God sees that our behaviour can be read on more than one level; the same action has elements of righteousness and sin within it. Thus Jehu's massacre of Ahab's family at Jezreel was commanded by God, and Jehu was praised for his obedience in doing it (2 Kings 10:30,31), but he was also condemned for it (Hos. 1:4). Yet we simply cannot make such analysis, although we must recognize that this is in fact how God analyzes. And for this reason alone, we are quite unable to anticipate the outcome of the judgment with regard to other believers.  

6:4 Your goodness- s.w. 6:6 "mercy". Their mercy, both simply as mercy to others and as the chesed of covenant faithfulness, was fleeting and passing. It's hard to be merciful in an ongoing sense, but easy enough for a brief moment. This is the whole idea of covenant relationship, which chesed often refers to. The mercy and truth shown to us is 24/7 and we are to reflect it as a way of life and being, rather than in occasional intense moments of generosity or mercy. Hence instead of mercy- the ongoing life of mercy- the people just offered an occasional sacrifice, rather like going to church once a week or month.

6:5 Hewed them- This is the dramatic effect of God's word upon us, hewing us out of the mountain of humanity- the same figure used to describe the Lord Jesus, the stone cut out of the mountain without hands but by God's word. The similarity of the figures is one of a number of examples of where the language of the virgin birth is used about our spiritual birth through God's word. The Hebrew word for "hewed" is used about the hewing out of the temple stones, which represent us (1 Chron. 22:2,15).

6:6 Mercy- See on 6:4.

6:7 Cain is used by Jesus as a prototype of the apostate Jewish system- he was the first murderer and the first human liar, and thus symbolized the Jewish devil in Christ's time (Jn.8:44). Adam being a sinner is also a type of the Jews, inadequately covered by the fig leaves which represented the Jewish way of covering sin. Their glossy appearance which soon faded well represented the inadequacy of this method. Hos. 6:7 confirms the equation of Adam with Israel: " They (Israel) like Adam have transgressed the covenant" (AVmg.).

Dealt treacherously - s.w. Ex. 21:8 about a man dealing deceitfully with his wife in marriage. The allusion here is to Gomer's deceipt of Hosea, claiming that the children she conceived were his when they weren't (see 5:7).

6:9 The Lord Jesus had this verse in mind when He constructed the parable of the good Samaritan. Here in Hos. 6:9, the priests are the robbers;the point of His allusion was that the priest who passed by was in fact as bad as the robber. Inaction, the sin of omission, is thus in His mind as bad as proactive aggression.

6:11 Here Judah is declared as guilty as Israel; elsewhere in Hosea, God's grace sees Judah as far better than Israel. This reflects Hosea's realistic view of Gomer struggling against his love for her, whereby he saw her as far better than she was by imputing righteousness to her. This was and is God's same struggle in His view of us. As 8:14.

7:1 When... then- God reveals Himself as having human thought processes; deciding upon a course of action He wished to pursue, but then encountering problems in executing it because of other factors which then came to His attention. For this language to have meaning, clearly God limits Himself within the frames of time and memory- in order to the more fully enter into our condition.

7:2 God's sensitivity is such that like Hosea who so loved Gomer that he therefore felt every unfaithfulness and had it permanently etched upon his heart, so the God who is eager to forget failure in another sense remembers every single one. Judah in repentance were to 'remember all their wickedness'- the same Hebrew words are used in Ez. 20:43 and Ez. 36:31. Repentance is in a sense coming to see our sins from God's perspective, appreciating how much we have hurt Him.

7:5 In the day of our king- Could be translated "'The day of our king!' the princes shout, as they are inflamed with wine".

7:9 Strangers devoured- Here and in :10 we can see the basis for the Lord's parable of the prodigal son- who did return to the Father, unlike Israel and Gomer (:10).

7:11 Silly- The same word is in 2:14 "I will allure her". The stress there should therefore be upon "I"- God will allure her, just as the Gentile nations had allured her. It makes a pathetic picture- Gomer allured by all manner of different men, and yet also herself taking the initiative to run to others, just as Judah called to Egypt to the South and Assyria to the North. Whilst all the time Hosea / God were waiting there desperate to provide her with the finest love imaginable. She was "without heart"- a comment especially relevant to the passionless post-modern society of our day.

7:14 Cried- Heb. 'shrieked'. Their cry to God was intensely desperate and loud- but not from the heart. For they had lost the gift of true feeling and passion- they were "without heart" (:11).

