Hosea 5:13
When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
When Ephraim perceived its sickness and recognized its weakened condition, it turned to Assyria for help rather than turning away from the wrongdoing that had brought the weakness upon the kingdom. Judah likewise saw its wound yet joined in seeking a remedy outside repentance. The choice was for a political alliance with a heathen power instead of forsaking the course of iniquity.
Such an alliance could not restore the strength of the nation nor heal its wound and cure its affliction. The leaders sought by this means to regain influence and power, but their efforts only continued their iniquity. The harm caused by their own course was left unremedied, for no foreign confederacy could accomplish what return from wrongdoing alone could effect.