Book of Hosea Chapter 4 Vs. 17

 The Lord Accuses Israel

Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. Hos. 4:17

Ephraim is joined… Mated or united to his idols and will not get a divorce from them. As the largest and most influential of the northern 10 tribes, Ephraim’s name was often used as representative of the northern nation. This was an expression of God’s wrath of abandonment.

let him alone... When sinners reject Him and are bent on fulfilling their wicked purposes, God removes restraining grace and turns them over to the results of their own perverse choices. This king of wrath is that (in Rom. 1:18-32; compare Jdg. 10:13, 2 Chr. 15:2; 24:20; Psm. 81:11-12).

The name given to Israel because it was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom is completely given over to its idolatry and accompanying practices. He is beyond recall.

Ephraim was the predominant tribe in Israel. They should have been the leaders. They are seemingly the deepest in sin. Idol worship was a rebellion against God, as well as being spiritual adultery.

When the soul of man refuses this, obstinately and persistently, a time arrives when God gives him up to reap as he has sown.

Because of her strong attachment to idolatry (joined to idols) Israel was to be left to herself and allowed to go to her doom. Ephraim, a prominent tribe in the Northern Kingdom, mentioned 36 times in the Book of Hosea, stands for Israel as a whole (cf. the parallelism in Hos. 5:3, 5:5; also cf. Isa. 7:2, 7:5, 7:8-9, 7:17).