Hosea 4:1

ye children of Israel The northern kingdom only is addressed (see Hosea 4:15, where the prophet turns aside to Judah).

the Lord hath a controversy Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge; comp. Hosea 12:2; Isaiah 1.

no truth, nor mercy Or, -no truthfulness and no kindness." The Hebrew khesedhincludes in its wide range of meaning [55] (1) the love of God to man, as Psalms 5:7, (2) the love of man to God, as Hosea 6:4, and (3) brotherly love, or the love of a man to his neighbour, as often. Here the context favours the last of these applications. St Jerome well describes the connexion between the two qualities, -nec veritas absque misericordiâ sustineri potest, et misericordia absque veritate facit negligentes, unde alterum miscendum est alteri". In short, truth without love leads to hardness, love without truth to weakness.

[55] On the Hebrew words for love, comp. Carl Abel, Ueber den Begriff der Liebe in einigen alten und neuen Sprachen, Berlin, 1872, pp. 63.

nor knowledge of God This might well have been mentioned first. Moral practice is low, because the heart has no experience of God's personal dealings with it (see on Hosea 2:20).