John Calvin Commentary Hosea 5

The Prophet here again preaches against the whole people, but he mainly directs his discourse to the priests and the rulers, for they were the source of the prevailing evils. The priests, intent on gain, neglected the worship of God, and the chief men, as we have seen, had become in every way corrupt. Hence the Prophet here especially inveighs against these orders and, at the same time, records some vices which then prevailed among the people, and that through the fault of the priests and rulers. But before I pursue further the subject of the Prophets, something must be said of the words.

When he says, To you is judgment, some explain it as, “It is your duty to do judgment,” to maintain government, so that everyone may discharge his own office. For judgment here means rectitude; the word משפט, mesgepheth, means a right order of things. Hence, they think that the priests and rulers are here condemned for discharging their office so badly, because they had no care for what was right. But this sense is too strained. The Prophet, therefore, I doubt not, summons here the priests and the king’s counselors to God’s tribunal, that they might answer there. For the contempt of God, we know, prevailed among the great; they were secure, as though exempt from judgment, as though released from laws and all order. To you, then, is judgment; that is, God addresses you by name and declares that He will be your avenger, though you heedlessly despise His judgment.

Some again understand מצפה, metsephe, as a beacon, and thus translate, “You have been a snare instead of a beacon.” But this mistake is refuted by the second clause, for the Prophet adds immediately, a net expanded over Tabor. It is well known that Mizpah and Tabor were high mountains, celebrated and renowned for their height; we also know that hunting was common on these mountains.

The Prophet, then, no doubt means here that both the priests and the king’s counselors were like snares and nets: “As fowlers and hunters were accustomed to spread their nets and snares on Mount Mizpah and on Tabor, so the people also have been ensnared by you.” This is the plain meaning of the words. Some conjecture that robbers were stationed there by the kings of Israel to intercept the Israelites if they found anyone ascending to Jerusalem, just as we now see everywhere persons lying in wait so that no one from the Papacy may come over to us. But this conjecture is too far-fetched. I have already explained the Prophet’s meaning: he uses, as we have said, a similitude.

Let us now return to what he teaches. Hear this, he says, you Priests, and attend, you house of Israel, and give ear, you house of the king. The Prophet indeed includes the whole people in the second clause, but he turns his discourse expressly to the priests and the king’s counselors. This point ought to be specially noticed, for, as we shall later see, it is indeed the general subject of this chapter.

He did not without reason attack the princes, because the main fault was in them; nor the priests, because they were dumb dogs and had also led the people astray from God’s pure worship into false superstitions. And so great was their avidity for filthy lucre that they perverted the law and everything that was formerly pure among the people.

It is no wonder then that the Prophet, while treating a general subject suitable to all orders indiscriminately, should yet denounce judgment on the priests and the king’s counselors.

With regard to these counselors, they, in order to confirm the kingdom, had also approved of false and spurious forms of worship, as has been previously stated. They had also followed other vices, for the Prophet, I doubt not, here condemns other corruptions besides superstitions—those that we know prevailed everywhere among the people and about which something has already been said.

And to show his earnestness, he uses three sentences: You Priests, hear this; then, house of Israel, attend; and in the third place, house of the king, give ear. It is as though he said, “In vain do they seek subterfuges, for the Lord will execute on them the judgment He now declares.” And yet the Lord gives them opportunity and time for repentance, since He bids them to attend to this denunciation.

Now this passage teaches that even kings are not exempt from the duty of learning what is commonly taught, if they wish to be counted members of the Church. For the Lord would have all, without exception, to be ruled by His word; and He takes this as a proof of people’s obedience—their submission to His word.

And as kings think themselves separated from the general class of men, the Prophet here shows that he was sent to the king and his counselors. The same reasoning holds true for priests; for as the dignity of their order is the highest, so this impiety has prevailed in all ages: that priests think themselves at liberty to do what they please.

The Prophet therefore shows that they are not so highly exalted that the Lord does not still shine eminently above their heads with His word. Let us understand, lastly, that in the Church the word of God so possesses the highest rank that neither priests, nor kings, nor their counselors can claim a privilege for themselves, as though their conduct was not to be subject to God’s word.

This then is a remarkable passage for establishing the word of God. And thus we see how abominable is the boast of the Papal clergy of this day, for they spread before us the mask of the priesthood when the word of God is brought forward, as though they would outshine by the splendor of their dignity the whole Law, all the Prophets, and the very Gospel.

But the Lord here upholds His word against all degrees of men and shows that both kings and priests must be brought down from their eminence, so that they may obey the word.

Indeed, we must bear in mind what I have previously said: that though the whole people had sinned, yet kings and priests are here in a special manner reproved because they deserved a heavier punishment, since by their depraved examples they had corrupted the whole people.

