John Calvin Commentary Hosea 2:3

"lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst." — Hosea 2:3 (ASV)

Although the Prophet in this verse severely threatens the Israelites, it appears from a full view of the whole passage that he mitigates the sentence we have explained. By declaring what sort of vengeance hung over them, unless they repented in time, he shows that there was some hope of pardon remaining, which, as we will see, he expresses more clearly later.

He now begins by saying, Lest I strip her naked, and set her as on the day of her nativity. This alone would have been dreadful. But we will see in the passage that God denounces punishment in such a way that he does not completely cut off the hope of mercy. At the same time, he reminds them that the divorce, for which they were inclined to contend with God, was such that God still shows indulgence to the divorced wife.

For when a husband dismisses an adulteress, he strips her entirely, and rightly so. But God shows here that although the Israelites had become wanton, and were like a shameless woman, he had still divorced them in such a way until now that he had left them their dowry, their ornaments, and marriage gifts.

We then see that God had not used his right as he could have rightly done. Therefore, he says, Lest I strip her naked: which means this, “I seem too rigid to you because I have declared that I am no longer a husband to your mother. And yet, see how kindly I have spared her, for she still remains almost untouched. Although she has lost the name of wife, I have not yet stripped her; she still lives in sufficient plenty.

From where does this come, if not from my indulgence? For I did not wish to exercise my right, as husbands do. But unless she learns to humble herself, I now prepare myself for the purpose of executing heavier punishments.” We now comprehend the whole meaning of the passage.

What the Prophet means by “the day of nativity,” we may easily learn from Ezekiel 16, for Ezekiel there treats the same subject as our Prophet, but much more extensively. He says that the Israelites were then born when God delivered them from the tyranny of Egypt. This, then, was the nativity of the people.

And yet it was a miserable sight when they fled with fear and trembling, when they were exposed to their enemies. After they entered the wilderness, lacking bread and water, their condition was very wretched. The Prophet now says, Lest I set her as on the day of her nativity, and set her as the desert.

Some regard the letter כ caph to be understood, as if it were written, כבמדבר, as in the desert; that is, I will set her as she was formerly in the desert. This interpretation is not unsuitable, for the Prophet undoubtedly calls “the day of nativity” that time when the people were brought out of Egypt. They immediately entered the desert, where there was a lack of everything.

They might then have soon perished there, consumed by famine and thirst, had not the Lord miraculously supported them. The sense then seems consistent with this rendering, Lest I set her as in the desert and as in a dry land. But another interpretation is more approved: Lest I set her like the desert and dry land.

Regarding what the Prophet had in view, it was necessary to remind the Israelites here of what they were at their beginning. For from where did their contempt of God come, from where did their obstinate pride come, if not from being intoxicated by their pleasures? For when an abundance of all good things flowed, they thought of themselves as if they had come from the clouds; for people commonly forget what they formerly were when the Lord has made them rich.

Since the benefits of God often blind us and make us think of ourselves as if we were half-gods, the Prophet here sets before the children of Abraham what their condition was when the Lord redeemed them. “I have redeemed you,” he says, “from the greatest miseries and extreme degradation.” Sons of kings are born kings and are brought up in the midst of pomp and pleasures; indeed, before they are born, great displays of wealth, we know, are prepared for them, which they enjoy from their mother’s womb.

But when someone is born of a humble and obscure mother, and fathered by an ordinary and poor man, and later rises to a different condition, if he is proud of his splendor and does not remember that he was once a commoner and of no standing, this may be justly thrown in his face: “Who were you formerly? What! Do you not know that you were a cowherd, or a mechanic, or one covered with filth? Fortune has smiled on you, or God has raised you to riches and honors; but you are so self-satisfied as if your condition had always been the same.”

This is the main point of what the Prophet says: I will set your mother, he says, as she was at her first nativity. For who are you? A holy race, a chosen nation, a people sacred to me? Granted; but free adoption has brought all this to you.

You were exiles in Egypt, strangers in the land of Canaan, and were no better than other people. Besides, Pharaoh reduced you to a degrading servitude; you were then the most abject slaves. How magnificent, regarding you, was your departure! Did you not flee tremblingly and in the night? And did you not later live in a miraculous way for forty years in the desert, when I rained manna on you from the clouds?

Since then your poverty and want have been so great, since there is nothing to cause you to become so proud, why do you not show more modesty? But if your present condition creates forgetfulness in you, I will set you as on the day of your nativity.”