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Chs. 4 and 5 both begin with the same sort of refrain, a call to answer formal charges. God, the Husband, will now detail how his wife, Israel, has committed adultery against him. Like all the other preexilic prophets, Hosea lays the blame for the corruption of the nation squarely at the feet of its leaders, both civil and religious. If Israel does not know (4:1, 6; 5:4) the Lord, it is because the priests have ignored the law (4:6) and the princes (5:10, niv “leaders”), instead of punishing injustice, are doing injustice. To “know God” in the Bible is never simply to possess information about him. Rather, it is to have an intimate and ongoing personal experience of him. Thus those who live lives unlike his cannot be said to know him whatever their intellectual grasp may be. Since “know” is also the word used to express sexual intercourse, its connotations are doubly powerful in this book.
One of the promises to the Levites was that they would be priests forever (Nu 25:12-13), but their sin has nullified that promise so that God has no obligation to continue the Levitical line (4:6, see also Mal 2:3). The clear implication of vv.7 and 8 is that instead of teaching the truths of the law in such a way that people would behave in a more godly fashion, the priests simply focused on getting more sacrifices, which were the source of priestly income.
On the “spirit of prostitution” (v.12; also 5:4) see above on 1:2. The fathers should not be surprised if their daughters become prostitutes, since the fathers have prostituted themselves to idols (5:13-14). Hosea is deeply concerned that faithful Judeans may be seduced by Israel’s sinful worship, which took place near the Judean borders at such ancient worship centers as Gilgal and Bethel (here mockingly called Beth-aven, “house of iniquity,” v.15). Bethel was where one of Jeroboam I’s golden calves was located (1Ki 12:28-29).
Unless the Israelites make a clean break with their idols, they have no hope of finding God (5:4-7). So long as they think they can have God and the gods at the same time, any real experience of God will elude them. Their attempts to worship God in this way will be burdensome and eventually destructive. Despite Hosea’s concern for Judah, he recognizes that Judah’s leaders are infected with the same illness as their Israelite counterparts. Thus the destruction of cities in Benjamin, which lay partly in both nations, is made representative of the total destruction ahead (vv.8-12). This destruction is not an arbitrary punishment on God’s part. By taking themselves out from under the shelter of God’s care, they have opened themselves to the destructive lusts of their stronger neighbors. V.13 is satirical: Assyria is the one destroying Israel, but Israel asks for a treaty and turns to idols like Assyria’s for help.