When he compares them to snares and nets, I do not then confine this to one thing. But as the contagion among the whole people had proceeded from the priests and the king’s counselors, and also from the king himself, the Prophet compares them, not without reason, to snares—not only because they were the authors of superstitions, but also because they perverted judgment and all equity. Let us go on—

The verb שחט, shecheth, means to kill or to sacrifice, and this passage is usually explained in terms of sacrifices; an opinion I do not reject. But though the Prophet spoke of sacrifices, he undoubtedly, in contempt, called sacrificing killing. Just as one might call the temple a “butcher shop” and the killing of victims “slaughtering,” so also the Prophet says, In sacrificing and killing, they, having turned aside, have become deeply fixed. That is, by turning aside to their own sacrificing, they have completely hardened their hearts, so that their depravity is incurable.

For by saying that they had “gone deep,” the meaning is that they were so addicted to their own superstitions that they could not be restored to a sound mind, however often they were admonished by the Prophets. Yet this verb has another meaning in Scripture, namely, that people flatter themselves with their own plans and think that by weaving together their own arguments, they can deceive God. This metaphor the Prophets employ with regard to profane despisers of God, whom they call לצים, latism, mockers. For these, while they deceive other people, think that they have nothing to do with God. We see the same thing today: courtiers and similarly proud people flatter themselves with their own deceptions and complacently laugh at our simplicity because they think that wisdom was born with them and that it is enclosed, as it were, within their brains. But I do not know whether this idea is suitable to this passage. I prefer the simpler meaning I have already stated: that the Israelites were so obstinate in their superstitions that they perversely despised all advice and all admonitions; indeed, that they petulantly resisted all instruction.

But each word must be noted: turning aside in sacrificing, he says, they became deep. By saying that they had turned aside in sacrificing, he undoubtedly makes a distinction between false and strange forms of worship and the true worship of God, prescribed in the Law. The frequency of sacrificing could not, indeed, have been condemned in itself for either the Israelites or the Jews; but they turned aside, that is, they departed from what the Law prescribes.

Hence, the more zealously they engaged in sacrificing and the more victims they offered to God, the more they provoked God’s vengeance against themselves. We then see that the Prophet points out here, as if with a finger, the sin he reproved in the people of Israel: namely, that they did not sacrifice according to God’s command and the ritual of the Law, but turned aside and followed their own devices.

Therefore, in contempt and scorn, he calls their sacrificing “killing” or “throat-cutting”: “They are,” he says, “executioners,” or, “they are butchers. What is it to me that they bring their victims with great pomp and display? That they use so many ceremonies? I repudiate,” the Lord says, “all of this. It is profane butchering; these slaughterings have nothing in common with the worship I approve.”

For our sacrifices, then, to please God, they must be according to the rule of His word. For, as has already been said, obedience is better than all sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22). But when people resort to false or invented forms of worship, then nothing is holy or acceptable to God, but an abominable filth. Furthermore, the Prophet, as I have said, not only accuses the people of having turned aside to perverted forms of worship but also of having become obstinately entrenched in them. They have become “deep,” he says, in their superstitions. Just as he said before that they were firmly attached to their idols, so that they could not be torn away from them, so he also now says that they were deeply rooted in their iniquity.

It follows, And I have been, or will be, a correction to them all. Some think that the Prophet, speaking for God, threatens the Israelites, that God declares that He Himself would become the avenger because the people had so stubbornly followed wicked superstitions: “I sit as a judge in heaven, nor will I allow you to fall away with impunity, since you have become so hardened in your wickedness.” But those who think that their sin was further increased by the fact that God, through His Prophets, had not ceased to recall the Israelites to a sound mind, since they might not have been wholly irreclaimable, are more correct. I have been a correction to them; that is, “They cannot excuse themselves by saying that they had fallen through error and ignorance, for there has been a willful obstinacy in them, as I have not ceased to show them the right way by My Prophets. I have, then, been a correction to them; but I could not bend them, so indomitable has been that stubbornness, or rather madness, with which they were inflamed towards their idols.” It is now clear which of the two views I consider most correct.

But I will offer a third view: God may be thought to be complaining here that He had been an object of dislike to the Israelites, as if He said, “When I sent My Prophets, they could not bear to be admonished, because My word was too bitter for them.” Reproofs are not easily endured by people. We indeed know that those who are ill at ease with themselves are nevertheless unwilling to hear any reproof; everyone who deceives himself wishes to be deceived by others. Since, then, the ears of people are so tender and delicate that they will patiently receive no reproof, this meaning seems not inappropriate: I have been to them all a correction, that is, “My doctrine has been rejected by them because it contained too much harshness.” But the other explanation, which I mentioned as the second, has been more widely accepted. I was, however, unwilling to omit what seems to me no less suitable.

