Hosea 7:4

‘They are all adulterers,

They are as an oven heated by the baker,

He ceases to stir the fire,

From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.'

They are in fact all spiritual adulterers, hot after false gods. And they are so hot and overheated after sin that the baker can, as it were, cease to stir the flames from the time when the dough is kneaded to when it becomes leavened. The baker here is probably the chief priest, who, having stirred up the people in idolatry can safely leave them to pursue it without any further intervention by him.