they may captivate them with their charms. She decked herself, he says, with her ear-ring and her jewel.

The superstitious usually do this when they celebrate their fast days, for they think that a great part of holiness consists in the splendor of vestments. We see that this foolishness prevails today among those under the Papacy, for they would think themselves to be doing great dishonor to God, or rather to their idols, if they did not adorn themselves when going to perform sacred duties. This, no doubt, was then a common error and custom.

But in order to show more clearly that God abominated such gross superstitions, the Prophet says that they were like harlots. For as a prostitute, in order to allure men, paints herself, and also dresses splendidly, puts on her ornaments, and decks herself with jewels and gold, in the same way, he says, the Israelites did: they acted wantonly and bore the signs of their lewdness.

This, then, is the allusion when the Prophet says that she decked herself with jewels and an ear-ring, and went after her lovers.

But most grievous is what he adds at the end of the verse: Me, he says, has she forgotten. God here complains that the fellowship of marriage was of no avail: though He had lived with the people a long time and treated them bountifully and kindly, yet the memory of this was buried. Me, he says, has she forgotten.

Here, then, there is an implied comparison between the Israelites, whom God had joined to Himself, and other nations who had known nothing of true religion nor understood who the true God was.

Indeed, it was no wonder that the Gentiles were deceived by the impostures of Satan; but it was a monstrous ingratitude for the Israelites—who had been rightly taught and long accustomed to the pure worship of God—to cast away the memory of Him. It was like the bestial depravity of a wife who, after living with her husband for a time and being kindly treated by him, afterwards prostitutes herself to adulterers and no longer cherishes or retains in her heart any love for her husband.

We now see for what purpose it was added that the Israelites had forgotten God. It was indeed a grave and severe reproof to say that they, after having long worshiped the true God, had been led away into such madness as to worship false gods, the figments of their own brains, for they had previously learned who the true and the only God was.

The Prophet, in a word, confirms in this verse (as I have reminded you before) the truth that the punishment which God was about to inflict on this ungodly people would be not only just but also necessary.

He also proves, at the same time, how basely they had violated their marriage vow, since the memory of God held no sway among them after they had become followers of idols and of the figments of their own hearts.

Let us now continue.