The wisdom of Hosea: Their actions do not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of promiscuity is among them. Hosea 5:4

The Book of Hosea describes at the beginning of its narrative the times in which the prophet author of the book lived, and this period of time includes the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel, and the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, in the kingdom of Judah. This covers a period of time from 809 BC, when the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, began, until 687 BC, which was the end of the reign of Hezekiah of Judah. It is not known whether the prophet witnessed the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel at the hands of the Assyrian empire, but he did live through the last years of the kingdom's existence.
Like all the prophets, Hosea condemned hardness of heart, which is a mentality that distances men from God and common sense. The prophet Hosea preached in the Kingdom of Israel, a kingdom that had fallen under the influence of the Phoenician gods, and so the prophet compared Israel to a lustful woman who, for love of riches, had abandoned the covenant with God.
In this sense, Hosea was a prophet who, as a prefiguration of Jesus, taught that man struggles between two loves: the love of God and the love of money and riches. Hosea's wisdom had a great impact in his time, and his teachings transcended his era, so much so that many of Hosea's teachings are mentioned in the New Testament. The idea of ​​the Church as the bride of Christ comes from this prophet, who was the first to teach that the covenant between Israel and God is a covenant of love like husband and wife.
The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Israel had lost the fear of God, and this was the origin of all the problems of the Kingdom, which had fallen into enormous instability due to the greed of its ruling class. This is why the prophet, among other things, denounced how corruption was destroying the education of his people: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6.
Then the prophet elaborated on his reasoning and explained how devotion to the true God had been replaced by the pursuit of bodily pleasures, and how this further complicated matters: "Their actions do not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of promiscuity is among them, and they do not know the LORD" Hosea 5:4.
The prophet ended his book by warning how this obstinacy would lead Samaria to fall under the sword, because only in the wisdom of God do men find true security and blessedness.

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