Hosea 11:12

‘Ephraim compasses me about with falsehood,

And the house of Israel with deceit,

But Judah yet rules with God,

And is faithful with the Holy One.

These words suggest that Hosea was now aware of the reforms of Hezekiah in Judah (see Hosea 1:1 and 2 Kings 18:1) and saw in them an indication that Israel's hope for the future depended on the Davidic house. For he declares that Judah yet rules with God and is in faithful submission to Him, thereby indicating that Judah's kingship is now responsive to YHWH and true worship has now been restored. We can indeed see that Hezekiah's reforms must have come as a breath of fresh air to the prophets struggling to bring Israel to its senses, and may well have raised Messianic hopes.

He points out that whilst Ephraim were still ‘surrounding' Him with falsehood, and the whole house of Israel were ‘surrounding' Him with deceit, (the language might suggest that at this stage Samaria was ‘surrounded' by the Assyrian army thus providing the symbolism used here) and were in fact about to crumble, Judah was yet reliable and ‘ruled with God', that is, their king ruled in obedience to God. For in the third year of Hoshea Hezekiah had come to the throne of Judah and had submitted Himself to God (2 Kings 18:1). It was not said of Judah that they had ‘appointed kings, but not by Me' (Hosea 8:4), for they still held to the Davidic kingship Thus the whole future of Israel was seen to depend on the firm foundation of the Davidic kingship, and on their faithfulness to the Holy One. and especially on the coming greater King Who would bring in righteousness (Isaiah 11:1). Once He came the lion would roar and the people would turn back to God, an apt picture of the ministry of Jesus Christ and what followed it after Pentecost.

(On the other hand the Masoretes in their Hebrew text and many modern scholars (the latter by repointing the consonants and altering the sense) see the verse as opening chapter 12, even though the Masoretes held to the text as translated above. But the analysis above indicates that its sentiments are required to round off the chiasm in chapter 11, whilst the translation above (following MT) more fully explains the reference to the lion in Hosea 11:11. It was Judah, who would be the lion's whelp, from whom the Final Hope would come (Genesis 49:9)).