Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 5:7

"They have dealt treacherously against Jehovah; for they have borne strange children: now shall the new moon devour them with their fields." — Hosea 5:7 (ASV)

They have dealt treacherously - Literally, “have cloaked,” and so, acted deceitfully. The word is used of the treachery of a friend toward his friend, of the husband toward his wife, or the wife toward her husband. Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, says the Lord (Jeremiah 3:20). God, even in His rebuke, speaks very tenderly to them, as having been in the closest, dearest relation to Himself.

For they have begotten strange children - God had made it a ground of the future blessing of Abraham: I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment (Genesis 18:19). But these, on the contrary, themselves being idolaters and estranged from God, had children who fell away like themselves—strangers to God, and looked upon as strangers by Him. The children from the forbidden marriages with pagans were also, by their birth, strange or foreign children, even before they became so in practice; and they became so more fully in practice because they were so by birth. With the next generation then growing up even more estranged from God than they themselves were, what hope of improvement was there?

Now shall a month devour - The word “now” denotes the nearness and suddenness of God’s judgments; the term “month,” their rapidity. A “month” is not only a brief time but is almost visibly passing away; the moon, which measures it, is never stationary, waxing until it is full, then waning until it disappears. Night by night bears witness to the month’s decay. The iniquity was full; the harvest was ripe; “now,” suddenly, rapidly, completely, the end should come. One month should “devour them with their portions.”

God willed to be the Portion of His people; He had said, the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:9). To Himself He had given the title, the portion of Jacob (Jeremiah 10:16).

Israel had chosen for himself “other portions” apart from God; for these, he had forsaken his God. Therefore, he would be consumed with them. “All that they had, all that they possessed, enjoyed, trusted in—all, at once, will that short space, suddenly and certainly to come, devour, deprive and bereave them of; none of them will remain with them or profit them in the day of wrath.”