Hosea 4:15

‘Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let Judah not offend, and do not come to Gilgal, nor go you up to Beth-aven, nor swear, “As YHWH lives”.'

Within the prophet's heart was always a fear that Judah would go in the same way as Israel, whilst his hope was that if Judah remained solidly behind YHWH it would be a constant encouragement to him in the face of Israel's coming demise. As a result he always had one eye on Judah. For while Judah survived, the demise of Israel would not seem quite so bad, for it would mean that the worship of YHWH still continued. That is why, in an aside, he prays in his heart that Judah may not follow in the same way as Israel.

Some see the call not to come up to Gilgal and Bethaven as addressed to the people of Israel, on the grounds that Judah would not be seen by Hosea as yet being in a state where they could not use the name of YHWH in oaths. But it may well be that ‘as YHWH lives' had become a feature of the worship at Gilgal and Bethel so that Judah were simply being called on not to do it at Gilgal and Bethaven in idolatrous company. For certainly what follows appears to be addressed to Judah, warning them not to play the harlot like Israel was doing. The idea here then is that they were not to play the harlot like Israel by joint participation with them in these ways. This would suggest that many worshippers from Judah had taken to coming to enjoy the feasts at Gilgal and Bethel, which were not too distant from their border, a fact which would have grieved Hosea's faithful heart and would explain his constant ‘off the cuff' references to Judah. Gilgal and Bethaven were centres of syncretistic worship, and were thus to be seen as to be avoided because of their idolatry, whilst swearing ‘as YHWH lives' was to be avoided in such company. This was why the call came to any who would hear to avoid all three, the two sanctuaries and swearing by YHWH. Gilgal was in the mountains of Ephraim, unless we see it as the sanctuary first set up by Joshua in the Jordan valley, and Bethaven (‘house of trouble') was probably a satirical name for Bethel (‘house of God'), which was also in the mountains. They were easily accessible to northern Judah.