Hosea 4:5

"And thou shalt stumble in the day, and the prophet shall also stumble with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother."

The alternative reference to day and night in this verse is not restrictive but inclusive. It means prophet and priest shall fall by the sword day and night; there shall be no safety anywhere at any time. The prophet in this passage is not a reference to any of God's legitimate prophets, but to the type of retainer who was a part of the paid staff of the pagan establishments. Their mutual identity with paganism is inherent in the grouping of the two together and in their common fate.

A discernment sadly lacking in many writings on Hosea was achieved by McKeating, who stated that, "Hosea's rejection of the northern priesthood seems to be all of a piece with his questioning of the legitimacy of their monarchy and his assertions that it does not enjoy divine favor."[13] Of course, this is correct. Neither the monarchy nor the priesthood of Israel had any standing whatever in the eyes of God. How could the priesthood have been legitimate, when it was instituted by Jeroboam I, for the specific purpose of supporting his throne, and made up of Jews who were "the lowest of the people" and "not of the sons of Levi," contrary to the Word of God (2 Kings 12:31)? It is nothing short of amazing that so many commentators on this part of the Bible seem to be utterly blind to the true nature of Israel's apostasy. Even Mays speaks of Israel's priests as having their "vocation given to them by Yahweh," but this cannot be true at all. They were in no sense priests of God, but priests of Jeroboam, presiding over a bastard religion made up of a few elements of Judaism, grossly perverted, and overlaid with a rich veneer of pure paganism. Adultery, debauchery, drunkenness and many other sinful rites marked the very "services" of Baal, whom they worshipped instead of God. The central idols in this paganism were the golden calves set up at Dan and at Bethel by Jeroboam I.

Therefore, Hosea quite properly rejected both the monarchy and the worship installed by that monarchy.

"And I will destroy thy mother ..." This refers to "the whole nation, as such, - the kingdom of Israel."[14] Hosea also referred to Israel as "your mother" earlier (Hosea 2:2). Some have questioned this, but there is no satisfactory alternative. Mauchline thought that "Aaron" might be referred to; but these priests were not Levites! One alternative would be to make Baal the mother of those priests, or the paganism of Israel. Hindley thought "the mother" here to be, "the tribe of Levi, into which all priests were born";[15] but there was no way in which this could be correct. As noted above, the priests of Israel were recruited from the lowest class of people and without regard to Levitical descent. Besides this, the wife of Ahab, the notorious Jezebel had murdered practically all of the true priests and had imported a vast horde of pagan priests from Sidon. As time went on, it must have been a rare thing indeed for any descendant of Levi to have enjoyed the office of the priesthood in Israel.