Hosea 6:4 – 7:16 No Truth in the Land

Now, we continue the theme running through Hosea chapters 4–6: Israel lacks truth, mercy, and knowledge of God.

These three failures form the controversy God brings against the northern tribes. God had given Israel three great privileges—a law, special mercy, and a king—yet they abandoned all three.

Hosea 4 reveals the first charge of no knowledge.

God says in Hosea 4:6,

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

They forgot His commands and neglected His law. Though God had given them His Word, they no longer knew Him or obeyed Him. They lacked knowledge of Him even with their special privileges of the law and the prophets.

Hosea 5 shows the second charge: no mercy.

Israel had no repentance and did not seek God’s forgiveness. Hosea 5:4–6 says they would not “frame their doings to turn unto their God.”

Pride kept them from acknowledging their sin and turning to God for mercy. They even brought sacrifices to seek the Lord. They were religious, but they were insincere and turned to other gods and other nations while rejecting the true God, and so He withdrew from them because their hearts were unchanged and unrepentant. Without repentance, they could neither receive mercy nor give it.

Hosea 6 introduces the third charge: no truth.

As we saw last episode, verses 1–3 describe Israel’s future cry to return to the Lord: “He hath torn, and he will heal.”

This looks ahead to the day when Israel finally acknowledges their offence as Hosea 5:15 speaks of, and they receive resurrection life and covenant blessing. But, at this point in Hosea, this repentance has not happened yet for the northern tribes, and it’s the northern tribes Hosea’s ministering to.

In Hosea 6:4, the tone shifts.

God speaks again, saying,

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

Their goodness is like a morning cloud or early dew—meaning brief, shallow, and quickly gone.

They show a moment of obedience, then they fall away again. God’s sent prophets, warnings, and mercy, yet their faithfulness evaporates.

They were religious, but their goodness was like “a morning cloud”—just form, ritual and ceremony, looking good but empty. Religion’s like this: man’s attempt to reach God through his own efforts, which is impossible.

This pattern appears throughout Scripture.

Jesus describes it in the parable of the sower: some receive the word with joy but wither away. He also confronts the Pharisees in Matthew 21:28-32 with the question of the two sons—one who says he’ll obey but does not, and one who refuses at first but later obeys. The true obedience is the one that endures.

The book of Hosea’s structure reinforces the controversy God has with Israel.

Chapters 1–3 picture Israel through Hosea’s marriage and children. Chapters 4–6 lay out the charges: no knowledge, no mercy, no truth. Chapters 8–10 describe the judgments that match those charges. Even Hosea’s children’s names—Lo‑Ammi, Lo‑Ruhamah, and Jezreel—symbolise these judgments. The final chapters of Hosea show how God Himself becomes the mercy, truth, and knowledge Israel lacks, restoring them by His grace.

Hosea 6 is a turning point: Israel’s failure of truthfulness and God’s appeal that their goodness must be more than morning dew. Jesus’ ministry echoes this same prophetic message, showing that the kingdom comes to those who receive God’s word in truth and endure in faith.

We read Hosea 6:5,

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

Remember, throughout our studies we’ve seen how verses starting with the words “For” and Therefore” tie the subject of the verse back to the previous ones.

Hosea 6:5 continues the theme of Hosea 6:4, and it’s God answering His own question: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?.

Therefore, because their goodness is like a morning cloud and an early dew that evaporates very quickly, like a wisp, God deals with Israel through His words, spoken by the prophets. Jesus Himself said, “Search the Scriptures… they speak of me,” showing that His ministry echoed what the prophets had already declared.

Hosea says, “I have hewed them by the prophets.” To hew is to cut down. God cuts Israel down by sending prophets who speak His warnings: repent or lose the land, the mercy, and the hope He gave them. Their words are God’s instrument of judgment.

We see that they weren’t sinning because of ignorance—there was no lack of information. God had sent the prophets to them, but they’d turned their backs on Him and His Word.

God adds, “I have slain them by the words of my mouth.” This theme appears throughout Scripture. Isaiah 11:4 says the Messiah will “smite the earth with the rod of his mouth” and “slay the wicked” with His lips. Revelation 1:16 pictures Christ with a sharp two‑edged sword coming from His mouth- His words. Paul teaches in Ephesians 6 that believers wield “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” God’s weapon is truth. Truth saves when received, but it condemns when resisted.

Acts 5 gives a New Covenant example.

