Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 4:17

"Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone." — Hosea 4:17 (ASV)

Ephraim is joined to idols - that is, united, bound up with them, “associated,” as the word means, with them so as to cling to them, unwilling either to part with them or to be parted from them. The idols are called by a name signifying toils; with toil they were fashioned, and, when fashioned, they were a toil and grief.

Let him alone - Literally, give him rest, that is, from all further earnest appeals, which he will not hear. It is an abandonment of Israel for the time, as in the prophet Ezekiel, As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, go ye, serve ye every one his idols (Ezekiel 20:39). Sinners often long not to be tormented by conscience or by God’s warnings. To be left in such a state is to be abandoned by God, as one whose case is desperate. God will not, while there is hope, leave a man to sleep in sin; for in this way the numbness of the soul increases, until, like those who fall asleep in extreme cold of the body, it never awakes.