A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler's snare is on all of his paths, And hostility in the house of his God.
The people do not like Hosea’s denunciations and warnings. He is God’s messenger to them, the nation’s watchman, but they call him a fool and a madman. They even plot to kill him (7-8). Their sin is as great as that of Gibeah in the time of the judges (9; see Judges 19:1-48).