John Calvin Commentary Hosea 9

It is not known at what time the Prophet delivered this discourse, but it is enough to know that it is directed against the obstinate wickedness of the people, because they could by no means be turned to repentance, though their defection was, at the same time, manifest. He now declares that God was so angry that no success could be hoped for.

And this warning ought to be carefully noticed, for we see that hypocrites, as long as God spares or indulges them, take the opportunity to feel secure. They think that they have sure peace with God when He bears with them even for a short time; and further, unless the drawn sword appears, they are never afraid.

Since, then, people sleep so securely in their vices, especially when the Lord treats them with forbearance and kindness, the Prophet here declares that the Israelites had no reason to rejoice in their prosperity, or to flatter themselves under the pretext that the Lord had not immediately taken vengeance on them. For he says that though all people under heaven were prosperous, yet Israel would be miserable, because he had committed fornication against his God.

We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet. Israel, he says, do not rejoice with exultations like the people; that is, “Whatever prosperity may happen to you, though God may seem propitious by not afflicting you, but kindly bearing with you—indeed, though He may bountifully nourish you, and may seem to give you many proofs of paternal favor, yet there is no reason for you to congratulate yourself, for vain will be this joy, because an unhappy end awaits you.” You have committed fornication, he says, against your God. This warning was very necessary.

This vice, we know, has always prevailed among people: they are blind to their sins as long as the Lord spares them. Experience today most fully proves that the same disease still clings to our very core. Since this is so, let this passage of the Prophet awaken us, so that we may not rejoice, though great prosperity may smile on us; but let us rather inquire whether God has a just cause of anger against us.

Though He may not openly stretch out His hand, though He may not pursue us, we should still anticipate His wrath. For it is the proper function of faith not only to discern from present punishment that God is angry, but also to fear, on account of any prevailing vices, the punishment that is far distant.

Let us then learn to examine ourselves and to make a severe scrutiny, even when the Lord conceals His displeasure and does not punish us for our sins. If, then, we have committed fornication against God, all our prosperity should be suspected by us, for this contempt in abusing God’s blessings will cost us dearly.

The comparison here made is also of great weight. As other people, says the Prophet. He means that though God might pardon heathen nations, yet He would punish Israel, for less excusable was his apostasy and rebellion in having committed fornication against his God. That other nations wandered in their errors was no wonder; but that Israel should have thus cast off the yoke, and then denied his God, that he should have broken and violated the fidelity of sacred marriage—all this was quite monstrous. It is then no wonder that God here declares, by the mouth of His Prophet, that though He spared other people, He would yet inflict just punishment on Israel.

He then adds, You have loved a reward upon every threshing floor. He pursues the same metaphor, that Israel had committed fornication like an unchaste and perfidious woman. Hence he says that they were like harlots, who are so enticed by gain that they are not ashamed of their lewdness. He said yesterday that the people had hired lovers; but now he says that they were led astray by the hope of reward. These things are apparently contradictory, but their different aspect is to be noticed. Israel hired lovers for himself when he purchased, with a large sum of money, an alliance with the Assyrians; but, at the same time, when he worshipped false gods with the hope of gain, he was like prostitutes, who prostitute their bodies to all kinds of filthiness when any rewards entice them.

But a question may be raised here: Why does the Prophet say that the reward is meretricious when plenty of grain is sought? For he reproaches the Israelites for nothing else but that they wished their threshing floors to be filled with wheat. This seems not indeed to be in itself worthy of reproof, for who of us does not desire a fruitful harvest of grain and wine?

Indeed, since the Lord, among other blessings, promises to give abundant provision, it is certainly lawful to ask through supplications and prayers for what He promises. But the Prophet calls it a wicked reward when what God has promised to give is sought from idols. When therefore we depart from the one true God and devise for ourselves new gods to nourish us and supply our food and clothing, we are like prostitutes, who choose by lewdness to gain support rather than to receive it from their own husbands.

This is then to be like a woman whom her husband treats generously, yet she looks to others and seeks a filthy reward from adulterers. Such are idolaters. For God offers Himself freely to us and testifies that He will act as a father and preserver; but the majority, despising the blessing of God, flee elsewhere and invent for themselves false gods, as we see to be done under the Papacy. For who are the patrons (nutricios—nourishers) they implore when either drought or any other adverse season threatens barrenness and want?

