John Calvin Commentary Hosea 9:3

"They shall not dwell in Jehovah`s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria." — Hosea 9:3 (ASV)

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.