Hosea 8:10

"Yea, though they hire among the nations, now will I gather them; and they begin to be diminished by reason of the burden of the king of princes."

There are sharp differences of opinion about whom God will gather, as stated in this verse. Pfeiffer considered it to be that: "God would gather the Israelites and send them into exile."[18] Keil believed that the reference is to God's gathering the nations together against Israel.[19] The reason for such differences of opinion is the poor condition of the Masoretic text. The translators have been compelled to supply many words, and in some instances, to rearrange clauses and phrases in an effort to understand what the prophet wrote. Despite such difficulties, however, the broad outlines of Hosea's message are impossible to misunderstand; and the uncertainties that exist pertain only to very minor and inconsequential details.

The meaning is simply this: no matter what Israel may do in their seeking alliances among their neighbors, God had already determined the issue of their destruction; and Hosea in these verses thundered the full certainty of it.

The burden of the king of the princes ..." This does not appear to be the burden imposed upon the people by the king and his company, but the burden which their whole godless system was to God, a burden that God would not bear indefinitely, but would remove utterly with the impending diminishing of the people.