They have an innumerable multitude of gods to whom they flee. They are then prostitutes who hunt for gain from adulterers, while, at the same time, God freely promises to be a husband to them and to take care that nothing will be lacking. Since, then, they are not satisfied with the blessing of God alone, it is a meretricious lust, which is insatiable, and in itself filthy and disgraceful.

We now then see what the Prophet repudiates in the people of Israel: they hoped for a larger abundance of grain from their idols than from the true God, as was the case with the idolaters mentioned by Jeremiah.

When we served, they said, the queen of heaven,
we abounded in wine and corn (Jeremiah 44:17).

They compared God with idols and denied that they were so well and so sumptuously provided for when they worshipped God alone. Since, then, idolaters give honor to fictitious gods, so as to think them to be more liberal to them than the true God, this is the reason that the Prophet now so severely blames Israel when he says that they loved a meretricious reward on all the threshing floors of wheat.

God now pronounces such a punishment as the Israelites deserved. They had been drawn away, as we have said, from the pure worship of God by allurements; they hoped for more profit from superstitions. Therefore, God shows that he would, for this reason, punish them by taking away their wine and grain, as we have already noticed in Hosea 2. For this is the only way by which the Lord restores people to a sane mind, or at least makes them inexcusable: by depriving them of his blessings.

Consider the prostitute: as long as there is gain to be had, as long as she surpasses all honorable and chaste married women in her dress and way of living, she is pleased with herself and blinded by her own splendor. But when she is reduced to extreme need, when she sees herself to be the laughingstock of everyone, and when she drags out a miserable life in poverty, she then sighs and admits how infatuated she had been in leaving her husband. So the Lord now declares by his Prophet that he would deal with the Israelites in this way, so that they might no longer delight themselves with such delusions.

Therefore, he says, The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall disappoint them (mentietur illis — it shall lie to them; ) — that is, the vineyards shall not meet their expectation. It is as if he said, “Since these people regard only their stomach, as they consider nothing important except provisions, therefore the floor and the wine-press shall not feed them; I will deprive them of their support, so that they may understand that they worship false gods in vain.”

Let us take a common analogy: We see some boys so obstinate that they are not moved by disgrace or even by beatings; but since they are subject to the cravings of their appetite, when their father deprives them of bread, they nearly lose all hope.

Beatings do no good; all warnings are disregarded. But when the boy who loves overindulgence sees that bread is denied to him, he discovers that his father’s displeasure is to be feared. In this way, God corrects people addicted to excessive indulgence, for they are so unresponsive that no other remedy can do them any good.

We now, then, understand the Prophet's meaning. He first reproaches the Israelites for loving a reward, for rushing after false gods so that they might gorge themselves with a great abundance of things. But when the Lord saw that they had become stupefied in their prosperity, he said, “I will deprive them of all their provisions; neither wine nor wheat shall be given to them; this need will at last drive them to repentance.”

We therefore see how the Lord deals with people according to their disposition. And his manner of speaking should be noted: he says that neither the floor nor the wine-press shall feed them. He does not say that the fields will be barren; he does not say that he would send hail or storms; but he says that neither the floor nor the wine-press shall feed them.

And further, that the new wine shall disappoint them; that is, when they will think themselves blessed with complete abundance, when the harvest will appear abundant, and when they will have already, in anticipation, devoured the large produce of their vineyards, all this will come to nothing. For neither the floor nor the wine-press shall feed them; indeed, the very wine which they thought had been prepared shall disappoint them.

The Prophet proclaims here a heavier punishment—that the Lord would drive them into exile. It was indeed a dreadful repudiation when they were deprived of the land of Canaan, which was the Lord’s rest, as it is called in the Psalms (Psalms 132:14).

While they lived in the land of Canaan, they lived, as it were, in the habitations of God and could have a sure hope that He would be a father to them. But when they were driven out from there, the Lord testified that He regarded them as aliens; it was the same as when a father disinherits his son.

