4 "What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What do I make of you, Judah? Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew. 5 That's why I use prophets to shake you to attention, why my words cut you to the quick: To wake you up to my judgment blazing like light. 6 I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings. 7 You broke the covenant - just like Adam! You broke faith with me - ungrateful wretches! 8 "Gilead has become Crime City - blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets. 9 It used to be robbers who mugged pedestrians. Now it's gangs of priests Assaulting worshipers on their way to Shechem. Nothing is sacred to them. 10 "I saw a shocking thing in the country of Israel: Ephraim worshiping in a religious whorehouse, and Israel in the mud right there with him. 11 "You're as bad as the worst of them, Judah. You've been sowing wild oats. Now it's harvest time.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Hosea 6:4-11
Commentary on Hosea 6:4-11
(Read Hosea 6:4-11)
Sometimes Israel and Judah seemed disposed to repent under their sufferings, but their goodness vanished like the empty morning cloud, and the early dew, and they were as vile as ever. Therefore the Lord sent awful messages by the prophets. The word of God will be the death either of the sin or of the sinner. God desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and that knowledge of him which produces holy fear and love. This exposes the folly of those who trust in outward observances, to make up for their want of love to God and man. As Adam broke the covenant of God in paradise, so Israel had broken his national covenant, notwithstanding all the favours they received. Judah also was ripe for Divine judgments. May the Lord put his fear into our hearts, and set up his kingdom within us, and never leave us to ourselves, nor suffer us to be overcome by temptation.