John Calvin Commentary Hosea 4

This is a new discourse by the Prophet, separate from his former discourses. We must bear in mind that the Prophets did not literally write what they delivered to the people, nor did they treat only once of those things which are now available to us; but we have in their books collected summaries and main points of those matters which they were accustomed to address to the people. Hosea, no doubt, very often spoke at length about the exile and the restoration of the people, since he dwelt much on all the things which we have previously noticed. Indeed, the slowness and dullness of the people were such that the same things were repeated daily. But it was enough for the Prophets to make and to write down a brief summary of what they taught in their discourses.

Hosea now relates how vehemently he reproved the people, because every kind of corruption so commonly prevailed that there was no sound part in the whole community. We therefore see what the Prophet treats of now; and this ought to be observed, for hypocrites always wish to be flattered, and when the mercy of God is offered to them, they seek to be freed from every fear. It is therefore a bitter thing to them when threatenings are mingled, when God sharply chides them. “What! We heard yesterday a discourse on God’s mercy, and now he fulminates against us. He is then changeable; if he were consistent, would not his manner of teaching be the same today?” But men must be often awakened, for forgetfulness of God often creeps over them; they indulge themselves, and nothing is more difficult than to lead them to God; indeed, when they have made some advances, they soon turn aside to some other course.

We therefore see that men cannot be taught unless God reproves their sins by his word; and then, so that they do not despair, gives them a hope of mercy; and unless he again returns to reproofs and threatenings. This is the mode of address which we find in all the Prophets.

I now come to the Prophet’s words: He says, Hear the word of Jehovah, you children of Israel, the Lord has a dispute, and so on. The Prophet, by saying that the Lord had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land, intimates that men in vain flatter themselves when they have God against them, and that they shall soon find him to be their Judge, unless they anticipate his vengeance in time.

But he also reminds the Israelites that God had a dispute with them, so that they might not have to feel the severity of justice, but reconcile themselves to God while a timely opportunity was given them. Then the Prophet’s introduction had this object in view—to make the Israelites know that God would be adverse to them, unless they sought, without delay, to regain his favor.

The Lord then, since he declared that he would contend with them, shows that he was not willing to do so. For if God had determined to punish the people, what need was there of this warning? Could he not instantly execute judgment on them? Since, then, the Prophet was sent to the children of Israel to warn them of a great and fatal danger, God still had a regard for their safety: and doubtless this warning prevailed with many, for those who were alarmed by this denunciation humbled themselves before God and did not harden themselves in wickedness. And the reprobate, though not amended, were yet rendered doubly inexcusable.

The same is the case among us whenever God threatens us with judgment: those who are not altogether intractable or incurable confess their guilt and deprecate God’s wrath. Others, though they harden their hearts in wickedness, cannot yet quench the power of truth, for the Lord takes from them every pretext for ignorance, and conscience wounds them more deeply after they have been thus warned.

So now we understand what the Prophet meant by saying that God had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land. But, so that the Prophet’s intention may be clearer to us, we must bear in mind that he and other faithful teachers were wearied with their appeals, and that in the meantime no fruit appeared. He saw that his warnings were heedlessly despised, and that therefore his last resort was to summon men to God’s tribunal. We also are constrained, when we achieve nothing, to follow the same course: “God will judge you, for no one will bear to be judged by his word. Whatever we announce to you in his name is counted a matter of sport; he himself eventually will show that he has to do with you.” In a similar way Zechariah speaks,

They shall look on him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10).

And to the same purpose Isaiah says that the Spirit of the Lord was made sad.

He says, Is it not enough that you should be vexatious to men, unless you are so also to my God? (Isaiah 7:13).

The Prophet joined himself with God, for the ungodly king Ahab, by tempting God, at the same time trifled with his Prophets.

There is then here an implied contrast between the dispute which God announces concerning the Israelites and the daily strifes he had with them through his Prophets. For this reason also the Lord said,

My Spirit shall no more strive with man, for he is flesh (Genesis 6:3).

