Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 4:18

"Their drink is become sour; they play the harlot continually; her rulers dearly love shame." — Hosea 4:18 (ASV)

Their drink is sour - Literally, “turned,” as we say of milk. So Isaiah says, Thy silver is become dross; thy wine is mingled, that is, adulterated, with water (Isaiah 1:22); and our Lord speaks of salt which had lost its savor. The wine or the salt, when once turned or has become insipid, is spoiled, irrecoverably, as we speak of “dead wine.” They had lost all their life, and taste of goodness.

Her rulers with shame do love, give ye - Avarice and luxury are continually banded together according to the saying, “covetous of another’s, prodigal of his own.” Yet it would perhaps be more correct to render, “her rulers do love, do love, shame.” They love that which brings shame, which is bound up with shame, and ends in it; and so the prophet says that they “love the shame” itself.

They act as if they were in love with the shame, which, all their lives long, they are unceasingly and, as it were, by system, drawing upon themselves. They chase diligently after all the occasions of sins and sinful pleasures which end in shame; they omit nothing which brings it, do nothing which can avoid it. What else or what more could they do, if they “loved the shame” for its own sake?