Ananias and Sapphira lied about their offering. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, declared the truth: “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” Hearing these words, Ananias fell down dead. Peter didn’t strike him; the Spirit’s words judged him. This foreshadows the future kingdom, where God’s perfect knowledge means His spoken word alone will condemn the wicked and justify the righteous. Human courts need evidence because judges lack full knowledge; God doesn’t. His judgments are perfect because His truth is perfect.

Hosea 6:5 concludes with, “Thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.” God’s words shine like light, exposing everything.

Jesus taught the same in John 12:48: “He that rejects me… the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” God has already spoken; His words stand as the testimony by which all will be judged.

This also shows how inspiration works.

When God says He hewed Israel by the prophets and slew them by “the words of my mouth,” it means the prophets’ words were God’s words. Hosea’s not speaking his own opinion; God’s speaking through him. Scripture repeatedly claims this divine origin, and it’s one of the evidences that the Bible truly is the Word of God.

Hosea 6:6 then explains why God judges them by His word:

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

God wanted their hearts, not empty ritual.

This truth appears throughout Scripture. Deuteronomy 10 teaches that God desires obedience more than sacrifice. Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22, “To obey is better than sacrifice”.

Hosea has already shown that Israel lacked mercy in chapter 5 and, in chapter 4, that they lacked knowledge. Jesus repeats the same principle in Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Hosea’s message is consistent: Israel has no mercy, no knowledge, and no truth, and God’s word—spoken through His prophets—now stands as the light that judges them.

Jesus repeatedly quotes Hosea to expose Israel’s failure to understand mercy, truth, and the heart knowledge of the law.

In Matthew 9:10–13, He eats with publicans and sinners, provoking the Pharisees. Jesus explains that He’s not simply “accepting people as they are,” but calling sinners to repentance. “They that be whole need not a physician.” He said. He’s saying His ministry is to sinners, to people who know who they really are, not to them, the Pharisees, to those who believe they’re already righteous by their own works. Then He quotes Hosea 6:6: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” He tells the Pharisees to go and learn what Hosea meant; go and gain knowledge of this.

Matthew 12 repeats the same lesson.

The Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking Sabbath law by plucking grain. Jesus responds by pointing to David eating the shewbread in 1 Samuel 21:6 and to the priests who “profane the Sabbath and are blameless”. Jesus is reminding the Pharisees that the priests themselves profane the Sabbath by killing and sacrificing animals and by performing many of the other temple duties required in Numbers 28:9-10, yet they’re blameless because they’re engaged in the service of God.

Jesus is not discarding the law; He’s revealing its intent. Mercy governs how the law’s applied. If they’d understood the word in Hosea—“I will have mercy, not sacrifice”—they wouldn’t have condemned those who had no guilt. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, shows that God values mercy over ritual when there’s human need.

The controversy in Hosea was not merely that Israel broke the law.

It was that they forgot the law, lacked repentance, and had no truth. If they’d broken the law but had repentance, knowledge, and honesty, they could’ve sought mercy through sacrifice. Instead, they were treacherous, indifferent, and spiritually blind. Jesus confronts the Pharisees with the same problem: they keep the letter of the law but ignore its meaning. In Matthew 23:23, He rebukes the Pharisees again for omitting, quote, “the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith.”

Paul warns of similar hypocrisy in 1 Timothy 4:1–2—people who depart from the faith, speak lies, and have seared consciences. They quote Scripture but don’t know the truth. This mirrors Hosea’s charge: Israel had no mercy, no knowledge, and no truth.

Hosea 6:7 says,

But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me.

God exposes the unreliability of man.

Scripture states this repeatedly. Numbers 23:19 declares, “God is not a man, that he should lie,” which means that all men are liars; only God is faithful. Hosea’s point is that Israel’s promises are like morning dew—brief and unreliable. Their repentance is shallow, their obedience temporary, and their covenant loyalty is nonexistent.

God, however, is not like man.

1 Samuel 15:29 says,

…the Strength of Israel [that’s God] will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

When God speaks, He performs it. When Scripture says God “repented,” it doesn’t refer to His faithfulness changing but to His response to man’s corruption—such as in Genesis 6, where He judged the world because mankind ruined what He’d given.

Hosea’s message, which was echoed by Jesus, is clear: God desires mercy, truth, and knowledge of Him,  not empty ritual. Israel’s failure in these areas explains both Hosea’s controversy and Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees. Those confrontations with Israel’s leaders show the same problem Hosea described: no truth, treachery, and a refusal to receive God’s words. In John 8, Jesus tells men who are highly respected and religious, “Ye are of your father the devil.”