God indeed says there that he had waited in vain for men to return to the right way, for they were refractory beyond any hope of repentance; he therefore declared that he would soon punish them. So also in this place: “The Lord has a trial at law; he will now himself plead his own cause. He has until now long exercised his Prophets in contending with you; indeed, he has wearied them with much and continual labor. You always remain as you are; he will therefore begin now to plead effectually his own cause with you. He will no more speak to you verbally, but by his power, show himself a judge.”

The Prophet, however, deliberately used the word dispute, so that the Israelites might know that God would severely treat them, not without cause, nor unjustly. It is as if he said, “God will so punish you as to show at the same time that he will do so for the best reason. You elude all threatenings; you think that you can make yourselves safe by your schemes. There are no evasions by which you can possibly hope to attain anything, for God will eventually uncover all your wickedness.”

In short, the Prophet here joins punishment with God’s justice, or he points out by one word, a real (so to speak) or an effective contention, by which the Lord not only reproves men in words, but also visits their sins with judgment.

It follows, Because there is no truth, no kindness, no knowledge of God. The dispute, he said, was to be with the inhabitants of the land; by the inhabitants of the land, he means the whole body of the people, as if he said, “Not a few men have become corrupt, but all kinds of wickedness prevail everywhere.” And for the same reason he adds that there was no truth, and so on.

In the land; as if he said, “Those who sin do not hide themselves now in lurking-places; they seek no recesses, like those who are ashamed; but so much licentiousness is everywhere dominant that the whole land is filled with the contempt of God and with crimes.” This was a severe reproof to proud men.

We know how much the Israelites flattered themselves; it was therefore necessary for the Prophet to speak so sharply to a refractory people, for a gentle and kind warning proves effective only with the meek and teachable. When the world grows hardened against God, such a rigorous treatment as the words of the Prophet disclose must be used. Let those then, to whom is entrusted the charge of teaching, see that they do not gently warn men when hardened in their vices, but let them follow this vehemence of the Prophet.

We said at the beginning that the Prophet had a good reason for being so warm in his indignation: he was not at the moment foolishly carried away by the heat of zeal, but he knew that he had to do with men so perverse that they could not be handled in any other way.

The Prophet now reproves not only one kind of evil but brings together every sort of crime, as if he said that the Israelites were in every way corrupt and perverted. He says first that there was among them no faithfulness and no kindness. He speaks here of their contempt of the second table of the law, for by this the impiety of men is more quickly discovered, that is, when an examination is made of their life. For hypocrites vauntingly profess the name of God and confidently (plenis buccis—with full cheeks) arrogate faith to themselves; and then they cover their vices with the external show of divine worship and frigid acts of devotion. Indeed, the very thing mentioned by Jeremiah is too commonly the case, that

the house of God is made a den of thieves (Jeremiah 7:11).

Therefore the Prophets, so that they might drag the ungodly to the light, examine their conduct according to the duties of love: “You are right worshipers of God, you are most holy; but in the meantime, where is truth, where is mutual faithfulness, where is kindness? If you are not men, how can you be angels? You are given to avarice, you are perfidious, you are cruel: what more can be said of you, except that each of you condemns all the rest before God, and that your life is also condemned by all?”

By saying that truth or faithfulness was extinct, he makes them out to be like foxes, who are always deceitful. By saying that there was no kindness, he accuses them of cruelty, as if he said that they were like lions and wild beasts. But the fountain of all these vices he points out in the third clause, when he says that they had no knowledge of God; and the knowledge of God he takes for the fear of God which proceeds from the knowledge of him, as if he said, “In a word, men go on as licentiously as if they did not think that there is a God in heaven, as if all religion was erased from their hearts.” For as long as any knowledge of God remains in us, it is like a bridle to restrain us; but when men become wanton and allow themselves every liberty, it is certain that they have forgotten God and that there is in them now no knowledge of God. Therefore the complaints in the Psalms,

The ungodly have said in their heart, There is no God (Psalms 14:1).

Impiety speaks in my heart, There is no God. Men cannot run headlong into brutal stupidity while a spark of the true knowledge of God shines or twinkles in their minds. So now we perceive the real meaning of the Prophet.