We may now choose or accept either of these two interpretations: either that the Lord here takes away from the Israelites the excuse of error, because He had continued to reprove their vices by His Prophets, or that He expostulates with the Israelites for having rejected His word on the ground that it was too rigid and severe. Yet this main point will still remain the same: that the people of Israel were not only apostates, having fallen away from the lawful worship of God into their own superstitions, but were also contumacious and refractory in their wickedness, so that they would receive no instruction, no beneficial advice. Let us proceed.

God shows here that He is not pacified by the vain excuses which hypocrites offer, and by which they think that God's own judgment can be averted. We see what great dullness there is in many when God reproves them and brings their vices to light; for they defend themselves with vain and frivolous excuses and think that they thus restrain God, so that He dares not press them any further. In this way, hypocrites evade every truth. But God here testifies that people are greatly deceived when they thus judge, by their own perception, the heavenly tribunal to which they are summoned. I, He says, know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me.

An implied contrast is to be understood, as if He said that they were ignorant of themselves; for they covered their vices, as I have said, with frivolous excuses. God testifies that His eyes were not dazzled by such fine pretenses. "However much, then, Ephraim and Israel may excuse themselves, they will not escape My judgment. Vain and absurd are these evasions which they use; I indeed am not ignorant."

Let us then learn not to misrepresent God's judgment with our own ideas. When He reproves us by His word, let us not deceive ourselves with our own imaginations, for those who harden themselves in such a state of false security gain nothing. God sees more keenly than humans. Let us then beware of spreading a veil over our sins, for God’s eyes penetrate through all such excuses.

The fact that He names Ephraim particularly was not done, we know, without reason. From that tribe came the first Jeroboam; it was therefore as a mark of honor that the name of Ephraim was given to the ten tribes. But the Prophet names Ephraim here, who thought themselves superior to the other tribes, by way of reproach: I know them, and Israel is not hid from Me.

He afterwards expresses what He knew of the people, which was that Ephraim was wanton, and that Israel was polluted. It is as if He said, "Contend as you please, but you will do so unprofitably. I have indeed My ears stunned by your lies; but after you have brought forward everything, after you have diligently pleaded your own cause, and have omitted nothing that might serve as an excuse, the fact will still be that you are wanton and polluted."

In short, the Prophet confirms in this second phrase what I have previously stated: that people, when they flatter themselves, deceive themselves, for God meanwhile condemns them and permits no disguise of this kind.

Israel and Ephraim, then, gloried in their superstitions, as if they held God bound to them. "This is wantonness," He says, "This is pollution." The Prophet indeed here cuts off any basis for all those self-deceptions which people use as reasons when they defend false forms of worship; for God proclaims from on high that all who turn aside from His word are polluted.

Some translate it this way: “Their inclinations do not allow them to turn themselves;” and this meaning is probable, that is, that they were so devoted to their own superstitions that they were no longer free, or at liberty, to return to the right way, as if the Prophet said, “They are entirely enslaved by their own diabolical inventions, so that their inclinations will not allow them to repent.” But the former meaning (which is also more generally approved) seems more suited to the context.

They will not apply, he says, their endeavors to turn to their God. Here God declares that it was all over for the people, and that no hope whatever remained. As he said before, “Leave them, why should you do anything more? For they will not receive wholesome instruction. As they are entirely given up to destruction, there is now no reason for you to be concerned about their salvation, for that would be useless.” So also he says in this passage, They will not apply their endeavors to turn to their God.

If the Prophet speaks here in his own person, the meaning is, “Why do I weary myself? God has indeed commanded me to reprove this people, but I find that my labor is in vain, for I am dealing with brute animals, or with stones rather than with men. There is in them no reason, no discernment, for the devil has fascinated their minds. Never, then, will they apply their endeavors to turn to their God.” If we prefer to view the sentence as spoken by God, still the doctrine will remain nearly the same: God here declares that the people were incurable. Never, then, will they apply their endeavors. Why is this? For they are sunk, as it were, into a deep gulf, and their obstinacy is like the abyss. Since, then, they are so fixed in their superstitions, they will never apply their endeavors to turn to their God.

But God in the meantime not only shows here that there was no longer any remedy for the diseases of the people, but he also gravely and severely condemns their iniquity, because they did not think of seeking reconciliation with their God. It is as if he said, “What, then, do I require of these wretched men, but to return to their God? This they should have done of their own accord; but now, when they are admonished, they do not care; on the contrary, they fiercely resist wholesome instruction. Is not this a strange and monstrous madness?”

