John Calvin Commentary Hosea 7:11-12

"And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria. When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the birds of the heavens; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard." — Hosea 7:11-12 (ASV)

The Prophet here first blames Israel for foolish credulity and compares them to a dove, for they had invited the Egyptians and sent to Assyria for help. Simplicity is indeed a commendable virtue when joined with prudence. But just as everything reasonable and judicious in people is turned into wickedness when there is no integrity, so when people are too credulous and void of all judgment and reason, it is then mere folly.

But when he says that Israel is like a dove, he does not mean that the Israelites had sinned through mere ignorance, but that they were destitute of all judgment. This folly is opposed to the knowledge which God had offered to them in His law, for God had never ceased to guide Israel by sound doctrine; He had always exhibited before them the torch of His word. But when God thus gave them light, Israel was so credulous as to give heed to the delusions of Satan and of the world. We now perceive then the meaning of the Prophet.

Some render פותה, pute, as “turning aside.” Its root פתה, pite, no doubt means “to turn aside,” and it also sometimes means “to persuade.” Thus, some render it as “a persuasible” or “a credulous dove.” But the Prophet, I do not doubt, means that they were enticed by flatteries or deceived by allurements, which is the same thing. Israel, then, was like a dove, deceived by various lures.

How so? Because they ran to the Assyrians, they invited the Egyptians. If Israel had attended to the law of God, they might have felt assured that they were not in danger of going astray. For the Lord does not keep us in suspense or doubt, so that we fluctuate, but makes our minds fixed and tranquil by His word, as it is also said in another place, This is rest. The Israelites then determined not to fix their feet, as it were, on solid ground, and they preferred to fly here and there like doves; and their credulity led them to many errors.

How? Because they rather chose to give themselves up to be deceived by the Egyptians as well as by the Assyrians, even though God was willing to guide them by sound knowledge. We now understand the purpose of this accusation by the Prophet to be that Israel willfully refused the way of safety offered to them, which they might have followed with confidence and with a tranquil and composed mind. But in the meantime, they flew up and down and became willfully erratic, for they allowed themselves to be deceived by various lures.

Now this passage teaches us that people are not to be excused by the pretext of simplicity, for the Prophet here condemns this very weakness in the Israelites. We ought then to attend to the rule of Christ, To be innocent as doves, and yet to be prudent as serpents.

But if we inconsiderately abandon ourselves, the excuse of ignorance will be frivolous, for the Lord shines upon us by His word and shows us the right way. He also has in His power the spirit of prudence and judgment, which He never denies to those who ask.

But when we despise the word, neglect the Spirit of God, and follow our own vagrant imaginations, our sin is twofold: for we thus despise and quench the light of the word, and we also willfully perish when the Lord would save us.

But a denunciation of punishment afterwards follows: Wheresoever, He says, they shall go, I will expand over them My net, and will draw them down as the birds of heaven. God shows that though the Israelites might turn about here and there, yet their end would be unhappy, for He would have His expanded net.

He follows up the simile He used in the last verse. He had said that they were like doves, which are carried by a sudden instinct to the bait and do not consider the expanded net. If then the dove sees only the lure and at the same time does not shun the danger, it is a proof of foolish simplicity.

Hence God says, I will expand My net; that is, I will cause all your endeavors and purposes to be disappointed, and all your hopes to be vain, for wheresoever they shall fly, My net shall be expanded.

This is a remarkable passage, for from this we learn that the outcome will always be unfortunate if we attempt anything contrary to the word of the Lord, and if we hold consultations over which His Spirit does not preside, as it is said by Isaiah (Isaiah 30:1):

Woe to them who weave a web, and draw not from My mouth! Woe to them who take counsel, and invoke not My Spirit!

This passage wholly agrees with the words of Isaiah, though the form of speaking is different. It belongs then to God to bless our counsels, so that they may have a prosperous and desired success. But when God is not favorable, but even opposed to our designs, what end will finally await us, other than that whatever we may have attained will eventually be turned to our ruin?

Let us then know that whatever people do in this world is ruled by the hidden providence of God. And as God leads His own people by His extended hand and gives His angels charge to guide them, so also He has His expanded net to catch all those who wander after their own erratic imaginations. Hence He says, Wheresoever they shall go, I will expand over them My net; and further, I will draw them down as the birds of heaven.