But after having said that they were full of perfidiousness and cruelty, he adds, By cursing, and lying, and killing, and so on. The Hebrew word אלה (aleh) means “to swear”; some explain it in this place as signifying “to swear falsely,” and others read the two words together, אלה וכחש (aleh ucachesh), meaning “to swear and lie,” that is, to deceive by swearing. But as אלה (alah) often means “to curse,” the Prophet here, I doubt not, condemns the practice of cursing, which had become frequent and common among the people.

But he enumerates particulars in order to more effectively check the fierceness of the people; for the wicked, we know, do not easily bend their neck. They first murmur, then they clamor against wholesome instruction, and at last they rage with open fury and break out into violence when they cannot otherwise stop the progress of sound doctrine.

However this may be, we see that they are not easily led to admit their sins. This is the reason why the Prophet shows here, by stating particulars, in how many ways they provoked God’s wrath: “Look,” he says, “cursings, lyings, murder, thefts, adulteries, abound among you.” And the Prophet seems here to allude to the precepts of the law, as if he said, “If anyone compares your life with the law of God, he will find that you openly and intentionally lead such a life as proves that you fight against God, that you violate every part of his law.”

But it must be observed here that he does not speak of such thieves or murderers as are led today to the gallows or are otherwise punished. On the contrary, he calls those men thieves and murderers and adulterers who were in high esteem, eminent in honor and wealth, and who, in short, were uniquely illustrious among the people of Israel. Such men did the Prophet brand with these disgraceful names, calling them murderers and thieves.

So also Isaiah speaks of them, Thy princes are robbers and companions of thieves (Isaiah 1:23). And we already reminded you that the Prophet does not address his discourses to a few men but to the whole people, for all, from the least to the greatest, had fallen away.

He afterwards says, They have broken out. The expression no doubt is to be taken metaphorically, as if he said, “There are now no bonds, no barriers.” For the people so raged against God that no modesty, no shame on account of the law, no religion, no fear, prevailed among them or checked their intractable spirit. Therefore, they broke out. By the phrase “breaking out,” the Prophet describes the furious wantonness seen in the reprobate when, freed from the fear of God, they abandon themselves to what is sinful, without any moderation, without any restraint.

And for the same purpose he adds, Bloods are contiguous to bloods. By “bloods” he means all the worst crimes; and he says that bloods were close to bloods because they joined crimes together. As Isaiah says that iniquity was like a train, so our Prophet says here that such was the common liberty they took to sin that wherever he turned his eyes, he could see no part free from wickedness. Then, “Bloods are contiguous to bloods,” that is, everywhere the horrible spectacle of crimes is seen. This is the meaning.

The Prophet now expresses more clearly the dispute which he mentions in the first verse. It now evidently appears that it was not a judgment expressed in words, for God had in vain tried to bring the people to the right way by threats and reproofs. He had contended enough with them; they remained rebellious. Therefore, he adds, Now mourn shall the whole land. That is, God has now resolved to execute His judgment. There is therefore no use for you any longer to contrive any evasion, as you have until now been accustomed to do, for God stretches forth His hand for your ultimate destruction.

Mourn, therefore, shall the land, and cut off shall be every one that dwells in it, as I prefer to render it. Unless, perhaps, the Prophet means that though God should for a time suspend the last judgment, yet the Israelites would gain nothing, since they would, by continual languor, pine away. But as he mentions mourning in the first place, the former meaning—that God would destroy all the inhabitants—seems more appropriate. He adds, gathered shall they be all, or destroyed, (for either may suit the place), from the beast of the field, and the bird of heaven, to the fishes of the sea. The Prophet here enlarges on the greatness of God’s wrath, for He includes even the innocent beasts and the birds of heaven, indeed, the fishes of the sea. When God’s vengeance extends to brute animals, what will become of men?

But someone may object here and say that it is unworthy of God to be angry with miserable creatures, which deserve no such treatment. For why should God be angry with fishes and beasts? But an answer may be easily given: Since beasts, birds, fishes, and, in a word, all other things have been created for the use of humankind, it is no wonder that God should extend the tokens of His curse to all creatures, above and below, when His purpose is to punish humankind. We seek, indeed, for the most part, some vain comforts to delight us or to moderate our sorrows when God shows His anger toward us. But when God curses innocent animals for our sake, we then dread all the more, unless, indeed, we are under the influence of extreme stupor.

