John Calvin Commentary Hosea 4:1-2

"Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood." — Hosea 4:1-2 (ASV)

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.