He wasn’t accusing them of outward evil; He was exposing their inner spirit. The devil “abode not in the truth,” and Jesus says these men, in the same way, reject truth. “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not,” He says in John 8:45.

Once someone embraces a lie, truth becomes their enemy. This’s exactly Hosea’s point in Hosea 6:7: “They, like men, have transgressed the covenant”. Man naturally betrays truth.

Treachery means violating an allegiance or betraying a trust. It’s treason.

Israel formally agreed to God’s covenant.

In Exodus 24:3 we read,

And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD , and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.

Then further on in Exodus 24:7-8 we read,

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

Hosea’s accusations that “they have transgressed the covenant” refer back to this moment. Exodus 24 is the point where Israel said “I do” to God —hence the marriage covenant imagery the prophets later use.

God kept His part; Israel broke theirs. Treachery is not a mistake or misunderstanding—it is a failure to be true.

Isaiah 59:13–15 describes this treachery vividly: lying against the Lord, departing from God, speaking oppression and uttering falsehood. “Truth is fallen in the street,” meaning truth is not merely neglected—it’s completely discarded.

Justice can’t enter because truth’s no longer the standard. When truth fails, those who depart from evil become prey, just like today, where good is seen as bad and bad as good. God sees this and is displeased because there’s no judgment. Paul later says in 1 Corinthians 2:15,

the spiritual man “judges all things” because he knows God’s truth. Israel had the law and prophets; they were fully exposed to truth, and yet truth had collapsed among them.

Hosea 6:8–10 gives concrete examples of this treachery.

Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

Gilead is a region east of the Jordan belonging to the tribes of Manasseh, Reuben and Gad. This area included Ramoth‑Gilead, one of Israel’s six cities of refuge—places meant to protect the innocent and ensure righteous judgment. Instead, Hosea says, “Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.”

A place designed for justice had become a centre of violence. Truth had fallen in the streets; now there was no protection for the innocent, no righteous judgment, only bloodshed and iniquity.

We have a map showing the region of Gilead below this recording.

In Joshua 22, Reuben, Gad, and half‑Manasseh built a false altar near the Jordan, provoking Israel to confront them for rebellion. Their unfaithfulness began early.

Later, Ezra, who inspired the writing of 1 Chronicles 5:25–26 after the exile, confirms that these same tribes “transgressed” and “went a‑whoring” after foreign gods, so God stirred up the kings of Assyria to carry them away. They were taken in the first wave of Assyrian captivity.

Hosea 6:9–11 gives vivid examples of Israel’s treachery, and we read, and it’s God speaking through Hosea.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

God exposes their corruption to show why judgment’s coming.

Verse 9 (Hosea 6:9) says the priests behave like “troops of robbers,” murdering travellers “in the way.”

These northern priests killed people heading south toward Jerusalem because they feared losing control of their false religion. Instead of protecting life and teaching truth, they committed murder and lewdness.

The words in Hosea 6:8–10- iniquity, pollution, robbers, murder, lewdness, horrible thing- all show how far they’d fallen. God shines His judgment like light, exposing their sin and proving His right to remove them according to the covenant.

Hosea 6:11 then warns Judah, saying:

Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

Judah is not exempt.

A harvest can be good—rain, blessing, restoration—or bad, when God comes like a reaper to cut down the wicked. Judah too will face judgment.

Hosea’s message is clear: treachery, false worship, violence, and forgotten truth have brought Israel to the point of covenant judgment. God exposes their sin not to be cruel, but to uphold truth and prepare the way for eventual restoration.

Jesus’ words and Hosea’s prophecy match perfectly.

Both expose the same condition: when truth is rejected, treachery follows; when treachery reigns, justice collapses; and when justice collapses, God brings His controversy against His people.

Israel’s leaders in Jesus’ day, like the northern tribes in Hosea’s day, claimed loyalty to God while betraying His truth. The covenant was broken—not by God, but by man, whose promises evaporate like morning dew.

2 Chronicles 28 shows how God used the northern tribes to judge Judah.

Israel attacked the south and took captives, but when they tried to keep those captives as slaves, which was forbidden under the law, God sent the prophet Oded to rebuke them.

He warned that Israel had sins of its own and that enslaving Judah would bring greater judgment on them. Israel obeyed, returned the captives, and avoided further wrath. This illustrates God’s righteous balance: He uses nations as instruments of judgment, yet restrains them when they exceed His purpose. Judah received a “harvest” of judgment, but also a return—foreshadowing their later Babylonian captivity and restoration.

