In spite of these difficulties, since the section is so long, attempts at division have been made. Ewald distinguished three parts in three different tempers: _First_, iv.-vi. 11 _a_, God's Plaint against His people; _Second_, vi. 11 _b_-ix. 9, Their Punishment; _Third_, ix. 10-xiv. 10, Retrospect of the earlier history--warning and consolation. Driver also divides into three subsections, but differently: _First_, iv.-viii., in which Israel's Guilt predominates; _Second_, ix.-xi. 11, in which the prevailing thought is their Punishment; _Third_, xi. 12-xiv. 10, in which both lines of thought are continued, but followed by a glance at the brighter future.[436] What is common to both these arrangements is the recognition of a certain progress from feelings about Israel's guilt which prevail in the earlier chapters, to a clear vision of the political destruction awaiting them; and finally more hope of repentance in the people, with a vision of the blessed future that must follow upon it. It is, however, more accurate to say that the emphasis of Hosea's prophesying, instead of changing from the Guilt to the Punishment of Israel, changes about the middle of chap. vii. from their Moral Decay to their Political Decay, and that the description of the latter is modified or interrupted by Two Visions of better things: one of Jehovah's early guidance of the people, with a great outbreak of His Love upon them, in chap. xi.; and one of their future Return to Jehovah and restoration in chap. xiv. It is on these features that the division of the following Exposition is arranged.