Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 10:3

"Surely now shall they say, We have no king; for we fear not Jehovah; and the king, what can he do for us?" — Hosea 10:3 (ASV)

For now they shall say, we have no king - These are the words of despair, not of repentance; of people terrified by the consciousness of guilt, but not coming out of its darkness; describing their condition, not confessing the iniquity which brought it on them.

In sin, all Israel had asked for a king, when the Lord was their king; in sin, Ephraim had made Jeroboam king; in sin, their subsequent kings were made, without the counsel and advice of God. And now, in the end, they reflect how fruitless it all was.

They had a king, and yet, as it were, they had no king, for with God being angry with them, their king had no strength to deliver them. And now, without love, the memory of their evil deeds crushes them beyond hope of remedy. They groan for their losses, their sufferings, their fears, but do not repent.

Such is the remorse of the damned. All that they had is lost; and what did it avail them now, since, when they had it, they did not fear God?