Verse 17
"For Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone."
Ephraim, of course, was a part of the Northern Kingdom, his name in fact standing as an alternate designation of it. Thus the address here is still to Judah, mentioned in Hosea 4:15. Jamieson's comment on this is:
"Leave him to himself. Let him reap the fruits of his own perverse choice. He is bent on his own ruin; leave him to his fate, lest instead of saving him thou shalt fall thyself."[43]
"Ephraim ..." This is the first of 37 usages of this expression for Israel in the Book of Hosea.[44] Polkinghorne discerned the significance of this as a "denial to Israel of that title, so long as they refused to accept the authority of David's dynasty."[45] Of course, Israel was indeed a sacred name, and this view could be correct.
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