Hosea 4:17

God's Case Against The People

¹⁶
For Israel is stubborn,
Like a stubborn heifer.
Can the Lord now pasture them
Like a lamb in a large field?
¹⁷ 
Ephraim is joined to idols,
So let him alone [to suffer the consequences].
¹⁸
When their liquor is gone [and their drinking parties are over],
They habitually go to play the prostitute;
Ephraim’s rulers continue to dearly love shame [more than her glory which is the Lord, Israel’s God].

Ephraim

Psalm 81:12

“So I gave them up to the stubbornness of their heart,
To walk in [the path of] their own counsel.

Hosea 4:4

Yet let no one find fault, nor let any rebuke [others];
For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

Hosea 13:2

And now they sin more and more,
And make for themselves molten images,
Idols skillfully made from their silver [as it pleased them],
All of them the work of the craftsmen.
They say of these [very works of their hands], “Let those who sacrifice kiss and show respect to the calves [as if they were living gods]!”

Matthew 15:14

Leave them alone; they are blind guides [leading blind followers]. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Hosea 11:2

The more they [the prophets] called them [to repentance and obedience],
The more they went away from them;
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
And burning incense to the carved images.

Hosea 12:1

Ephraim feeds on the [emptiness of the] wind
And [continually] pursues the [parching] east wind [which brings destruction];
Every day he multiplies lies and violence.
Further, he makes a covenant with Assyria
And (olive) oil is carried to Egypt [to seek alliances].

Revelation 22:11

Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy (vile, impure), still be filthy; and the one who is righteous (just, upright), still be righteous; and the one who is holy, still be holy.”