John Calvin Commentary Hosea 8:1

"[Set] the trumpet to thy mouth. As an eagle [he cometh] against the house of Jehovah, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law." — Hosea 8:1 (ASV)

Interpreters nearly all agree on this point: that the Prophet does not threaten the kingdom of Israel, but the kingdom of Judah, at the beginning of this chapter, because he names the house of God, which they take to be the temple. I indeed allow that the Prophet has already spoken in two places of the kingdom of Judah, but, as it were, in passing.

He has, it is true, introduced some reproofs and threatenings, but in such a way that the distinction was quite clear. We see that he now turns to the kingdom of Judah, but in the second verse, he names Israel and yet continues his discourse. To thy mouth, he says, the trumpet, and so on; and afterwards he adds, To me shall they cry, My God; we know thee, Israel.

Here, certainly, the discourse is addressed to the ten tribes. Therefore, I am by no means inclined to explain the beginning of the chapter by applying it to the kingdom of Judah. I certainly wonder that interpreters have been mistaken in such a trivial matter, for the house of God means not only the temple but also the whole people.

As Israel retained this boast that they were a people holy to God and that they were His family, he says, “Put or set the trumpet to thy mouth, and proclaim the war, which is now near at hand. For the enemy hastens, who is to attack the house of God—that is, this holy people, who cover themselves with the name of God and who, trusting in their election and adoption, think that they shall be free from all evils. War shall come as an eagle against this house of God.”

Had the Prophet added anything that could be referred specifically to the kingdom of Judah, I would willingly agree with the opinion of those who think that the house of God is the sanctuary. But let the whole context be read, and anyone can easily perceive that the Prophet speaks of Israel no less in the first verse than in the second and third. For, as has been said, he makes no distinction but continues his teaching or discourse in the same vein throughout.

He says first, A trumpet to thy mouth, or, “Set to thy mouth the trumpet.” It is a vivid description (hypotyposis), for we know that God, in order to affect the people more powerfully, invests His Prophets with various roles. The Prophet, then, is introduced here as a herald who proclaims war, or a messenger, or by whatever name you may wish to call him.

Here then the Prophet is commanded not to speak with his mouth but to show by the trumpet that war was near, as though God Himself by His trumpet declared war against Israel, which was to be carried on soon after by earthly enemies. The enemies were to come soon after, and the herald was to come in the usual manner to declare war.

The Greeks call them κηρρυκες (proclaimers); we say, “Les heraux.” Just as earthly kings have their proclaimers, or κηρυκες, or heralds, or messengers, who proclaim war, so the Lord sends His Prophet with the usual charge to declare war: “Go then, and let the Israelites know, not now by your mouth, but even by your throat, by the sound of the trumpet, that I am an enemy to them and that I am present with a strong army to destroy them.”

It is indeed certain that the Prophet did not use a trumpet. But the Lord, by this representation, as I have already said, increased the reality of what was taught so that the Israelites might perceive that the Prophet was not threatening them in sport or play, but that it was done seriously, as though they now saw the heralds who were to proclaim war. For this was usually done only when the army was already prepared for battle.

He then says, As an eagle against the house of Jehovah. We have already said what the Prophet means by the house of Jehovah: namely, that people who thought they would be exempt from every evil because they had been adopted by the Lord. Hence the Israelites called themselves God’s household; and though under this cover they impiously and profanely abandoned themselves to every kind of turpitude, yet they thought that they were on the best of terms with God Himself.

“There shall come,” he says, “a common ruin to you all; this boasting shall not prevent Me from taking vengeance at last on your sins.” But he adds, As an eagle, so that the Israelites might not think there was to be a long delay, for the impious procrastinate when they see any danger near.

Hence, so that the Israelites might not continue torpid in their vices, the Prophet says that the destruction of which he spoke would be like the eagle. For in a moment, the eagle covers an immense distance, and we wonder when we see it over our heads, though a little before it did not appear. So also the Prophet says that destruction, though not yet seen, was nevertheless near at hand, so that, being struck with terror (though now late), as the Lord was thus urging them, they might return to Him.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since You continue daily to restore us to Yourself, both by scourges and by Your word, though we do not cease to go astray after sinful desires—O grant that by the direction of Your Spirit, we may at length so return to You that we may never afterwards fall away, but be preserved in pure and true obedience, and thus constantly continue in the pure worship of Your majesty and in true obedience, so that after this life has passed, we may at last reach that blessed rest which is reserved for us in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We were not able yesterday to complete the first verse of the eighth chapter. It remains, then, for us to consider the latter clause, in which the Prophet expresses the cause of the war which he had previously proclaimed by God’s command. He says that the Israelites had transgressed the covenant of the Lord and conducted themselves perfidiously against His law.

He repeats the same thing twice, for the covenant and the law are synonymous. Only the word 'law,' in my view, is added as explanatory, as though he had said that they had violated the covenant of the Lord, which had been sanctioned or sealed by the law.

God, then, had made a covenant with Israel, which He designed to be comprehended in the tablets. Since, then, it was not unknown to the Israelites what they owed to God, they were covenant-breakers.

This, then, as the Prophet shows, was the doubling of their crime: that they had not transgressed by mistake when they violated the covenant of the Lord, for they had been more than sufficiently taught by the law what faith and what purity the Lord required of them. Yet, at the same time, the covenant which the Lord so openly made with them was neglected.