Commentary on Hosea John Calvin
HOSEA
is here taught.
The Prophet says, in the first place, that the day of vengeance was now at hand, because the Lord by forbearance could prevail nothing with the obstinate. He then adds, that as all threatenings were despised by the people, and as they were deaf to every instruction, they would at length know that God had not spoken in vain but would perceive that their were justly treated; for the Lord would not now teach them by his word, but by scourges. He adds, in the third place, that the Prophet was foolish and delirious, and also, that they who boasted themselves to be the men of the spirit were mad: by which expressions he meant that the flatteries, by which the people were lulled asleep were foolish; for God would not fail at last, when the time came, to execute his ofÏce. And, lastly he reminds them that this would happen through the fault of the people, that there was no reason for them to trace or to ascribe the cause of the evil to any thing else; for this blindness was their just punishment. The Lord would have never permitted Satan thus to prevail in his own inheritance, had not the people, by the immense filth of their sins, provoked God for a long time, and as it were with a determined purpose. It now follows ---
Hosea 9:8
8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. 54
8. Speculator Ephraim cum Deo meo, Propheta laqueus aucupis super omnes vias ejus, odium (hoc est, res execrabilis: est idem nomen quo usus est in proximo versu: res igitur execrabilis) in domo Dei sui.
Interpreters obscure this verse by their various opinions. Almost all suppose a verb to be understood that Ephraim ``had set'' a watchman. But I see no need to make any change in the words of the Prophet: I therefore take them simply as they are. Now some think that there is here a comparison between the old Prophets who had not turned aside from God's command, and those flatterers who pretended the name of God, while they were the ministers of Satan to deceive. They therefore thus distinguish them, The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; that is, there was a time formerly when the watchmen of Ephraim were connected with God, and declared no strange doctrine, when they drew from the true fountain all that they taught; there was then a connection between God and the Prophets, for they depended on the mouth of God, and the Prophets delivered to the people, as from hand to hand, whatever God commanded; there was then nothing corrupt, or impure, or adventitious in their words. But now the Prophet is a snare of a fowler; that is, the dice is turned, a deplorable change has taken place; for now the Prophets lay snares to draw people by their disciples into destruction; and this abomination bears
54Bishop Horsley gives the following rendering of this verse: — 'The watchman of Ephraim is with his God. The Prophet! the snare of the fowler is Over all his ways. Vengeance against the household of my God.' For 'his,' instead of 'my' God in the first clause, there is the authority of many MSS: but for turning 'his' into 'my,' in the last clause there is no satisfactory authority: and there is nothing to justify the introducing of 'vengeance' for the word here used. The verb from which it is derived means to hate: and the noun as here formed signifies, no doubt, either the act or feeling of hating, or what is hated or is hateful. Calvin gives nearly its meaning — 'res execrabilis' — an execrable thing. I offer the following translation: — 'The watchman of Ephraim, Before his God a Prophet, Is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, An abomination in the house of his God.' The first two lines designate his office — a watchman and a Prophet before God; and the two last, his wicked conduct and base character. — Ed.