7:16 Egypt- One of several threats to send them to Egypt (see 8:13). And yet God also said He would not send them back there (11:15). This reflects the depth of His struggle, just as Hosea struggled between loving and accepting Gomer by grace on the one hand, and his anger with her on the other.

8:1 Trumpet- This is a call to repentance in the spirit of Is. 58:1 and Ez. 33:3. It reflects Hosea’s appeals to Gomer to return.

8:1 Sin is different to breaking covenant; failure and sin is sadly a daily reality for us, just as there are daily failures in a relationship; but it is breaking the covenant relationship which alone will lead to final separation from God.

8:3 House of the Lord- This was in Judah, not Israel. The  implication is that Judah and Israel were alike guilty- which is a theme of Hosea, for the two are so often bracketed together. The love of God for Judah is therefore indicated in the way in which He speaks at times as if Judah are separate from Israel and have not yet sinned as Israel had (Hos. 4:15)- even though they clearly had. It could be argued that chapter 3 suggests Hosea was asked to marry a second wife who behaved just as Gomer, reflecting the double pain God experienced with Israel and Judah. See on 8:14.

8:4 This appears to be God’s anger for the fact that the kings of Israel [i.e. the ten tribes] were not from the house of David, the family He had chosen to rule His people. And yet the kings of Israel were in a sense appointed by God- the prophet Ahijah told Jeroboam to rule over over the ten tribes (1 Kings 11:30), and Elisha announced Jehu as king over Israel (2 Kings 9). So why then did God find such fault? It is a similar situation to the repeated condemnation of Jehu’s action at Jezreel in Hosea 1. There, Jehu obeyed God in killing the house of Ahab. And yet now he is found guilty by God for doing what God had told him to do. I suggest the resolution of these questions is in understanding that God confirms men in a downward spiritual spiral if they wish to go that way. Israel wanted a King, and so God gave them Saul- knowing it would not be to their blessing. He gave Israel kings- but to confirm them in their evil path. Jehu’s motives for the slaughter at Jezreel were wrong- and now in Hosea 1 God reveals that He will condemn Jehu for that, even though what he did was apparently obedience to God. This is all rather in the spirit of 8:13 (see notes there), where God chose to reflect over all the unfaithfulness of Israel to Him over the period of their relationship- just as Hosea did to Gomer. The (albeit temporary) falling out of love between God and Israel led to God hyper analyzing Israel’s motives and discerning the depth of their sin, the extent of their unfaithfulness, the poorness of their motivations in appearing to love and serve Him. Here in 8:4 it seems God is reflecting how although He had tolerated the ten tribes having kings, and it was all in one sense of Him, it had deeply hurt Him.

8:5 How long…?- This is the cry typically associated with God’s impatient people so longing for the establishment of the Kingdom. But here we find it as it were on the lips of God; for He similarly longs for the time when He can be in free relationship with us and when we shall be fully faithful to Him.

“Thy calf disgusts, O Samaria; my wrath is kindled against them: how long are they incapable of purity".
'Purity' is another marriage allusion
Innocence s.w. Jer. 2:35 where again in a context which alludes to marital language, Israel falsely plead to God that “I am innocent”- when they were not. Gomer, wide eyed and innocent, made the same claim to Hosea.

8:7 Sown the wind- The Hebrew word for “sown” continues the marriage language, for the same word is used for a woman ‘conceiving seed’ in Lev. 12:2; we note that a woman found guilty of adultery could be punished by being unable to ‘conceive seed’ (s.w., Num. 5:28). The idea is of conceiving without bringing forth fruit, ideas which are continued in the rest of the verse. Gomer became barren (Hos. 9:14), doubtless due to her lifestyle of sexual abandon. For a woman to be barren was the ultimate turn off to the Hebrew male. And yet for all this, God / Hosea had such senseless love for Israel / Gomer that all the same they yearned to have her back. She had had children, but not for Hosea; the fruit of Israel and the Jews (in art, music, invention, ingenuity, business etc.) has likewise not been for their God. It is all as a wheat plant that has no flour within it. The life of careers and self-indulgence seems to me likewise a sowing of the wind, a bearing of fruit to someone other than our Master, at best a conception of what cannot come to term in spiritual fruit for God. And even worse- if we sow the wind, it’s not simply that it comes to nothing. We shall reap the whirlwind.
8:8 Now are they among the nations- As if the threatened future judgment had already come. In its essence, judgment day is now. Those who will be rejected begin even now to experience it, and God sees them as if they are already condemned.