Hosea 7 continues the theme of treachery and falsehood in Hosea 7:1, where God says,

WHEN I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

Hosea chapter 6 opened with Israel’s cry for healing, but here God reveals why healing can’t come: their wickedness is exposed.

They commit falsehood, and both thieves within and robbers without corrupt the nation.

Now might be a good time to reaffirm what’s meant by these three names of Israel, Ephraim and Samaria.

In Hosea, “Israel” is the broad national name for the ten northern tribes. It is the covenant name, the corporate identity, and the term God uses when speaking of the nation as a whole.

“Ephraim” is used 37 times in Hosea and is used for one part representing the whole. Ephraim was the largest and most influential tribe and the tribe of Jeroboam I, the first northern king and the tribe where Shiloh and early worship centres were located.

Because Ephraim led the north politically and spiritually, Hosea uses its name to target the leadership, highlight covenant responsibility, and personalise God’s grief.

“Samaria” is the capital city of the northern kingdom. Hosea uses it as a sort of shorthand for the government, the royal house, the centre of idolatry and the national identity in a political sense.

Samaria represents the seat of power and the public face of Israel’s rebellion.

Jeremiah 3:10 describes Judah’s condition as well. They also did not turn to God “with their whole heart, but feignedly.” Feignedly means by lies, falsehood and deception.

The law required loving God with all the heart, mind, and strength. Judah offered only lip service—outward obedience without inward devotion. They obeyed when it was convenient, but withheld their hearts. God calls this treachery, a betrayal of covenant loyalty.

Yet God’s character remains merciful.

Jeremiah 3:12–13 shows Him pleading yet again with backsliding Israel, this time through yet another prophet, Jeremiah: “Return… for I am merciful.”

He delays judgment, sends prophets, and seeks repentance. But their hardened hearts resisted reproof. When people lack knowledge of their sin and refuse repentance, truth becomes offensive to them, especially the truth about their real nature. It becomes easy to justify yourself, compare yourself to others and judge yourself more righteous than “the other bloke” who’s much worse than you, so you’ll be ok with God. Wrong!

Hosea 7:2 says,

And they [Israel] consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

They deceive themselves, pretending God doesn’t see or remember. But God knows every thought, intent, imagination, and secret sin, as Psalm 139 points out.

His long‑suffering proves His mercy—if He sees all and hasn’t destroyed them, it’s because He’s giving space for repentance. The same applies to you and me today in the dispensation of grace: if He sees all and hasn’t destroyed us, it’s because He’s giving space for grace.

Romans 2 teaches that God’s long‑suffering is meant to lead to repentance. The law exposes sin and reveals God’s patience.

However, Israel lies about their sin and ignores God’s remembrance of it. They perform religious rituals while refusing inward repentance. Hosea 8:13 warns that God will “remember their iniquity” and visit their sins. Jeremiah 14:10 says the same: God will “now remember” their sins—not because He forgot, but because the time for judgment has arrived.

Revelation 18 shows that this principle continues even after the cross: God remembers iniquities and pours out wrath when the appointed time comes.

In this present dispensation, He’s withholding judgment so that grace may be received, but His justice remains, and His judgment is certain.

Hosea’s message anticipates the New Covenant.

Jeremiah 31:34 promises a future day when God will “forgive their iniquity” and “remember their sin no more.”

The timing is crucial.

In Hosea’s day, God must remember their sins to judge; in the New Covenant, He’ll remember them no more because He’ll heal, restore, and write His law in their hearts.

Hosea 7 exposes Israel’s falsehood, self‑deception, and refusal to repent—yet it also highlights God’s mercy, patience, and His future promise to forgive completely.

So, the New Covenant promises that God will “remember their sin no more” in Jeremiah 31:34. That means no future judgment on Israel. But for that to be possible, Israel must be changed. If God simply forgave them once and they sinned again, judgment would return.

The New Covenant transforms Israel’s inner man—their heart, mind, and spirit—so they won’t sin in their kingdom.

This is why 1 John speaks of not sinning, and Hebrews warns that if someone sins willfully after receiving the heavenly gift, “there remains no more sacrifice for sins.”

The New Covenant was not offered in Hosea’s day, nor is it fulfilled yet, as of today. Even now, though God forgives the world through grace, Revelation shows a future time when He will again “remember sins” for those who reject Him.

