John Calvin Commentary Hosea 4:6

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children." — Hosea 4:6 (ASV)

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.”