A vessel wherein is no pleasure- The very same words used about Moab in Jer. 48:38. When God's people act and think like the Gentile world, then they are treated like them and will be "condemned with the world".

8:9 whilst even a wild ass, that stupid animal, keeps by itself to maintain its independence, Ephraim tries to form unnatural alliances with the nations of the world, that is to say, alliances that are quite incompatible with its vocation.- The allusion is to Gomer not being singularly faithful to Hosea; there should be a natural aloneness which God’s people feel in this world, in that they do not form alliances with the world.
8:12 I have written to him- Just as Hosea appealed with tears and passion to Gomer, so God’s word is His direct appeal to us. His word speaks to us as to children (Heb. 12:5); the words of the Bible are God speaking to us in our generation. Hosea perceived this, for he later wrote of how in the history of Jacob, there God spoke with us (Hos. 12:4).
8:13 Now will He remember their iniquity- When passions are aroused and relationships come under stress, it is normal for the innocent or angered party to recall all the previous failures of the other party. And this is how God felt, recalling all Israel’s failures, just as Hosea recalled all Gomer’s adulteries.
They shall return to Egypt- Said in anger, just as Hosea thought to humiliate and execute his adulterous wife. And yet Hos. 11:5 clearly states the opposite: “They shall not return to Egypt”. This is the struggle within God, as it was within Hosea about Gomer. See comment on 7:16.
8:14 Israel… Judah- As often in Hosea, their guilt is balanced as equal. But see on 8:3. The guilt of Israel and Judah is carefully balanced out as being equal; yet elsewhere in Hosea, God's grace sees Judah as far better than Israel. This reflects Hosea's realistic view of Gomer struggling against his love for her, whereby he saw her as far better than she was by imputing righteousness to her. This was and is God's same struggle in His view of us. As 6:11.

Builds temples… multiplied fenced cities- These things are paralleled. The building of defenced cities was parallel with building temples to idols. The point is clear- any reliance upon human strength or entities rather than trusting in our God is parallel to serving idols. Gomer turned to other men to provide the basic duties of marriage- clothing (“flax”), food and sex (Hos. 2:5,9), and this was the ultimate insult to the Hebrew husband. If we turn to human strength rather than to God, we are doing the same. In a society where human strength and resolutions to life’s problems has never been greater, we are severely challenged by these ancient words.

9:13- see on Job 27:14

Jacob's dishonesty was proverbial- Hos. 11:12; 12:2-6 charge Israel with continuing the family characteristic of Jacob by being deceitful and untruthful. Abraham and Jacob especially were characterized by great dishonesty.

" In his manhood he had power with God" (Hos. 12:2 RVmg.) suggests that Jacob reached spiritual maturity that night. To be that familiar with God that we can reason with Him, struggle with Him in prayer, seek to change His will over an illness or situation... this is spiritual maturity. This whole characteristic of striving with God was memorialized in his new name: Israel, implying 'striver and prevailer with God and men'. And this must be the characteristic of Israel after the Spirit too. There is a confusion in the Hebrew between ‘striver’ and ‘prince’- for the struggle comes before the crown. Our relationship with Him, our attaining of salvation, is a struggle, a wrestling,a desperate, desperate clinging on, a pleading with tears. Yet this is almost the opposite of the spirit of our community; a comfortable drifting through life, attending the same round of meetings, largely hearing pleasant platitudes, no tears, no little real self-sacrifice, little realistic self-denial, little self-examination and daily struggle to be the more spiritual in the 'small' things of life, hiding behind the institutionalization of spirituality which our history has inevitably resulted in, staying up late, rising up early, labouring with God to build the House, foregoing the petty luxuries and niceties, give give giving... Yet Jacob that night really is a type of us all

The idea that God's purpose is signed and sealed unchangeably and the Angels are just putting it into practice militates against our faith in prayer. Jacob "had power over the Angel, and prevailed" (Hos. 12:4)- not physically, because the Angel eventually had power over him that way; but spiritually, through his wrestling in prayer, he succeeded. "He wept, and made supplication unto Him. . . even the Lord God of Hosts (Angels)". Because the Angels do change their mind and God's purpose is in many ways open-ended, we should be greatly encouraged in our prayers, knowing that we convince our Angel first, then Christ, and finally trust in God's love to answer what Christ presents to Him. Or has God delegated certain power for the answering of prayer to Angels, leaving it up to them to decide how to answer prayer? No wonder Jacob strove with that Angel so zealously! The idea that we have power over the Angels by our prayers is continued when we consider that Jacob and Jesus saw Angels ascending and descending in that order- as if to imply that the Angels are sent on their missions by us?

