Chapter 4

God's list of grievances.  Note vss 3, 4:

2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. [Hos 4:2-3 ESV]

Even though God is not sending fire and brimstone to destroy the land, even the land and the fish are being affected by the consequences to Israel for their continued sin.  God is punishing them, though they do not attribute these things to Him.  Surely the US is about to start "paying the piper" for our sins, our turning away from the God-fearing nation that we were, for the abortions we seem proud of, and for the recognition of mental illnesses as life choices.  And for recognizing LGBT as a legitimate group with special rights.  God is very patient, but we are getting there fast.  (Previous was written in 2019.  In 2020 we have to add transgender rights, Antifa, and BLM to the list of "adultery" against our God.  And the reasons are the same as for Israel.  These things we are doing - and their consequences - are following the same script that Israel followed.  Why would we expect different results???)

2023 - This verse:

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. [Hos 4:6 ESV].  Remember in the wilderness when the people revolted because God had called them all priests, and so they wanted to depose Moses and do as they liked?  Here, officially, God revokes that title from the people of Israel.  I found the verse where they were all made priests:  6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." [Exo 19:6 ESV], but I did not find the scriptures about the revolt based on this.  In any case, it is clear that Hos 4:6 is a reference to this long ago annointing as priests.

vs 8 has the phrase "...they are greedy for their iniquity." 

vs 12,

12 My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. [Hos 4:12 ESV]

We don't do this in the US.  We are so arrogant we don't look to God or gods.  We look to ourselves.  Our pride and self-sufficiency is our downfall.  We are not grateful to God for his blessings at all.  We think it is our own doing.  We are more like the pagans that invaded Israel than like them.  Maybe...We used to be a godly nation.  Most people used to say grace at meals.  Now almost no one does.  Godly, but not called, that's what we were.  And we first drifted away and then jogged away, and now we are running away. 

I can't think of a nation in the history of Israel and Judah that we could be compared to really.  Maybe I will come upon one.  But for now, I don't even recognize a parallel to us in the Bible.

This spirit of whoredom may refer to a demon who's job was to deceive and undermine Israel.  If so, it was successful, and Satan surely rewarded it.  In the US, one can also see a "spirit of whoredom" undermining all that is right and good and replacing it with evil.  All those verses about calling evil good and good evil...surely this is a "go to" strategy for Satan and the spirits that serve him.

2023 - Here is an interesting verse:

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. [Hos 4:14 ESV].  Because of their behavior, and because the are the "heads", God does not punish the women over these horrors.  Only the men.