The difference between Jeremiah 14 (judgment) and Jeremiah 31 (forgiveness) is dispensational timing.

Hosea 7:3–8 then describes Israel’s corruption using the imagery of a baker and an oven. Let’s read that passage,

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

The passage seems confusing, but verse 7 gives the point: “All their kings are fallen.” The kings are drunk, deceived, and destroyed because truth has collapsed.

Israel’s rulers rejoice in wickedness (v.3), drink heavily (v.5), and fail to uphold justice. The nation burns with sin like an overheated oven.

To understand the imagery, step back: the king is the baker.

He’s supposed to “prepare the bread”—that is, uphold truth, mercy, and righteous judgment. According to the law, in Deuteronomy 17, Israel’s king must write his own copy of the law, study it, avoid multiplying wives, wealth, or armies, and rule with mercy and truth. Proverbs 20:28 teaches that “mercy and truth preserve the king”, and Proverbs 29:4  teaches, “by judgment the king establishes the land”. When the king is corrupted—by wine, bribes, or flattery—the whole nation collapses.

The oven represents the wicked people, the princes, and priests who inflame the king with lies, corruption, and treachery. They pretend to serve him, like an oven serving a baker, but in reality they burn him. Their hearts are “like an oven”, says verse 6, heated with adultery, idolatry, and deceit. The baker sleeps—neglecting his duty—and the oven consumes everything. Thus “their judges are devoured” and “all their kings are fallen.”

This picture matches Hosea’s larger theme: truth has fallen in the streets, mercy is gone, and knowledge of God is forgotten. The king, who should uphold truth, is instead led by wicked men. When rulers abandon truth, justice collapses, and Hosea shows how corruption at the top destroys the entire nation.

Though this passage concerns Israel, it teaches a timeless principle: when leaders reject truth, accept bribes, or indulge in sin, the people suffer. Israel’s kings were meant to reflect God’s justice, but instead they became drunk, deceived, and destroyed. Hosea’s imagery of the baker and oven exposes the nation’s treachery and prepares the way for God’s judgment—and ultimately for the future restoration under the New Covenant, when truth, mercy, and righteousness will finally be established.

Then Proverbs 31:3–5 warns kings not to give their strength to women or drink wine, “lest they forget the law and pervert judgment.”

A king must think clearly, know truth, and judge righteously. Wine clouds judgment, and corrupted judgment destroys nations.

Paul echoes this spiritually: “Be not drunk… but be filled with the Spirit,” because God’s words result in correct thinking.

Israel’s kings ignored this.

They drank, partied, and behaved like common men, though their office required sobriety, wisdom, and separation. The people encouraged their corruption by urging the kings to “be like us”, but a ruler who behaves like everyone else can’t rule well. God’s law required kings to be set apart.

Israel’s history confirms this pattern. In 2 Kings 15, the northern kings fall one after another through conspiracy. Zechariah reigns six months before Shallum murders him. Shallum reigns one month before Menahem kills him. This cycle repeats throughout the northern kingdom: wicked kings, wicked conspirators, and constant treachery. None of Israel’s northern kings “called upon the Lord,” as we just read in Hosea 7:7. They ignored the law, rejected truth, and were devoured by the very people they were supposed to govern.

This pattern continues into the New Testament. In Mark 14 and Matthew 26, the chief priests and scribes conspire to kill Jesus. They keep the feast days outwardly, all very nicely in accordance with the law, yet secretly plot murder—just like the conspirators in Israel’s history.

Their concern is political power and outward appearances, not truth. “Not on the feast day,” they say, best not murder Him on a feast day lest the people be upset. Wicked rulers fear public opinion more than God’s law. This is the same treachery Hosea condemned, and it seems just like the picture we see of rulers today.

Hosea 7:7-8 concludes: “All their kings are fallen; there is none among them that calls upon me.” Without truth, without righteous rulers, and without repentance, Israel becomes “a cake not turned”—burned on one side, raw on the other, spoiled and unusable. The baker is asleep, the oven is uncontrolled, and the nation is ruined.

Hosea’s message here is very clear: when leaders abandon truth and people embrace treachery, judgment follows. Only God’s truth, upheld by righteous rulers, preserves a nation. Ephraim has “joined himself to strangers”, violating the law and committing spiritual whoredom. Instead of seeking God, they seek alliances with foreign nations.

Hosea continues describing Ephraim’s downfall.

Hosea 7:9 says,

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t know it.