The Prophet now threatens them not only with a lack of food but also with repudiation, which was far more grievous—They shall not dwell, he says, in the Lord’s land.

There is an elegant play on words in the verbs here used: ישבו, ishebu, and ושב, usheb; the one is from ישב, isheb, and the other from שוב, shub. They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return into Egypt. And the other circumstance is still more dreadful. In Assyria they shall eat what is unclean; for it was the same as if the Lord intended to blend that holy people with the profane Gentiles, so that there should be afterward no difference. For the uncleanness of which the Prophet speaks would have the effect of destroying the distinction which the adoption of God made between that people and the profane nations.

It was indeed by distinguishing marks that the Lord retained the people of Israel when He ordered them to abstain from unclean foods. But when they no longer differed, as to common food, from the Gentiles, it was evident that they were rejected by God, and that the holiness which belonged to them through the free covenant of God was obliterated.

They shall eat, then, what is unclean in Assyria; that is, “They shall not now be under My care and protection; they shall live according to their own will, as the other nations. I have until now preserved them under some restraint; but now, as they will not bear to live under My law, they shall have their own liberty and shall be profane like the rest of the world, so that they shall become involved in all the defilements and pollutions of the Gentiles.” This is the meaning.

And now we should consider whether it is right, when we are among idolaters, to conform to the rites approved by them. This passage, no doubt, as other passages, most clearly shows that nothing more grave can happen to us than the elimination of all difference between us and the profane despisers of God, even in the outward manner of living.

Had the Prophet said, “The Israelites shall now be hungry in a far country—the Lord has until now fed them with plenty, for He has performed what He had formerly promised by Moses; this land has in every way been blessed and has supplied us with great abundance of wine, wheat, and oil; indeed, honey has flowed like water; but they shall now be forced to waste away from lack among their enemies”—had the Prophet said this, it would have been a grave and severe denunciation. But now he fills them, as has already been said, with much greater horror, for he says, They shall eat what is unclean. There seemed to be some great importance belonging to the external rite, but the outward profession was the sign of divine adoption.

When therefore the people loosened the reins and ate indiscriminately any food, and made no choice according to the directions of the law, then the distinction was removed, so that they ceased to be the people of God. It is the same also today with those who turn aside from a sincere profession of their faith and associate with the Papists; they renounce, as far as they can, the favor of God and abandon themselves to the will of Satan.

Let us then know that it is a dreadful judgment of God when we are not allowed to profess our faith by outward worship, and when the ungodly rule in such a way as to compel us to the necessity of which the Prophet here speaks, even of eating unclean things, that is, of being involved in their profane superstitions.

It is then a blessing, to be highly valued, when we are permitted to abstain from all defilements and to worship God purely, so that no one may contaminate himself by pretense. But when we are compelled, under the tyranny of the ungodly, to conform to impure superstitions, it is a sign of the dreadful judgment of God.

And there is nothing by which anyone can excuse himself in this respect or lessen his fault, as many do, whose conscience nevertheless pricks them, though they think it sufficient to offer their excuses before the eyes of men.

But there is nothing by which such people can either flatter themselves or deceive the naive; for it is an extreme reproach when people, who ought to be sacred to God and to profess outwardly His pure worship, allow themselves to be polluted with unclean food.

It is uncertain whether the Prophet testifies here that they would lose their labor and their oil (as they say) when they sacrificed to God, or whether he declares what would be the case when they had been driven into exile. Both views seem probable. Now, if we refer the Prophet's words to the time of exile, they do not seem unsuitable, “They shall not then pour out wine to Jehovah, and their sacrifices shall not be acceptable to him; no oblation shall come anymore to the temple of Jehovah.” And so, many understand the passage; yet the former sense is the most appropriate, as can be easily gathered from the context.

The Prophet says that they shall not pour out wine to Jehovah, and that their sacrifices shall not be acceptable to him; and then he adds, All that eat shall be polluted. It does not seem by any means applicable to exiles that they should vainly endeavor to pour out wine to God, for their religion forbade them to do such a thing.

Further, when he says, Their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners,—this must also be understood of sacrifices, which they were accustomed daily to offer to God; for in exile (as has been said), it was not lawful for them to make any offering, nor did they have an altar or a sanctuary there.

