Commentary on Hosea John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
Hosea 11:8-9
8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
8. Qumodo ponam te Ephraim? Tradam te Israel? Quomodo ponam te sicut
Sodomam? Statuam te sicut Zxeboim? Inversum est in me cor meum, simul revolutae sunt (alii, incaluerunt; nam {}כמרillud significat, simul ergo revolutae sunt) poenitudines meae.
9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy
Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.
9. Non faciam (id est, non exequar) furorem irae meae, non revertar ad perdendum Ephraim: quia Deus ego, et non homo, in medio tui sanctus; et non ingrediar urbem.
Here God consults what he would do with the people: and first, indeed, he shows that it was his purpose to execute vengeance, such as the Israelites deserved, even wholly to destroy them: but yet he assumes the character of one deliberating, that none might think that he hastily fell into anger, or that, being soon excited by excessive fury, he devoted to ruin those who had lightly sinned, or were guilty of no great crimes. That no one then might assign to God an anger too fervid, he says here, How shall I set thee aside, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee up, Israel? How shall I set thee as Sodom? By these expressions God shows what the Israelites deserved, and that he was now inclined to inflict the punishment of which they were worthy and yet not without repentance, or at least not without hesitation. He afterwards adds in the next clause, This I will not do; my heart is within me changed; I now alter my purpose, and my repenting are brought back again; that is it was in my mind to destroy you all, but now a repenting, which reverses that design, lays hold on me.
We now apprehend what the Prophet means.
As to this mode of speaking, it appears indeed at the first glance to be strange that God should make himself like mortals in changing his purposes and in exhibiting himself as wavering. God, we know, is subject to no passions; and we know that no change takes place in him. What then do these expressions mean, by which he appears to be changeable? Doubtless he accommodates himself to our ignorances whenever he puts on a character foreign to himself. And this consideration exposes the folly as well as the impiety of those who bring forward single words to show that God is, as it were like mortals; as those unreasonable men do who at this day seek to overturn the eternal providence of God, and to blot out that election by which he makes a difference between men. ``O!'' they say, ``God is sincere, and he has said that he willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live.'' God must then in this case remain as it were uncertain, and depend on the free-will of every one: it is hence in the power of man either to procure destruction to himself, or to come to salvation. God must in the meantime wait quietly as to what men will do, and can determine nothing except through their free-will. While these insane men thus trifle, they think themselves to be supported by this invincible