John Calvin Commentary Hosea 4:8

"They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity." — Hosea 4:8 (ASV)

This verse has led many interpreters to think that all the particulars we have noticed should be restricted to the priests alone, but there is no sufficient reason for this. We have already said that the Prophet is frequently accustomed to shift his focus from the people to the priests. However, as a heavier guilt belonged to the priests, he very often denounces them strongly, as he does in this place: They eat, he says, the sin of my people, and lift up to their iniquity his soul, that is, ‘every one lifts up his own soul,’ or, ‘they lift up the soul of the sinner by iniquity,’ for the pronoun applies to the priests as well as to the people. The number is changed: for he says, יאכלו, iacalu and ישאו ishau, in the plural number, They will eat the sin, and will lift up, etc., in the third person; and then his soul—it may be, their own. It is, however, a pronoun in the singular number, so a change of number is necessary. We are then free to choose whether the Prophet says this of the people or of the priests; and as we have said, it may apply to both, but in a different sense.

We may understand him as saying that the priests lifted up their souls to the iniquity of the people because they anxiously wished the people to be given to many vices, for they hoped by that means to gain much profit. This is just as when someone expects a reward from robbers: he is glad to hear that they have become rich, for he considers their riches to be for his gain.

So it was with the priests, who were greedy for gain; they thought that they were doing well when the people brought many sacrifices. And this is usually the case when the doctrine of the law is corrupted, and when the ungodly think that this alone remains for them—to satisfy God with sacrifices and similar atonements. Then, if we apply the passage to the priests, the lifting up of the soul is the lust for gain. But if we prefer to apply the words to sinners themselves, the sense is, ‘Upon their iniquity they lift up their soul,’ that is, the guilty raise themselves up by false comforts and downplay their vices, or, by their own flatteries, bury and entirely smother every remnant of God’s fear. Then, according to this second sense, to lift up the soul is to deceive, and to take away all doubts by vain comforts, or to remove every sorrow and erase all guilt by a false notion.

I come now to the meaning of the whole. Though the Prophet here accuses the priests, he undoubtedly involves the whole people, and deservedly, in the same guilt. For how was it that the priests expected gain from sacrifices? It was because the doctrine of the law was undermined.

God had instituted sacrifices for this purpose: that whoever sinned, being reminded of his guilt, might mourn for his sin. Furthermore, by witnessing that sad spectacle, his conscience might be more wounded; when he saw the innocent animal slain at the altar, he should have dreaded God’s judgment.

Besides, God also intended to exercise the faith of all, so that they might turn to the atonement which was to be made by the promised Mediator. And at the same time, the penalty which God then laid on sinners should have been like a bridle to restrain them.

In short, the sacrifices had, in every way, this as their object: to keep the people from being so ready or so prone to sin. But what did the ungodly do? They even mocked God and thought that they had fully done their duty when they offered an ox or a lamb; and afterwards, they freely indulged themselves in their sins.

Such gross folly has even been ridiculed by pagan writers. Even Plato spoke of such sacrifices in a way that shows that those who would by such trifles make a bargain with God are altogether ungodly. And certainly, he speaks this way in his second book on the Commonwealth, as though he meant to describe the Papacy. For he speaks of purgatory, he speaks of satisfactions; and everything the Papists of this day bring forward, Plato in that book distinctly sets forth as being altogether foolish and absurd. Yet in all ages this conviction has prevailed: that people have thought themselves delivered from God’s hand when they offered some sacrifice, imagining it to be a compensation.

Hence the Prophet now complains of this perversion: They eat, he says (for he speaks of a continued act), the sins of my people, and to iniquity they lift up the heart of each; This means that when all sin, one after the other, each one is readily absolved because he brings a gift to the priests.

It is the same thing as if the Prophet said, “There is a collusion between them—between the priests and the people.” How so? Because the priests were the associates of robbers and gladly seized on what was brought. And so they did not fight against vices, as they should have done, but on the contrary urged only the necessity of sacrifices. It was enough if people brought things abundantly to the temple.

The people also themselves showed their contempt of God, for they imagined that as long as they made satisfaction by their ceremonial performances, they would be free from punishment. Thus, there was an ungodly agreement between the priests and the people: the Lord was mocked in their midst. We now understand the real meaning of the Prophet. And thus I prefer the latter exposition regarding the lifting up of the soul, which is that the priests lifted up the soul of each by relieving their consciences, by soothing words of flattery, and by promising life, as Ezekiel says, to souls doomed to die (Ezekiel 13:19).