The Prophet seems to allude to the vain confidence he mentioned when he said that Israel had bound wind in his wings. For when people presumptuously undertake anything, they at the same time promise themselves that there will be nothing to prevent them from gaining their object.

Inasmuch then as people, elated with this foolish confidence, gather more boldness, indeed, eventually furiously assail God and seem as though they would break through the very clouds, the Prophet says, I will draw them down as the birds of heaven. That is, “I will allow them to be carried up for a time; but when they penetrate to the clouds, I will draw them down. I will make them know that their flying will avail them nothing.” And we must notice from where the Israelites had been drawn down.

For who would not have thought that so much protection must have been found in the Assyrians or in the Egyptians, that their expectation of deliverance would not be in vain? But the Lord laughs to scorn this vain power of the world, for whatever hope people may conceive when they alienate themselves from God, it will entirely vanish like smoke.

And He afterwards adds, I will chastise them, or, ‘I will bind them.’ For the verb יסר, isar, means both “to chastise” as well as “to bind,” so that either sense may be taken. If the word “to bind” is approved, it will agree well with the metaphor, as though He said, “I will hold you fast in My nets.” For as long as birds are allowed to fly, they think the whole heaven is theirs; but when they fall into nets, they remain confined. They are then unable to fly and cannot move their wings.

So then this sense, “I will bind them,” is very suitable, which means, “They will not be able to break My net, but I will hold them there bound to the end.” But if one prefers the other sense, I will chastise them, I do not object. As far as the meaning is concerned, we see that there is not much difference which sense we take, except that the word “to bind,” as I have said, harmonizes better with the metaphor.

He says, According to the hearing of their assembly. Nearly all render this so, as if God had said that He would punish them as He had threatened by Moses, and as if it was also an indirect accusation of their carelessness, because they did not become wise after having been long admonished, but even despised those denunciations which constantly resounded in their ears.

For God had not only prescribed in His law the rule of a religious life, but also added heavy and severe threats, by which He gave sanction to the doctrine of the law. We know how dreadful are those curses of the law. Since then God had even from the beginning thus threatened the Israelites, should they not have walked more carefully before Him?

But they were not terrified by these denunciations. Hence God here indirectly reproves this great madness: that the Israelites did not sufficiently attend to His threatening, by which they might have been recalled to the right way. For by these, Moses put a restraint even on the furious passions of people, if only there remained in them a particle of sound understanding.

Still further, the same admonitions had been often pressed on them by the Prophets; nor had God ever ceased to arouse them, until the ears of them all had become deaf to His voice. He therefore says, ‘I will hold them fast bound,’ or, ‘I will chastise them, according to the hearing of their assembly;’ that is, “The punishment which I will inflict must have been long ago known to them, for I have openly commanded My law to be promulgated, that I might thus testify to My people by severe threatening. I will now, then, execute the judgment, which they have not believed, because I have until now spared them.”

As I have already said, interpreters nearly all agree in this view, except that they do not consider the purpose of the Prophet. They do not perceive that the Israelites were upbraided for their hardness, but they only speak of punishment, without any intimation of the purpose for which God had promulgated maledictions in His law and renewed the recollection of them by His Prophets.

Jerome brings forward another meaning, namely this: that God would punish the people according to the report of their assembly; that is, that as they had with one consent violated the worship of God and transgressed His laws, so He would punish them all. I will at the same time add this view: that God would chastise them according to the clamor of their assembly, so that the Prophet points out not only a conspiracy among the people of Israel, but also their violence in inciting one another to sin.

As, then, they had thus tumultuously risen up against God, so the Prophet in his turn declares that God would punish them, as though He said, “Your tumult will not prevent Me from quelling your fury. You do indeed with great noise oppose Me and think that you will be safe, though addicted to your sins; but this your violence will be no hindrance, for I have in My power the means of chastising you.”

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since You see us to be so prone to all the allurements of Satan and the world, and at the same time so void of judgment and carried away by mere levity—O grant, that by Your Spirit leading us, we may proceed in the right course on which we have already entered under Your guidance and directing hand, so that we may never go astray from Your word, nor by any means turn aside from pursuing the mark which You have set before us. And though Satan may attempt to draw us aside, may we yet continue steadfast in Your service, and thus proceed, until we arrive at that blessed rest which, after the warfare of the present life, You have promised to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.