51 "Listen to this, priests! Attention, people of Israel! Royal family - all ears! You're in charge of justice around here. But what have you done? Exploited people at Mizpah, ripped them off on Tabor, 2 Victimized them at Shittim. I'm going to punish the lot of you. 3 "I know you, Ephraim, inside and out. Yes, Israel, I see right through you! Ephraim, you've played your sex-and-religion games long enough. All Israel is thoroughly polluted. 4 They couldn't turn to God if they wanted to. Their evil life is a bad habit. Every breath they take is a whore's breath. They wouldn't recognize God if they saw me. 5 "Bloated by arrogance, big as a house, they're a public disgrace, The lot of them - Israel, Ephraim, Judah - lurching and weaving down their guilty streets. 6 When they decide to get their lives together and go off looking for God once again, They'll find it's too late. I, God, will be long gone. 7 They've played fast and loose with me for too long, filling the country with their bastard offspring. A plague of locusts will devastate their violated land.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Hosea 5:1-7
Commentary on Hosea 5:1-7
(Read Hosea 5:1-7)
The piercing eye of God saw secret liking and disposition to sin, the love the house of Israel had to their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them. Pride makes men obstinate in other sins. And as Judah was treading in the same steps, they would fall with Israel. By dealing treacherously with the Lord, men only deceive themselves. Those that go to seek the Lord with their flocks and their herds only, and not with their hearts and souls, cannot expect to find him; nor shall any speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found. See how much it is our concern to seek God early, now, while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation.