Ishodad of Merv : "Ephraim is a sentinel with my God," that is, Israel was established by God, he says, so that he might receive the truth and watch over honorable feasts, and that he might be, as is the true prophet, with the help of God, the teacher of the others. But Israel, like a false prophet, has dissuaded others from the truth. The Greek [says], "The sentinel of Ephraim was with God, [yet] the prophet has become a deceptive trap in every path." In fact, the prophet was a sentinel with a god in this manner: each of the gods with a false name had his own false diviner, and those, through their heresies, differed from each other in many ways. Some worshiped Baal, some others Chemosh or Baal-Peor; and there was an idol in each temple, and by each of them an appointed false prophet sat. And finally, the ways of worship and divination differed among them. — COMMENTARY ON HOSEA Jerome : "Ephraim the spy with my God: the prophet is a snare of ruin" "above all his ways: insanity in the house of his God, deeply they have sinned: as in the days of Gabaa, their iniquities will be remembered, and their sins will be visited." LXX: "Ephraim the spy with God the prophet: a twisted snare over all his ways, insanity" "they have fabricated in the house of God: they have been corrupted according to the days of the hill: " "their iniquities will be remembered, and they will be avenged for their sins." Therefore, God gave the leaders to rebuke the delinquent people and to guide them back to the right path: hence, he speaks to Ezekiel: "I have made you a spy for the house of Israel" (Ezek. V, 17). Therefore Jeroboam was given as a spy among people, and as a prophet with my God, that is, with God who speaks these things by Hosea. But he is called the trap, according to that which is written above: "You have become a spectacle of snare, and a net spread out over Tabor, and you have turned victims into the abyss", and even now the people of Israel are referred to as the trap, because all fall into its snare, especially since he has put insanity in the house of God, or schemed it, that is, he made a golden calf in "Bethel", for this is interpreted as the house of God: and he has also deeply sinned in wickedness, and so he is submerged in the abyss of impiety, so that he surpasses the sin that was once committed in Gibeah, when they killed the wife of the Levite returning from Bethlehem in an illicit way (Judges 19). We can accept the days of Gibeah and that time, when for God they chose for themselves a king from the city of Gibeah, that is, Saul. And now they are said to have sinned much more, by choosing Jeroboam and worshipping idols, than at that time when they chose Saul: for here schism even was coupled with idolatry: but there the worship of God remained in the people. Therefore their injustices, which now by patience are considered forgotten, will be remembered, and their sins and the wounds that have been festering for a long time will be visited. Scrutinizing the ancient histories, I am unable to find that the Church was split, and that the people seduced the house of the Lord, except for those who were the priests appointed by God and the prophets, that is, the watchers. Therefore, these people are turned into a twisted snare, placing scandal in all places, so that whoever enters by their path may fall and not be able to stand in Christ, and be led astray by various errors and taken down paths to ruin. These are the Ephraim's spies, who have brought madness into the house of the Lord, that is, in the Church, or in the holy scriptures, interpreting them perversely, or certainly in the case of each of the believers who is most rightly called the house of God. Therefore they are corrupt and have perished according to the days of the hill, when they spoke iniquity against the highest ones and ascended into empty roofs. God will remember their iniquity by which they acted unjustly towards their neighbor, bringing him out of the Church, and will visit their sins with which they sinned against their souls. This is what we read in the psalm: 'They have laid a stumbling block for me beside the way' (Ps. 140:6). For unless someone has seen the way of God, that is, heard the name of Christ, they will not enter through it. Therefore, even heretics set traps beside the way in the name of Christ, so that anyone who believes they are walking in Christ—of whom we read that he is the way—may instead tread upon their snares, which they have woven in the house of God. — Commentary on Hosea 9:8-9