Hosea 9:8

‘Is Ephraim a watchman?

Are the people of my God a prophet?

A fowler's snare is in all his ways,

Enmity in the house of his God.'

Hosea then sarcastically asks the people whether they thought that they were YHWH's watchman, or considered themselves to be YHWH's prophet? And if not why did they think that what they were holding on to was the truth? Far from that being so, in all the ways in which they went they were in fact being trapped like ‘silly doves' in a fowler's snare (compare Hosea 7:11), and were found to be enemies of God in ‘the house of his God', that is, in Israel (or in the Jerusalem Temple), because of their faithless ways.

Some translate as, ‘Ephraim was a watchman with (‘im) my God, as for the prophet --,' or something similar. In this case the cult prophets are also being seen as misled. But the final result is the same. Our translation has read ‘am (people) instead of ‘im (with). Both are possible from the original consonantal text.