What, then, is the meaning of the Prophet when he says, “All that eat of their sacrifices shall be polluted”? We must know that the Prophet speaks here of the intermediate time, as though he said, “What the Israelites now sacrifice is without any advantage, and God is not pacified with these trifles, for they bring polluted hands, they do not change their minds, they obtrude their sacrifices on God, but they themselves first pollute them.”

We have already often treated this same doctrine; therefore, I will not dwell on it now. But it is enough to point out the Prophet's design, which was to show that the Israelites were seeking in vain to pacify God by their ceremonies, for they were vain expiations which God did not regard but deemed worthless.

They shall not then pour out wine to God. There is an important meaning in this sentence, for it is certain that as long as the Israelites lived in their country, they were diligent enough in the performance of outward worship, and drink-offerings were not neglected by them. Since, then, this custom prevailed among them, the Prophet must be speaking here only of the effect, and says that they exercised themselves in vain in their frivolous worship, for they did not pour out wine to Jehovah; that is, their libation did not come to Jehovah.

He explains himself afterwards when he says, Their drink-offerings shall not be pleasant to him. However much, then, the Israelites might labor, the Prophet says that their labor would be fruitless, for the Lord would reject whatever they did.

He then adds what is to the same purpose: Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat shall be polluted; that is, all their sacrifices are polluted. The Prophet now shows more clearly, not that there would be no sacrifices, but that they would be in vain, because the Lord would abominate them and would repudiate all the masks which they would put on in his presence, and under the cover of which they withdrew themselves from their allegiance to him.

The reason is because when anyone unclean touches pure flesh, he pollutes it by his uncleanness. God then must necessarily abominate whatever impure men offer, unless they seek to purify their minds. And this principle has ever prevailed even among the very blind—

An impious right hand does not rightly worship the celestials.
(Non bene coelestes impia dextra colit.)

These words, which spread everywhere, have been witnesses of the common feeling, for the Lord intended to draw men out, as it were, from their coverts, when he forced them to make such a confession. It is no wonder that the Prophet now says (as this truth is also often taught in Scripture) that the sacrifices of the people, who continued in their own perfidy, would be like the bread of mourners; as Isaiah says,

When one kills an ox, it is the same as if he slew a man; when one sacrifices a lamb, it is the same as if he killed a dog,
(Isaiah 66:3).

He compares sacrifices to murders; nor is it surprising, for it is a more atrocious crime to abuse the sacred name of God than to kill a man, and this is what ungodly men do.

Then he says, “If anyone eats, he will be polluted.” He enlarges on what he said before and says that if anyone clean should come, he would be polluted merely by being in their company.

We now see how sharply the Prophet here arouses hypocrites, that they might now cease to promise to themselves what they were accustomed to do—namely, that God would be propitious to them while they pacified him with their vain things. “By no means,” he says; “nay, there is so much defilement in your sacrifices that they even contaminate others who come, being themselves clean.”

But it may be asked: Can the impiety of others pollute us when we offer no proof of companionship, nor by dissimulation manifest any consent? When we then abstain from all superstition, does society alone contaminate us?

The answer is easy: The Prophet does not explicitly discuss here how another’s impiety may contaminate men who are clean. Instead, his object was to show in strong language how much God abhors the ungodly, and that not only is he not pacified with their sacrifices, but he also holds them as the greatest abominations.

But with regard to this question, it is certain that we become polluted as soon as we consent to profane superstitions. Yet when ungodly men administer either holy baptism or the holy supper, we are not polluted by fellowship with them, for the deed itself has nothing corrupt in it. Then the act alone does not pollute us, nor the hidden and inward impiety of men. This is true, but we are to understand for what purpose the Prophet said that all who eat of their sacrifices shall be polluted.

He proceeds with the same subject, Their bread for their souls, etc. This clause, “for their soul,” may be explained in two ways. In saying, “Bread for their soul,” the Prophet spoke by way of contempt, as though he said, “Let them serve themselves and their stomach with bread, and no longer offer it to God; let them then satiate themselves with bread, for they cannot consecrate their bread to God when they themselves are unclean.”

