Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Ah sinful nation - Hebrew, goi: the term for the Gentiles. Israel has now by sin become paganized, people-the special designation of God's elect nation (Hosea 1:10). That they should be laden with iniquity is therefore the more monstrous. Sin is an overwhelming load (Psalms 38:4; Matthew 11:28).
A seed - another appellation God's elect (Genesis 12:7; "a right seed," Jeremiah 2:21; designed to be a "holy seed," Isaiah 6:13), but, awful to say, evil-doers, children-by adoption (Hosea 11:1), "yet evil-doers;" not only so, but corrupters of others (Genesis 6:12): the climax. So 'a nation-people-seed-children' form an ascending climax. Corruptio optimi pessima-That which ought to be best is, when corrupted, the worst of all (Matthew 6:23).
They have provoked - (Numbers 14:11; Numbers 14:23; Deuteronomy 31:20; Deuteronomy 32:19.) Piscator translates, despised-namely, so as to provoke (Proverbs 1:30-31). I prefer the English version, 'They seemed to make it their set aim to provoke God, who had adopted them as His children' (Isaiah 3:8; Isaiah 65:3). The Holy One of Israel - the special heinousnses of their sin, that it was against their God (Amos 3:2).
They are gone away backward - literally, estranged (Psalms 58:3).