John Calvin Commentary Hosea 8:9-10

"For they are gone up to Assyria, [like] a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. Yea, though they hire among the nations, now will I gather them; and they begin to be diminished by reason of the burden of the king of princes." — Hosea 8:9-10 (ASV)

Here again the Prophet derides all the labor the people had undertaken to exempt themselves from punishment. For though hypocrites dare not openly and avowedly fight against God, they still seek vain subterfuges by which they may elude Him. So the Israelites did not cease to weary themselves to escape the judgment of God; and this folly, or rather madness, the Prophet exposes to scorn.

They have gone up to Assyria, he says, as a wild ass alone; Ephraim had hired lovers. In the first clause he indirectly condemns the brutish wildness of the people, as if he said, “They are like the wild animals of the forest, which can by no means be tamed.” And Jeremiah uses this very same comparison when he complains of the people as being led away by their own indomitable lust, being like the wild ass, who, snuffing the wind, rushes headlong in its usual manner (Jeremiah 2:24). Probably he also indirectly touches on the unbelief of the people in having despised the protection of God; for the people should not have hastened to Assyria in this way, as if they were destitute of all help, because they knew that they were protected by the hand of God.

And the Prophet here rebukes them for regarding as nothing the help which the Lord had promised, and which He was really prepared to provide, if the Israelites had not turned elsewhere. Hence he says, Ephraim, as a wild ass, has gone up to Assyria; he did not perceive that he would be secure and safe, if he had sheltered himself under the shadow of the hand of his God. But as if God could do nothing, he turned to the Assyrians: this was ingratitude.

And then he again takes up the comparison we have previously noted: that the people of Israel had shamefully and wickedly departed from the marriage covenant which God had made with them. For God, we know, was like a husband to the Israelites and had pledged His faithfulness to them; but when they gave themselves to another, they were like unchaste women who prostitute themselves to adulterers and desert their own husbands. Hence the Prophet again rebukes the Israelites for having violated their pledged faith to God and for being like adulterous women. Indeed, he goes further and says that they hired adulterers for wages. Unchaste women are usually enticed by the allure of gain; for when adulterers wish to corrupt a woman, they offer gifts, they offer money. He says that this practice was reversed; and the Prophet Ezekiel expresses the same thing. After stating that women are usually corrupted by having some gain or advantage offered to them, he adds,

‘But you waste your own property, and do not offer yourself for hire, but on the contrary you hire wantons,’ (Ezekiel 16:31–33).

So the Prophet speaks here, though more briefly: Ephraim, he says, has hired lovers.

But it follows, Though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them. This passage may be variously expounded. The commonly received explanation is that God would gather the hired nations against Israel; but I would rather refer it to the people themselves. However, it admits of a twofold meaning. The first is that the great forces which the people have acquired for themselves on every side would not prevent God from destroying them; for the verb קבף, kobets, which they render “to gather,” often means in Hebrew to throw by slaughter into a heap, as we say in French, Trousser, (to bundle). And this meaning would be very suitable—that though they extended themselves far and wide by gathering forces on every side, they would yet be collected in another way, for they would be brought together into a heap.

The second meaning is this—that when Israel should be drawn away to the Gentiles, the Lord would gather him; as if He said, “Israel burns with mad lusts and runs here and there among the Gentiles; this heat is nothing else than dispersion. It is the same as if he intentionally wished to destroy the unity in which his safety consists; but I will yet gather him against his will; that is, preserve him for a time.”

It then follows, They shall grieve a little for the burden of the king and princes. Interpreters expound the word which the Prophet uses in two ways. Some derive יחלו, ichelu, from the verb חל, chel, and others from חלל, chelal, which means “to begin”; and therefore give this rendering: “They shall begin with the burden of the king and princes”; that is, they shall begin to be burdened by the king and princes. Others offer this version: “They shall grieve a little for the burden of the king and princes”; that is, they shall be tributaries before the enemies bring them into exile, and this will be a moderate grief.

If the first interpretation which I have mentioned is approved, then there is here a comparison between the scourges with which God at first gently chastised the people, and the last punishment which He was at length constrained to inflict on them; as if He said, “They complain of being burdened by tributes; it is nothing, or at least it is not so grievous, in comparison with the dire future grief that their final destruction will bring with it.”

But this clause may well be joined with that mitigation which I have briefly explained: that when the people had willingly dispersed themselves, they had been preserved beyond expectation, so that they did not immediately perish; for they would have run headlong into destruction, if God had not interposed a hindrance.

Thus the two verses are to be read together. They ascended into Assyria as a wild ass; that is, “They showed their unnameable and wild disposition, when thus unrestrainedly carried away; and then they offer Me a grievous insult. For as if they were destitute of My help, they run to the profane Gentiles and esteem as nothing My power, which would have been ready to help them, if they had depended on Me and placed their salvation in My hand.” He then rebukes their treachery, that they were like unchaste women who leave their husbands and abandon themselves to lewdness.

Then it follows, Though they do this, that is, “Though having despised My aid, they seek deliverance from the profane Gentiles, and though they despise Me and choose to submit themselves to adulterers rather than to keep their conjugal faith with Me, I will yet gather them, when thus dispersed.”

The Lord here highlights the sin of the people, for He did not immediately punish their ingratitude and wickedness but delayed doing so for a time. In His kindness, He would have led them to repentance, if their madness had not been wholly incurable.

Though then they thus hire among the Gentiles, I will yet gather them, that is, “preserve them”; and for what purpose? So that they may grieve a little, and that is, so that they may not wholly perish, as people running headlong into utter ruin, for they seemed intentionally to seek their final destruction when they were thus willfully and violently carried away to profane nations.

That is indeed a most dreadful tearing of the body, which cannot be other than fatal. They shall, however, grieve a little; that is, “I will so act that they may by degrees return to Me, even by means of moderate grief.”

We therefore see more clearly why the Prophet said that this grief would be small, which was to come from the burden of the king and princes. The Israelites’ design was to incite the Assyrians immediately to war, and this would have led to their destruction, as it did at last; but the Lord suspended His vengeance and at the same time mitigated their grief when they were made tributaries. The king and his counselors were constrained to exact great tributes; the people then grieved. But they had no other than a moderate grief, so that they might consider their sins and return to the Lord; yet all this was without any fruit. Hence, the obstinacy of the people was all the less excusable. We now perceive what the Prophet meant.