Hosea 7:3

“They make the king glad with their wickedness, etc.] Not any particular king; not Jeroboam the first, as Kimchi; nor Jehu, as Grotius; if any particular king, rather Jeroboam the second; but their kings in general, as the Septuagint render it, in succession, one after another; who were highly delighted and pleased with the priests in offering sacrifice to the calves, and with the people in attending to that idolatrous worship, by which they hoped to secure the kingdom of Israel to themselves, and prevent the people going to Jerusalem to worship: it made them glad to the heart to hear them say that God was as well pleased with sacrifices offered at Daniel and Bethel, as at Jerusalem: and the…”

“Their princes, instead of checking, "have pleasure in them that do" such crimes (Rom 1:32).”

“They make the king glad with their wickedness - Wicked sovereigns and a wicked people are a curse to each other, each encouraging the other in sin. Their king, being wicked, had pleasure in their wickedness; and they, seeing him to be pleased by it, set themselves the more, to do what was evil, and to amuse him with accounts of their sins. Sin is in itself so shameful, that even the great cannot, by themselves, sustain themselves in it, without others to flatter them. A good and serious man is a reproach to them. And so, the sinful great corrupt others, both as aiding them in their debaucheries, and in order not to be reproached by their virtues, and because the sinner has a corrupt pleasure…”

“They - The courtiers in particular make it their work to invent pleasing wickedness, and to acquaint the king with it. With their lies - With false accusations against the innocent. Hosea 7:4”

“7:3-7 The northern kingdom of Israel saw a succession of seven different kings during the final twenty-five years of its existence, four of whom were assassinated by usurpers. This passage refers to the vicious and bloody political intrigue that characterized these years. 7:3 The prophet did not record the name of this king, but many believe he was Hoshea, the northern kingdom’s last monarch.”

“Hos 5:11; Kg1 22:6, Kg1 22:13; Jer 5:31, Jer 9:2, Jer 28:1-4, Jer 37:19; Amo 7:10-13; Mic 6:16; Mic 7:3; Rom 1:32; Jo1 4:5 Hosea 7:4”