"Ephraim has surrounded Me with lies, Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One." (Hosea 11:12) Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel but there were those in the southern kingdom of Judah whose hearts weren't right with the Lord either. It took the southern kingdom longer to fall deeply into idolatry, for the people there had the temple and the priests in their midst, plus they had several godly kings whose upright behavior encouraged spiritual revivals. But there is a restlessness under the surface in Judah; indeed, the word translated here as "unruly" means "to wander restlessly, to roam, to tramp about". Some scholars also interpret this word to mean "to wrestle, to contend with". Since Chapter 12 contains a reference to how Jacob wrestled with the Lord at Bethel, this is a valid interpretation because it depicts a struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The people of Judah still have a heart for the Lord but at the same time they long for carnal things and have a wandering eye, so to speak, where idolatry is concerned.
We now begin Chapter 12 with the Lord comparing the futility of idols (and the futility of trusting heathen nations) with the futility of swallowing air instead of food. "Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt." (Hosea 12:1) Swallowing wind will not satisfy a hungry tummy. If anything, it will make a person more uncomfortable. Likewise, worshiping idols will bring no satisfaction. Allying themselves with heathen, untrustworthy nations will bring them no help. Assyria oppressed and eventually conquered the nation and Israel's alliance with Egypt against Assyria failed, for Pharaoh's army was not powerful enough to defeat the Assyrian forces and he ended up paying tribute to Assyria himself.
Judah will fall into the same trap of idolatry and unwise alliances as Israel, in time. "The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah; He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds." (Hosea 12:2) Jacob was a deceiver, a double-crosser. A large number of the people of the southern kingdom will honor the Lord with their lips while their hearts are far from Him, as He will say later on through the prophet Isaiah. They will be smooth talkers, like Jacob who tricked his brother into giving up the birthright and who tricked his father into giving him the blessing of the firstborn.
The Lord compares Jacob's character (in his early life) to the character of the people of Judah. "In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found Him at Bethel and talked with Him there---the Lord Almighty, the Lord is His name! But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always." (Hosea 12:3-6)
In the book of Genesis, when Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, he did not defeat the angel. Hosea says Jacob "overcame him" and the word translated as "overcame" means "to endure, to attain, to gain strength, to achieve victory", but the victory Jacob attained in his struggle with the angel was his surrender to the Lord. He clung to the angel, weeping, saying, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." (Genesis 32:26b) Jacob recognized that the things he obtained by human craftiness would never satisfy him at his soul. He knew he needed a relationship with the one true God and the blessings of the one true God in order to have real victory. The Lord is urging the people of the nation to win by surrendering. He's telling them to stop being doubleminded, to stop depending on their own smarts and their own strength, to stop calling upon heathen nations to help, to stop bowing to false gods for help, and to follow Jacob's example by clinging to Him---to Him alone!---and by crying out with tears, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"
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