---
title: "Commentary on Hosea"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "John Owen"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 79 of 86
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-hosea/79/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. John Owen, Commentary on Hosea, section 79. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-hosea/79/"
---

# Commentary on Hosea

*John Calvin, tr. John Owen*

Calvin on Hosea, the prophet of a faithful God and an unfaithful people.

## 79. Chapter 7

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-hosea/79/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-hosea/79/#p-N

[¶0] 1 While I was healing Israel, Then were discovered the iniquity of Ephraim, And the vices of Samaria; For they dealt falsely, and the thief entered in, The robber plundered abroad:

[¶1] 2 And they said not in their heart, That I remember all their wickedness: Surrounded them have now their vices, — they are in my sight.

[¶2] 3 By their wickedness they cheer the king, And by their falsehoods the princes. All are adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker;

[¶3] 4 .Who ceases from stirring up, After mixing the dough, till it be fermented.

[¶4] 5 The day of our king! — the princes Have made him sick with a bottle of wine; — He stretched forth his hand to scorners.

[¶5] 6 For they have made ready, as an oven, Their heart, for lying in wait: All the night their baker sleeps; In the morning the oven burns as a flaming fire

[¶6] 7 All are hot like an oven; They have consumed their own judges, — All their kings have fallen; — No one among them cries to me.

[¶7] 8 Ephraim mingles himself with the nations; Ephraim is become bread baked under the ashes, Which has not been turned:

[¶8] 9 Eaten have strangers his strength, and he knows it not; And hoariness has spread over him, and he knows it not;

[¶9] 10 And testify does the pride of Israel to his face; But they have not returned to Jehovah their God, Nor sought him notwithstanding all these things.

[¶10] 11 Ephraim is also like a silly dove, without understanding; They cry on Egypt, they go to Assyria:

[¶11] 12 But when they go, I will expand over them my net, As a bird of heaven, I will bring them down, I will hold them fast, as their assembly have heard.

[¶12] 13 Woe to them! for they have gone back from me; Desolation to them! for they have dealt perfidiously with me: Though I redeemed them, They have yet spoken lies against me:

[¶13] 14 And they have not cried to me with their heart; For they howled on their beds; For corn and wine they assemble together; — They have revolted from me: (269)

[¶14] 15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, Yet against me they contrive evil.

[¶15] 16 They return not to God; They have been like a deceitful bow: Fallen by the sword have their princes, Through the pride of their tongue; — This will be their reproach in the land of Egypt.