John Calvin Commentary Hosea 9:10

"I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved." — Hosea 9:10 (ASV)

In this verse, God rebukes the Israelites for having preferred to prostitute themselves to idols rather than to continue under his protection, though he had from the beginning shown his favor to them. It was as if he were saying that, having previously been favored with his free love, they had transferred their affections to others, for he says that he had found them as grapes in the wilderness.

The word "wilderness" should be joined with "grapes," as if he had said that they had been as sweet and acceptable to him as a grape when found in a desert. When a traveler finds, by chance, a grape in a barren and desolate place, he not only admires it but also takes great delight in such an unexpected fruit.

And thus the Lord, by this comparison, shows his great love towards the Israelites. He adds, As the first fruit of the fig tree; for the fig tree, we know, produces fruit twice every year. Therefore, God says, As figs at the beginning (or, as they say, the firstfruits) are delightful, so I have taken delight in this people. The Prophet, however, does not mean that the people were worthy of being so much loved. But the Hebrews use the word "to find" in the same sense as we do when we say in French: Je treuve cela a mon gout, (I find this to my taste). I have therefore regarded Israel as grapes in the wilderness. And this remark is necessary, lest someone should subtly infer that the Israelites were loved by God because they had something savory in them. For the Prophet does not relate here what God found in the people, but he only rebukes their ingratitude, as we will soon see.

The first part then shows that God had great delight in this people. It is the same or a similar sentence to that in Hosea 11, where he says, When Ephraim was yet a child, I loved him, except that there is not so much fervor and warmth of love expressed there. But the same argument is handled there, and the object is the same; it is to prove that God anticipated his people by his love.

In this case, there remained less excuse when people rejected God calling them and did not respond to his love. A perverseness like this would be hardly endured among humans. If anyone were to love me freely, and I were to slight him, it would be evidence of pride and rudeness. But when God himself gratuitously treats us with kindness, and when, not content with common love, he regards us as delectable fruit, does not the rejection of this love, does not the contempt of this favor, betray the basest depravity on our part?

Thus, we now understand the Prophet's design. In the first clause, he says, in the person of God, "I have loved Israel as a traveler loves grapes when he finds them in the desert, and as the first ripe figs are usually loved. Since, then, I so much delighted in them, should they not have honored me in return? Should not my gratuitous love have inflamed their hearts, so as to induce them to devote themselves wholly to me?"

But they went in unto Baal-peor. So I interpret the verb באו (bau); and it is taken in this sense in many other places. For the Hebrews say, "they went in," to express in a delicate way the intercourse between husbands and wives. And the Prophet does not, without reason, compare the sacrifices which the people offered to Baal-peor to adultery, as being like the intercourse which an adulterer has with a harlot.

They then went in unto Baal-peor; and he adds that they separated themselves. Some interpret the word נזר (nesar) as referring to worship, meaning that they consecrated themselves to Baal-peor. Others derive it from זרה (sare), which they think is here in a passive sense and means "to be alienated." But I take it in the same sense as when Ezekiel says, They have separated themselves from after me, מאחרי (macheri), in Ezekiel 14; that is, that they may not follow me.

God here expostulates with the people for following their fornication and for thus repudiating that sacred marriage which God contracts with all his people. I therefore read the two sentences as forming one context: "The Israelites went in unto Baal-peor, as an adulterer goes in unto a harlot; and they separated themselves; for they denied God and violated the faith pledged to him; they discarded the spiritual marriage which God made with them." For the Prophet, we know, whenever he refers to idolatries, speaks allegorically or metaphorically and mentions adultery.

They have separated themselves, he says, to reproach; that is, though their filthiness was shameful, they were yet wholly insensible. This is like when a wife disregards her character, or when a husband does not care that he is pointed at by others and that his baseness is a laughing-stock to all. So the Israelites, he says, had separated themselves to reproach; having cast away all shame, they abandoned themselves to wickedness. Some render the word בשת (beshet) "obscenity," and others refer it to Baal-peor, rendering the sentence thus: "They have separated themselves to that filthy idol." For some think Priapus to have been Baal-peor, and this opinion has gained almost universal consent. But I take the meaning of the word "reproach" more broadly, as signifying that the people observed no difference between what was decent and what was shameful, but that they were senseless in their impiety.

They were therefore abominable, or abominations according to their lovers. The Prophet, I doubt not, here connects the Israelites with idols and with Baal-peor itself, so that he might strip them of all that holiness which they had obtained through God’s favor. We now understand the Prophet's meaning.

Now, what is taught here is noteworthy and useful. For, as we have said, our wickedness is inexcusable if we despise the gratuitous love of God, bestowed unasked. When God then comes to us of his own accord, when he invites us, when he offers us the privilege of children—an inestimable benefit—and when we reject his favor, is not this more than savage ferocity?

It was to condemn such conduct as this that the Prophet says that God had loved Israel as when one finds grapes in the desert, or as when one eats the first ripe figs. But, at the same time, it must be noted why the Prophet so much extols the dealings of God with the people of Israel: it was because their adoption, as is well known, was not an ordinary privilege, nor what they enjoyed in common with other nations.

Since, then, the people had been chosen to be God’s special possession, the Prophet here justly extols this love with peculiar commendation. And the same is true for us today, for God does not grant to all the favor that has been presented to us through the shining light of the gospel.

Other people wander in darkness; the light of life dwells only among us. Does not God thus show that he delights especially in us? But if we continue the same as we were, and if we reject him and transfer our love to others, or rather if lust leads us astray from him, is not this detestable wickedness and obstinacy?

But what the Prophet says, that they separated themselves to reproach, is also noteworthy, for he exaggerates their crime by this consideration: that the Israelites were so blinded that they did not perceive their own turpitude, though it was quite manifest. The superstitions which then prevailed in the land of Moab were no doubt very gross, but Satan had so fascinated their minds that they gave themselves up to conduct that was worse than shameful.

Let us then know that our sin is worthy of a heavier punishment in such a case as this; that is, when every distinction is removed among us, when we are hurried away by the spirit of giddiness into every impiety, and when we no longer distinguish between light and darkness, between white and black, for this is a token of final reprobation.

When, therefore, shame should have restrained them, he says that the Israelites had yet separated themselves to reproach and became abominable like their lovers; that is, "As Baal-peor is the highest abomination to me, so the people became equally abominable to me."