Commentary on Hosea John Calvin (continued)
HOSEA
distinction is done away among us, and 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 it is a token of final reprobation. When, therefore, shame ought to 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 to me equally abominable. It now follows ---
Hosea 9:11-12
11. As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
11. Ephraim, quasi avis avolavit gloria eorum, a partu et ab utero et a conceptione, (jungamus etiam sequentem versum:)
12. Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
12. Quia si extulerint filios suos, tunc exterminabo eos ab homine (hoc est, ne sint in numero hominum:) certe etiam vae illis quum recessero ab eis. 57
The Hebrews, we know, have often abrupt sentences as in this place, Ephraim! their glory has fled Ephraim is to be placed by itself; and the speech seems striking, when the Lord thus breaks off the sentence, Ephraim! he does not continue the sense, but immediately adds, Like a bird their glory has fled. When he speaks of Ephraim, he no doubt refers especially to his offspring; and by mentioning a part for the whole, he includes whatever was then deemed to be wealth, or glory, or power.
The Prophet, I say, speaks of offspring, for he immediately adds, from the birth, and the womb, and the conception But they are mistaken who confine this sentence to offspring only; for it is, as I have said, a mode of speaking, by which a part is taken for the whole. According to the letter, he mentions children or offspring; but yet he includes generally the whole condition of the people.
Then as a bird the glory of Ephraim fled away In what respect? From the birth, from the womb, from the conception. The Prophet, no doubt, sets forth here the gradations of God's vengeance, which was yet in part near at hand to the Israelites, and which was in part already evident by clear proofs. He says, from the birth, then from the womb, and, lastly, from the conception If, then, the glory of Ephraim had vanished at the beginning, the Prophet would not have thus spoken; but as the Lord showed signs of his wrath by degrees, that vengeance at length might reach the highest point, the Prophets in the first place, mentions birth, then the womb; 57I offer the following rendering of the original: — 11. 'Ephraim as a bird flieth swiftly away; Their glory is from the birth, and from the womb, and from conception: 12. 'But though they bring up their children, I will yet destroy them, that they shall not be men; Yes, even woe will be to them, when I turn aside from them.' Fruitfulness of progeny was included in Jacob's blessing on Joseph, the father of Ephraim, who especially represented him. "Blessings of the breasts and of the womb" are specifically mentioned, Genesis 49:25. The former of these two verses alludes to this circumstance. Ephraim is compared to a bird, soon fledged and flying away from the nest: and then it is added, that the glory of that people was their rapid increase. It is a declaration, not a denunciation, for this follows in the next verse. Besides, a denunciation comports not with what is said in that verse, nor with the contents of the fourteenth. If their glory had departed from the birth, etc., how was it that the threatening on the next verse is, that their children should not grow up to be men, and that the Prophet should pray God to give them, in verse 14, an abortive womb, etc.? — Ed.