Ephraim is like an old man with grey hairs who refuses to admit he’s aging. His strength is gone, but he can’t see it. His pride blinds him.

For all God’s warnings, reproofs, and prophets, Hosea 7:19 says, “they did not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this”.

Hosea 7:11-16 piles on the imagery.

Ephraim is “a silly dove without a heart.”

A dove can symbolise purity, but also naïve simplicity. Ephraim flutters between Egypt and Assyria, seeking help from powerful nations instead of turning to the God who made them. They’re simple‑minded, unaware of danger, and ignorant of their own condition. Hosea calls them silly because they trust foreign powers rather than the Lord.

In Hosea 7:12, God says He’ll “spread my net upon them”. As they fly toward Egypt or Assyria, He’ll catch them and bring them down. Their captivity will come exactly as their congregation has already heard. God gave Israel ample warning.

2 Kings 17 recounts how God testified against Israel and Judah, quote, “by all the prophets and all the seers,” urging them to turn from evil and keep His commandments, yet they hardened their necks, rejected His statutes, and embraced idolatry, turning to molten images, calves, groves and Baal worship. Hosea’s “whoredom” language perfectly describes this spiritual adultery.

So, God says in Hosea 13,

Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

Though He redeemed them, they “spoke lies” against Him. This matches Jesus’ warnings when he told the Pharisees: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,” because they had no truth, mercy, or knowledge.

Jeremiah 7:28 says Israel “obeys not the voice of the Lord… truth is perished.”

Romans 1:18 says God’s wrath is revealed against those who “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” God gave Israel truth, a law, a king, a land—and they lied about Him.

Hosea 7:14 says they “have not cried unto me with their heart.” They howl on their beds, assemble for corn and wine, perform rituals, but rebel inwardly.

Their religion is outward only. Their hearts are untouched.

To Hosea 7:15 now,

Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

Even when God hedged their path with thorns, as we saw in Hosea 2, trying to stop them from pursuing idols, they kept pushing through the thorns. His warnings hurt, but they refused to turn.

The chapter ends with Hosea 7:16 saying,

They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel’s stubbornness fully exposed. They reject God’s truth, seek foreign help, lie about their sin, ignore His prophets, and refuse heartfelt repentance. God, however,  remains faithful. He warned them, restrained them and strengthened them, but they continually resisted.

Hosea shows that judgment’s not sudden or unfair; it’s the inevitable result of a people who refuse truth, mercy, and knowledge, even when God repeatedly calls them back.

This stubbornness mirrors our apostle for today, Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, who “kicked against the pricks” in Acts 9. God had sent Christ, John the Baptist, the Spirit, and the apostles, yet Saul persecuted them. The difference is that Saul received grace, not judgment. Hosea’s Israel receives judgment because they persistently reject God’s mercy.

Their own words condemn them. Throughout Scripture, God’s words slay by truth, but Israel’s words are lies, and those lies bring judgment.

Psalm 12 describes this same condition: flattering lips, double‑hearted speech, proud tongues. God promises to cut off such lips and preserve His pure words forever. Lies are temporary; truth endures. Those who cling to truth will be vindicated when God arises to judge. Hosea’s audience should have sought God’s pure words instead of trusting the lies of their leaders.

Psalm 73 also shows the arrogance of wicked men—pride like a chain, violence like a garment, mocking God with their mouths. This is not unique to Israel; it’s the pattern of sinful humanity.

Hosea 7:16 says Israel’s proud speech will become “their derision in the land of Egypt.” Historically, this happened when King Hoshea tried to bribe Egypt for protection from Assyria. Egypt mocked him and offered no help, but they took the money anyway. Assyria captured him, ending the northern kingdom, and we see the account of that in 2 Kings 17. Their proud words had no substance; their alliances failed because they refused to seek God.

Hosea chapters 6–7 reveal a consistent theme: Israel has no truth. They lie about God, lie about their condition, lie about their repentance, and lie about their strength. They seek foreign nations instead of the Lord. They ignore His prophets, resist His warnings, and reject His mercy. Their kings are corrupt, their priests treacherous, and their people deceived.

God’s response is righteous: He hedges their path, warns them, strengthens them, and calls them to return, but when they refuse, He remembers their iniquity and brings judgment.

Hosea Chapter 8, which we’ll open in the next episode’s going to show the next step—removal from the land and God’s declaration that they’re “not my people.”

Until then, may God bless you with the knowledge of His wonderful Word.