So we now understand why God here denounces destruction on brute animals, as well as on birds and fishes of the sea. It is so that people may know themselves to be deprived of all His gifts. Just as when a person, to expose a wicked man to shame, pulls down his house and burns all his furniture, so also does God, who has adorned the world with such great and varied wealth for our sake, when He reduces all things to ruin. He thereby shows how grievously offended He is with us, and thus constrains us to become humble. This, then, is the Prophet’s meaning.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God: we are today as guilty before You as the Israelites of old, who were so rebellious against Your Prophets. You have often tried sweetly to allure us to Yourself without any success, and by our continual obstinacy, we have not ceased until now to provoke Your wrath.

O grant, therefore, that moved at least by the warnings You give us, we may prostrate ourselves before Your face. May we not wait until You put forth Your hand to destroy us, but instead strive to anticipate Your judgment.

And, being at the same time surely convinced that You are ready to be reconciled to us in Christ, may we flee to Him as our Mediator.

Relying on His intercession, may we not doubt that You are ready to give us pardon, so that, having at length put away all sins, we may come to that blessed state of glory which has been obtained for us by the blood of Your Son. Amen.

The Prophet here laments the extreme wickedness of the people: they would tolerate no warnings, like those who, being beyond hope, reject all advice, refuse physicians, and dislike all remedies. It is a sign of irredeemable wickedness when people close their ears and harden their hearts against all beneficial counsel. Therefore, the Prophet suggests that, along with their great and numerous corruptions, there was such stubbornness that no one dared to rebuke the public sins.

He adds this reason: For the people are as chiders of the priest, or, they really contend with the priest. Some take כ, caph, here not as expressing similarity, but as explaining and affirming what is said: “They altogether strive with the priest.” However, I prefer the former meaning, which is that the Prophet calls all the people the critics of their pastors. We see that stubborn people become this insolent when they are rebuked, for they immediately make an objection like this: “Am I to be treated like a child? Have I not gained enough knowledge to understand how I should live?” We daily encounter many such individuals who proudly boast of their knowledge, as if they were superior to all Prophets and teachers. Undoubtedly, the ungodly display wit and sharpness in opposing sound doctrine. It then becomes clear that they have learned more than one might have expected—for what purpose? Only to argue with God.

Let us now return to the Prophet’s words. He says, “But.” Here, אך (ak) is not to be taken as it is in many places to mean “truly.” Instead, it denotes an exception: “In the meantime.” But, or, in the meantime, let no one chide and reprove another. In short, the Prophet complains that while all kinds of wickedness were rampant among the people, there was no freedom to teach and admonish. Instead, everyone was so rebellious that they would not tolerate hearing the word. As soon as anyone pointed out their sins, “great doctors,” as they say, were ready to argue.

He elaborates on the subject by saying that they were as chiders of the priest. He declares that those who, with impunity, behaved so recklessly against God were not content merely with being so stubborn as to reject all rebukes; they also willfully rose up against their own teachers. As I have already said, common observation sufficiently proves that all irreverent despisers of God are filled with such arrogance that they dare to attack others.

Some conjecture in this instance that the priest was so corrupt as to become deserving of universal condemnation. However, this conjecture is weak and unconvincing. The Prophet here did not direct his words against a single individual but, on the contrary, sharply rebuked, as we have said, the perversity of the people, because no one would listen to a rebuker. Let us then understand that their spiritual diseases were incurable when the people became hardened against beneficial counsel and could no longer bear to be rebuked.

The connecting word is to be understood here as an inferential one, meaning, Therefore, you shall fall. Here God denounces vengeance on stubborn people, as if he said, “Since you pay no regard to my authority when I reprove you with words, I will no longer deal with you in this way; instead, I will punish you for this contempt of my word.”

This is how God is accustomed to act: he first tests people, or he makes the trial, to see if they can be brought to repentance. He severely reproves them and reasons earnestly with them. But after trying all means with words, he then resorts to the final remedy by exercising his power. For, as has been said, he no longer condescends to contend with people.

