John Calvin Commentary Hosea 9:1

"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, [departing] from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor." — Hosea 9:1 (ASV)

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.