_they themselves_, the fathers of Israel--or does he still mean the priests?--_go aside with the harlots and sacrifice with the common women of the shrines_! It is vain for the men of a nation to practise impurity, and fancy that nevertheless they can keep their womankind chaste. _So the stupid people fall to ruin!_ (_Though thou play the harlot, Israel, let not Judah bring guilt on herself. And come not to Gilgal, and go not up to Beth-Aven, and take not your oath_ at the Well-of-the-Oath, Beer-Sheba,[503] _By the life of Jehovah!_ This obvious parenthesis may be either by Hosea or a later writer; the latter is more probable.[504]) _Yea, like a wild heifer Israel has gone wild. How now can Jehovah feed them like a lamb in a broad meadow?_ To treat this clause interrogatively is the only way to get sense out of it.[505] _Wedded to idols is Ephraim: leave him alone._ The participle means _mated_ or _leagued_. The corresponding noun is used of a wife as the _mate_ of her husband[506] and of an idolater as the _mate_ of his idols.[507] The expression is doubly appropriate here, since Hosea used marriage as the figure of the relation of a deity to his worshippers. _Leave him alone_--he must go from bad to worse. _Their drunkenness over, they take to harlotry: her rulers have fallen in love with shame, or they love shame more than their pride._[508] But in spite of all their servile worship the Assyrian tempest shall sweep them away in its trail. _A wind hath wrapt them up in her skirts; and they shall be put to shame by their sacrifices._ This brings the passage to such a climax as Amos loved to crown his periods. And the opening of the next chapter offers a new exordium. 2. PRIESTS AND PRINCES FAIL. HOSEA v. 1-14. The line followed in this paragraph is almost parallel to that of chap. iv., running out to a prospect of invasion. But the charge is directed solely against the chiefs of the people, and the strictures of chap. vii. 7 ff. upon the political folly of the rulers are anticipated. _Hear this, O Priests, and hearken, House of Israel, and, House of the King, give ear. For on you is the sentence!_ You, who have hitherto been the judges, this time shall be judged.