Thus, we see that there is an important meaning in the words, They will not apply their endeavors to return to their God; for the Prophet might have simply said, “to return to Jehovah,” or “to God;” but he says, to their God, and he says so, because God had made himself familiarly known to them, indeed, brought them up in his own bosom, as if they were his children and he their Father. They had forsaken him and had become apostates. And when the Lord now reproves this treachery, was it not strange that the people should close their ears and harden their hearts against every instruction? Thus, we see how sharp this reproof is.

And he says, Because the spirit of wantonness is in the midst of them; that is, they are so pleased with their own filthiness that there is no shame, no fear. But the reason for this comparison, which I have explained before, must be kept in mind. As a wife, though not faithful to her husband, still retains some modesty as long as she continues at home and while she is in any place considered among faithful and chaste women; but once she enters a brothel and openly prostitutes herself to all, when she knows her depravity is universally known, she then throws off all shame and entirely forgets her own character.

So also the Prophet says that the spirit of wantonness was in the midst of the people of Israel; as if he said, “The Israelites are so steeped in their superstitions that they can no longer be touched or moved by any reverence for God. They cannot be restored to the right way, for the devil has driven them mad, and having cast off all shame, they are like abominable prostitutes.”

And he afterwards adds, Jehovah they have not known. By this sentence the Prophet does not extenuate the sin of the people but, on the contrary, magnifies their ingratitude, because they had forgotten their God, who had treated them so indulgently. Since they had been redeemed by God’s hand, since the teaching of the law had continued among them, and since they had been preserved up to that day through God’s constant kindness, it was truly an evidence of monstrous ignorance that they could instantly adopt ungodly forms of worship and embrace those corruptions which they knew were condemned in the law. It was surely an inexcusable wickedness for the people to withdraw themselves in this way from their God.

This is the reason why the Prophet now says that they knew not Jehovah. But if they were asked the reason, they could not have said that they had no light, for God had made known to them the way of salvation. Therefore, that they did not know Jehovah was to be imputed to their perverseness; for, closing their eyes, they knowingly and willfully ran headlong after those wicked devices, which they knew, as had been stated before, were condemned by God.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since you continue daily to exhort us, and though you see us often turning aside from the right course, you yet do not cease to stretch out your hand to us, and also to rouse us by reproofs, that we may repent — O grant, that we may not be permitted to reject your word with such perverseness as you condemn here in your ancient people by the mouth of your Prophet. But rule us by your Spirit, that we may meekly and obediently submit to you, and with such teachableness, that if we have not until now been willing to become wise, we may not at least be incurable, but allow you to heal our diseases, so that we may truly repent, and be so wholly given to obey you, as never to attempt anything beyond the rule of your word, and without that wisdom which you have revealed to us, not only by Moses and your Prophets, but also by your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Prophet, having condemned the Israelites on two accounts — for having departed from the true God and for having obstinately refused all instruction — now adds that God’s vengeance was near. “Testify then shall the pride of Israel in his face”; that is, Israel will discover what it means to resist God and His Prophets in this way. The Prophet no doubt applies the word, pride, to their contempt for instruction, because they were so swollen with vain confidence that they thought wrong was done to them whenever the Prophets reproved them. It must also be observed that they were so stubborn because they were like people intoxicated with their own pleasures; for we know that while people enjoy prosperity, they are more insolent, according to that old proverb, “Satiety begets ferocity.”

Some think that the verb ענה, one, means here “to be humbled,” and this sense is not unsuitable: “The pride of Israel shall then be humbled before his face.” But another interpretation has been more widely accepted; therefore, I am inclined to embrace it, namely, that God needed no other witness to convict Israel than their own pride. We know that when anyone becomes hardened, he thinks that there is to be no judgment and has no thought of giving an account to God, for his pride takes away all fear. For this reason the Prophet says, “God will convict you, because you have been until now so proud that He could achieve nothing by His warnings.”

But he adds, Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity. He pursues the same subject: that they in vain promised themselves impunity, for the Lord had now resolved to punish them. He adds, Judah also shall fall with them. It may seem that the Prophet contradicts himself, for when he previously threatened the people of Israel, he spoke of the safety of Judah — ‘Judah shall be saved by his God, not by the sword, nor by the bow.’ Since the Prophet had previously distinguished or made a difference between the ten tribes and the kingdom of Judah, why does he now group them all together without any distinction?

To this I answer that the Prophet is not speaking here of those Jews who continued in true and pure religion, but of those who, with the Israelites, had alienated themselves from the one true God and joined in their superstitions. He is therefore referring here to the degenerate Jews, not the faithful ones; for salvation had already been promised to all who worshipped God rightly. But for as many as had abandoned themselves to the common superstitions, he declares that a common punishment was near for them all. The Jews then shall fall together, that is, “As many of the Jews as have followed impious forms of worship and other corruptions will not escape God’s judgment.” We now perceive the true meaning of the Prophet.