Therefore, when the Lord saw that his Prophets were despised and that their entire teaching was a matter of mockery, he determined, as it appears from this passage, that the people should soon be destroyed.

Some render היום (eium) as 'today,' and think that a short time is denoted. But as the Prophet immediately adds, And the Prophet shall fall together with you,” and further, concerning the night, mentions לילה (lile), in the night, I explain it this way: that the people would be destroyed together, and then that the Prophets—even those who, to a great extent, brought such vengeance on the people—would also be drawn into the same ruin.

You shall fall then in the day, and the Prophet shall fall in the night; that is, “The same destruction shall at the same time include all. But if ruin should not immediately take away the Prophets, they shall not yet escape my hand; they shall follow in their turn.”

Therefore, the Prophet joins day and night together in a continuous order, as if he said, “I will destroy them all from the first to the last, and no one shall rescue himself from punishment. And if they think that those who are later led to vengeance shall be unpunished, they are mistaken; for as the night follows the day, so also some will draw others after them into the same ruin.”

Yet at the same time the Prophet, I do not doubt, means by this metaphor, the day, that tranquil and joyous time during which the people indulged their pride.

He then means that the punishment he predicted would be sudden. For unless the ungodly see the hand of God near, they always, as has been observed before, laugh to scorn all threatening. God then says that he would punish the people in the day—even at mid-day, while the sun was shining—and that when dusk should come, the Prophets would also follow in their turn.

It is clear enough that Hosea is not speaking here of God’s true and faithful ministers, but of impostors who deceived the people with their flatteries, as is usually the case.

For as soon as any Prophet sincerely wished to discharge his office for God, flatterers would come forward before the public, saying, “This man is too rigid and misuses God’s name by denouncing such a severe punishment; we are God’s people.”

Such, then, we must remember, were the Prophets referred to here. For few were those who then faithfully discharged their office, and there was a large number of those who were indulgent to the people and their vices.

It is afterwards added, I will also consume your mother. The term mother is to be understood here as the Church, because of which the Israelites, we know, were accustomed to exult against God—just as the Papists do today, who boast of their mother church, which, as they say, is their shield of Ajax.

When anyone points out their corruptions, they instantly flee to this protection, saying, “What! Are we not the Church of God?”

Therefore, when the Prophet saw that the Israelites misused this falsely assumed title, he said, I will also destroy your mother. That is: “This boasting of yours, the dignity of Abraham’s race, and the sacred name of Church, will not prevent God from taking dreadful vengeance on you all. For he will tear out by the roots and abolish the very name of your mother; he will disperse that smoke of which you boast, since you hide your crimes under the title of Church.”

Here the Prophet distinctly touches on the idleness of the priests, whom the Lord, as is well known, had set over the people. For though it could not have served to excuse the people, or to lessen their fault, that the priests were idle, yet the Prophet justly inveighs against them for not having performed the duty assigned to them by God.

But what is said does not apply only to the priests, for God, at the same time, indirectly blames the voluntary blindness of the people. For how did it happen that pure instruction did not prevail among the Israelites, except because the people especially wished that it would not? Their ignorance, then, as they say, was profound, as is the case with many ungodly men today, who not only love darkness, but also draw it around them on every side, so that they might have some excuse for their ignorance.

So God here, in the first place, attacks the priests, but He also includes the whole people, for teaching did not prevail among them as it should have. The Lord also reproaches the Israelites for their ingratitude, for He had kindled among them the light of celestial wisdom, since the law, as is well known, must have been sufficient to direct people in the right way.

It was then as though God Himself shone forth from heaven when He gave them His law. How, then, did the Israelites perish through ignorance? It was because they closed their eyes to the celestial light, because they were not willing to become teachable, so as to learn the wisdom of the eternal Father.

Thus we see that the guilt of the people, as has been said, is not lessened here, but that God, on the contrary, complains that they had malignantly suppressed the teaching of the law, for the law was able to guide them. The people perished without knowledge because they chose to perish.