But I am inclined to follow what has been more approved: that bread for their soul shall not come to the house of the Lord. For men, we know, are then accustomed to offer their sacrifices to God to reconcile themselves to him, or at least to present emblems of their expiation.

Hence the Prophet says that bread is offered for the soul according to the directions of the law, but that the ungodly could not bring bread into the house of Jehovah, because the Lord excludes them, as it were, by an interdict.

It is not that hypocrites keep away, for we see how boldly they thrust themselves into the temple; nay, they would occupy the first place. But the Lord still forbids them to come into his presence. This is the reason why he says that the bread of the ungodly shall not come before God, though in appearance their oblations glitter before men.

The Prophet here alludes again to their exile and shows how deplorable the condition of the people would be when deprived of all their sacrifices.

It is indeed true that the Israelites became wholly rejected when they changed the place of the temple and when new and spurious rites were introduced by Jeroboam. From that time, no sacrifice pleased God, for they sacrificed to idols and demons and not to God, as it is elsewhere stated (Deuteronomy 32:17). Yet, because they had some kind of divine worship—as circumcision remained, and sacrifices were offered, as it were, by Moses’ command, and they boasted that they were the children of Abraham and lived in the holy land—they were satisfied with their condition.

But when in exile they saw no sign of God’s favour, when they were deprived of the temple, the altar, and all sacrifices, when on every side mere solitude and waste met their eyes, and when God thus showed that he was far removed from them, great sorrow must have entered their hearts. Therefore the Prophet says, What will you do in the solemn day?

And he expressly mentions solemn and festal days. “If the morning and the evening oblation, which was customarily made, will not be remembered, and if the other sacrifices will not come to your minds, what will you do when the festal days come? For the Lord will then show that he has nothing to do with you.” For the trumpets sounded on the festivals so that the people might come from the whole land into the temple; and it was, as it were, the voice of God sounding from heaven. But when the feast days were forgotten, when there were no holy assemblies, it was the same as if the Lord, by commanding silence, had shown that he no longer cared for the people.

So that the Israelites might not think that exile only was threatened them, the Prophet here shows that something worse was connected with it: namely, that the Lord would wholly forsake them, and that there would exist no sign of his presence, as though they were cut off from the Church.

What then will you do on the solemn day, on the day of Jehovah’s festivity? That is, “Do you think that something of an ordinary kind is declared against you when I speak of exile? The Lord will indeed take away the whole of your worship and will deprive you of all the evidences of his presence. What then will you do? But if a brutish stupor should so occupy your minds that this does not come to your thoughts daily, the solemn and festal days will at least constrain you to think how dreadful it is that you have nothing remaining among you which may offer a hope of God’s favour.” We now understand the meaning of the Prophet.

From this we learn what I have said before: that nothing worse can happen to us in this world than to be scattered without any order, when no outward sign appears by which the Lord gathers us to himself.

It would therefore be better for us to be deprived of food and drink, to go naked, and to finally perish from lack, than that the exercises of religion (exercita pietatis — exercises of religion), by which the Lord holds us, as it were, in his own bosom, should be taken away from us.

When, therefore, we are deprived of these aids, and God thus hides his face from us, and mournful desolation reveals dread to us on every side, it is an extreme calamity, a sign of the dreadful judgment of God.

Let us then learn, when our flesh is touched, when sterility or some other evil threatens us—let us learn to dread this deprivation still more, and to fear lest the Lord deprive us of our festal days; that is, take away all the aids of religion by which he holds us together in his house and shows us to be a part of his Church. This then, finally, ought to be noted: what remains we will consider in our next lecture.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since you draw us at this time to yourself by so many chastisements, while we are still insensible through the slothfulness and the indolence of our flesh—O grant, that Satan may not thus continually harden and deceive us; but that we, being finally awakened, may truly feel our evils, and not merely be affected by outward punishments, but rouse ourselves, and feel how severely we have in various ways offended you, so that we may return to you with real sorrow, and so detest ourselves, that we may seek every delight in you, until we finally offer to you a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice, by dedicating ourselves and all we have to you, in sincerity and truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.