'Israel' is the most common title God uses for His people; and it means 'one who struggles with God and prevails'. This, therefore, will be the characteristic of all His people. Note the humility of God, the Almighty, in desiring to articulate our relationship with Him in terms of us struggling with Him and winning. Hos. 12:4 seems to emphasize this, by saying that Jacob in his prayer and pleading had power over the Angel.  His strength was in his humility; by his strength he had power over God, but it was by his weeping and pleading that he did (Hos. 12:4). This, then, was the true strength 'over' God.

Jacob had made " supplication" to God (Hos. 12:4) as he wrestled the Angel; and at that very same time, God dealt " graciously" (the same word translated " supplication" ) with Jacob (Gen. 33:11). At that time, God " recompensed" to Jacob according to his sins, and Jacob responded by " turning" (same word translated " recompensed" ) to his God (Hos. 12:2,8). It's too bad our translations disguise these things. By the end of his life, this spirit of mutuality between him and God had become perfected. And so with us; we too can live our lives thinking that if we do this, that and the other, God will do this and that for us. The idea of a two-way relationship with Him, of His Spirit, with all that implies, dwelling in us, until our will is His will; all this takes time to develop.

The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often used together (e.g. Hos. 12:12) to show how God saw the Jacob as Israel, without forgetting he was still Jacob.

Speaking in the context of Israel's punishment for idolatry (remember, in God's eyes Israel = Jacob), we are told, apparently out of context, that Jacob served for a wife (singular), and for a wife he kept sheep (Hos. 12:12). Yet this is in the context of v.2, which says that God would punish Israel for their idolatry, according to their ways. And the terrible 14 years of keeping the sheep which their forefather Jacob went through was a type of their punishment for idolatry. As Jacob served for Rachel, so Israel served idols and would have to serve those idolatrous nations as an appropriate punishment. Keeping sheep in Gentile lands is the basis of the prodigal parable; the young man who left home, tricked his father, sidled past his hostile elder brother with what he was sure was his inheritance by rights, squandered it, kept sheep, and came back a new man. Clearly the Lord had his mind on Jacob, although that parable is full of reference to prophetic descriptions of the nation of Israel, too. Hos. 12:4-6,12,13 seem to say that Jacob's humiliation at the hands of Laban is a type of the future suffering of Jacob, before their final homecoming.

“By a prophet (Moses) the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet (Joshua) was he preserved [s.w. “keep”]” (Hos. 12:13). Joshua and Moses were working and walking in harmony with an Angel in their work. For an Angel ‘brought Israel out of Egypt’ , and it was an Angel who ‘kept’ Israel (Ex. 23:20). This shows how prophets and Angels were in tandem with each other. In the work of bringing out and ‘keeping’ a people for God’s Name, we too can have this sense of working in tandem with a guardian Angel every step of the way.

 It should be noted that Moses as a type of Christ was not the High Priest. He mediated for Israel on a voluntary basis; not because he was under any duty to offer up their prayers. Indeed, they didn't make any prayers for him to offer up. He pleaded with God for them on his own initiative, rather than being asked by them to do so. And this is the basis of Christ's mediation for us; he pleads for us even when we know not what to pray for, even when we don't realize the need to beseech the Father. Moses' mediation, not so much Aaron's offerings, are the prototype which the New Testament uses to explain the Lord's present work. In the Apocryphal Assumption of Moses (1:14), Moses is made to say of God: " He designed and devised me and he prepared me before the foundation of the world, that I should be the mediator" . These words are alluded to in a number of NT passages. Clearly we are intended to see Moses' mediation as typical of the Lord's. His freewill mediation was the basis of Israel's salvation: " By a prophet (Moses: Dt. 18:18), the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved" (Hos. 12:13). This last clause may be a hint that Moses prayed for the gift of life-preserving manna, and thus sustained Israel, all unbeknown to them. Likewise the intensity of his prayers and the supremacy of his willingness to sacrifice himself for them was tragically unknown to them at the time. It's almost sad that these things have to be typical of the Lord's preservation and redemption of us his thick-skinned and unknowing people.  

"I will ransom (Israel) from the hand of the grave (the Angel-hand of death). . . repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes" (Angels)- Hos. 13:14. This could imply that in some matters God allows His Angels the freedom to change their / His will; but in others, above all in His ultimate intention to save Israel, His will cannot be changed. Perhaps this explains the contrast with  "I  have purposed it, and will not repent" (Jer. 4:28).