A people without understanding will come to ruin!

Hosea 4:1-19
But let no one bring a charge,let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother— my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
A people without understanding will come to ruin!
Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! Even when their drinks are gone,they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
From now on there is no further mention of Hosea's family. But the experience is there, and it colors the rest of the book.
Real faith in God finds expression in loving obedience, delight in his laws. The prostitution of Israel's religion led to literal prostitution.
Pagan religion with its temple prostitutes brought in its wake sexual defradation and the breakdown of law and order in society. The prises, who failed to make God's laws known and feathered their own nests into the bargain, and the men of Israel are responsible for what has happened. God holds them accountable.
Why?
When lost the heart and lost the understanding, lack knowledge, God will leave him alone.
How?
Real faith in God finds expression in loving obedience, delight in his laws.