John Calvin Commentary Hosea 8:11

"Because Ephraim hath multiplied altars for sinning, altars have been unto him for sinning." — Hosea 8:11 (ASV)

The Prophet here again condemns the idolatry of the people, which was, however, considered then the best religion. For the Israelites, as has been said, had become hardened in their superstitions and had long before fallen away from the pure and lawful worship of God. And we know that where error has once prevailed, it becomes entrenched over time; thus, the Israelites had become hardened in their perverted and fabricated worship.

They thought that they performed the most praiseworthy act whenever they sacrificed, while at the same time, they provoked God's wrath more and more against themselves in this way. And since they had become so hardened, the Prophet says that they multiplied for themselves altars for the purpose of sinning, and that there would be altars for them to sin. It was (as I have already said) most difficult to persuade them that their altars were for the purpose of sinning and that the more attentive they were in worshipping God, the more grievously they sinned.

We see how Papists of this day glory in their abominations. It is certain that they do nothing but what is accursed before God, for every kind of filthiness reigns among them, and there is no purity whatsoever. They therefore continue to offend God, as it were, intentionally. But at the same time, multiplying altars is their highest form of holiness; this was also the prevailing error in the Prophet’s time.

This was the reason why he said that altars were multiplied in order to sin. Who today can persuade the Papists that the many chapels they build are so many sins by which they provoke God’s wrath? But the faithful ought to be content, not with one altar (for there is now no need of an altar), but with a common table. The Papists, on the contrary, build altars for themselves endlessly, where they sacrifice; and they think that God is thereby bound to them as if by many chains. As many chapels as are under the papacy are, they think, so many prisons for God (dei carceres), and that God is confined there. But if anyone were to say that so many devils (Diabolos) dwell in those places, we know how furiously angry they would be.

It is then no redundant repetition when the Prophet says that altars were multiplied in order to sin; and then, that altars would be for sin: for in the second clause, he speaks of the punishment God would inflict on superstitious people. In the first clause, he shows that their good intentions were worthless and that they were greatly deceived when they devised various forms of worship according to their own pleasure. This is one thing. Then it follows, There shall then be to them altars to sin; since they would not willingly repent nor embrace beneficial warnings, God would finally and truly show how much He valued what they called their good intentions. For now a dreadful vengeance was near, which would demonstrate to them that by increasing altars, they did nothing but increase sins.