But the Prophet denounces vengeance on the priests, as well as on the whole people. Because knowledge you have rejected, he says, I also will reject you, so that you shall not discharge the priesthood for Me. This is specifically addressed to the priests: the Lord accuses them of having rejected knowledge.

But knowledge, as Malachi says, was to be sought from their lips (Malachi 2:7), and Moses also addresses the same point in Deuteronomy 33:10. It was, therefore, an extreme wickedness in the priests, as if they wished to subvert God’s sacred order, when they sought the honor and dignity of the office without the office itself. Such is the case with the Papists of the present day; they are satisfied with its dignity and its wealth.

Mitred bishops are prelates, are chief priests; they arrogantly boast that they are the heads of the Church and wish to be considered equal with the Apostles. Yet, who among them attends to his office? Indeed, they think that it would be somehow a disgrace to give attention to their office and to God’s call.

So now we see what the Prophet meant by saying, Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you, so that you shall not discharge the priesthood for Me. In a word, he shows that the separation, which the priests attempted to make, was absurd and contrary to the nature of things. It was monstrous, and in short, impossible. Why? Because they wished to retain the title and its wealth; they wished to be considered prelates of the Church, without knowledge. God does not allow things joined together by a sacred knot to be torn apart in this way. “Do you then,” He says, “take to yourself the office without knowledge? No, since you have rejected knowledge, I will also take to Myself the honor of the priesthood, which I previously conferred on you.”

This is a remarkable passage, and by it we can counter the furious boasting of the Papists, when they haughtily force upon us their hierarchy and the order, as they call it, of their clergy—that is, of their corrupt dregs. For God declares by His word that it is impossible for there to be any priest without knowledge.

And further, He would not have priests to be endowed with knowledge only, and to be, as it were, mute; for He would have the treasure entrusted to them to be communicated to the whole Church. God then, in speaking of sacerdotal knowledge, also includes preaching.

Though someone may indeed be literate—as some bishops and cardinals in our age have been—that person is not yet to be classified among the learned; for, as has been said, sacerdotal learning is the treasure of the whole Church.

Therefore, when a boast is made of the priesthood with no regard for the ministry of the word, it is a mere mockery, for teacher and priest are, as they say, almost interchangeable terms. Now we perceive the meaning of the first clause.

Then it follows, Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. Some limit this latter clause to the priests and think that it forms a part of the same context. However, when one weighs the Prophet’s words more fully, he will find that this refers to the body of the people.

This Prophet is often concise in his sentences, and so his transitions are varied and sometimes obscure: now he speaks in his own person, then he assumes the person of God; now he turns his discourse to the people, then he speaks in the third person; now he reproves the priests, then immediately he addresses the whole people.

There seemed to be first a common denunciation, You shall fall in the day, the Prophet in the night shall follow, and your mother shall perish. The Prophet now, I do not doubt, confirms the same judgment in other words. In the first place, he puts forward this proposition: that the priests were idle and that the people quenched the light of celestial instruction.

Afterwards, he denounces on the priests the judgment they deserved, I will cast you away, he says, from the priesthood. Now he comes to all the Israelites and says, You have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

Now this fault doubtless belonged to the whole people; no one was exempt from this sin, and this forgetfulness was fittingly ascribed to the whole people.

For how did it happen that the priests had carelessly shaken off the burden of teaching the people from their shoulders? It was because the people were unwilling to have their ears annoyed, for the ungodly complain that God’s servants are troublesome when they daily cry out against their vices. Hence the people gladly made a truce with their teachers so that they would not perform their office; thus, forgetfulness of God’s law crept in.

Just as the Prophet had denounced their punishment on the priests, so he now assures the whole people that God would bring a dreadful judgment on them all, that He would even blot out the whole race of Abraham. I will forget, he says, your children.

Why was this? The Lord had made a covenant with Abraham, which was to continue and be confirmed to his posterity. They departed from the true faith; they became illegitimate children. Then God rightly testifies here that He had a just cause for no longer counting this degenerate people among the children of Abraham.

How so? “For you have forgotten My law,” He says. “Had you remembered the law, I would also have kept My covenant with you, but I will no longer remember My covenant, for you have violated it. Your children, therefore, do not deserve to be under such a covenant, since you are such a people.”