Osea 6:9 Commento

The closing words of the foregoing chapter gave us some hopes that God and his Israel, notwithstanding their sins and his wrath, might yet be happily brought together again, that they would seek him and he would be found of them; now this chapter carries that matter further, and some join the beginning of this chapter with the end of that, "They will seek me early," saying, "Come and let us return." But God doth again complain of the wickedness of this people; for, though some did repent and reform, the greater part continued obstinate. Observe, I. Their resolution to return to God, and the comforts wherewith they encourage themselves in their return (Hos 6:1-3). II. The instability of many of them in their professions and promises of repentance, and the severe course which God therefore took with them (Hos 6:4, Hos 6:5). III. The covenant God made with them, and his expectations from them (Hos 6:6); their violation of that covenant and frustrating those expectations (Hos 6:7-11).

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 6 This chapter gives an account of some who were truly penitent, and stirred up one another to return to the Lord, encouraged by his power, grace, and goodness, Hos 6:1; and of others, who had only a form of religion, were very unstable in it; regarded more the ceremonial law, and the external sacrifices of it, than the moral law; either that part of it which respects the love of the neighbour, or that which concerns the knowledge of God; and dealt treacherously with the Lord, transgressing the covenant, Hos 6:4; particularly the city of Gilead is represented as full of the workers of iniquity, and is charged with bloodshed, Hos 6:8; yea, even the priests were guilty of murder and lewdness, Hos 6:9; and Israel, or the ten tribes in general, are accused of whoredom, both corporeal and spiritual, with which they were defiled, Hos 6:10; nor was Judah clear of these crimes, and therefore a reckoning day is set for them, Hos 6:11.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man,.... As a gang of highwaymen or footpads lie in wait in a ditch, or under a hedge, or in a cave of a rock or mountain, for a man they know will come by that way, who is full of money, in order to rob him; or, as Saadiah interprets it, as fishermen stand upon the banks of a river, and cast in their hooks to draw out the fish; and to the same purpose is Jarchi's note from R. Meir: so the company of priests murder in the way by consent; not only encourage murderers, and commit murders within the city, but go out in a body together upon the highway, and there commit murders and robberies, and divide the spoil among them; all which they did unanimously, and were well agreed, being brethren in iniquity, as well as in office: or, "in the way of Shechem" (e); as good people passed by Gilead to Shechem, and so to Jerusalem, to worship there at the solemn feasts, they lay in wait for them, and murdered them; because they did not give into the idolatrous worship of the calves at Dan and Bethel: or, "in the manner of Shechem" (f); that is, they murdered men in a deceitful treacherous manner, as the Shechemites were murdered by Simeon and Levi: Joseph Kimchi interprets this of the princes and great men, so the word "cohanim" is sometimes used; but the context seems to carry it to the priests: for they commit lewdness; or "enormity"; the most enormous crimes, and that purposely, with deliberation devising and contriving them. (e) "Sichemam versus", Gussetius, Schmidt; approved by Reinbeck. De Accent. Heb. p. 442. "qua itur Sichem", Tigurine version; "qua via ad Shechemum factum occidunt", Junius & Tremellius; "quae ducit ad Sichermum", Piscator. So Abendana. (f) "Sicemice", so some in Drusius.

"The participation of the priests on the road of those going to kill from Shechem: for they have committed a crime." LXX: "The priests have hidden" "the way of the Lord and killed Shechem: for they have committed iniquity." Symmachus interpreted this passage as: "The association of priests were killing Shechem on the road:" Theodotion in this way, "The priests hid the way, they killed from behind:" Aquila, "The participation of the priests on the road were killing shoulders:" when we sought the understanding of these versions in accordance with the story from the Hebrew, it was presented to us as follows: The priests of Bethel, or rather the fanatics of Bethaven, during the times of Passover and Pentecost, as well as Scenopegiae, when it was necessary to go to Jerusalem through Sichem, which is now called Neapolis, placed robbers on the road who would lay in wait for those who were traveling, so that they would worship the golden calves in Dan and Bethaven more than in Jerusalem and in the temple of God. But what he says: "Participation and partnership of priests", signifies their conspiracy and agreement for an evil purpose. But if we read it, as we have interpreted it, "partaker of the priests", he says, it refers to Gilead, which works with an idol; it has also been saturated with blood, which followed the impiety of the priests, and is free of plundering and bloody deeds. If they have said this, we must say, let us cut off heretics so that we do not proceed from Shechem, that is, from good works, to Jerusalem, that is, to the Church. These are like the jaws of bandits, and they kill those who wish to proceed through the way of truth in this age. Sichem is interpreted as "shoulders," that is, shoulders: we understand the work on the shoulders, and all false priests hide the way, and kill men with evil deeds so that they do not reach Jerusalem. But what the shoulder work signifies is shown by: "Put your heart on your shoulder" (Gen. IV, 9, 15), that is, what you understand, turn into actions. And of Issachar we read, that he placed his shoulder to work, and was a farmer.

The prophet earnestly exhorts to repentance, Hos 6:1-3. God is then introduced as very tenderly and pathetically remonstrating against the backslidings of Ephraim and Judah, Hos 6:4-11.

As troops of robbers - What a sad picture is this of the state of the priesthood! The country of Gilead was infamous for its robberies and murders. The idolatrous priests there formed themselves into companies, and kept possession of the roads and passes; and if they found any person going to Jerusalem to worship the true God, they put him to death. The reason is given: - For they commit lewdness - They are gross idolaters.

THE ISRAELITES' EXHORTATION TO ONE ANOTHER TO SEEK THE LORD. (Hos 6:1-11) At Hos 6:4 a new discourse, complaining of them, begins; for Hos 6:1-3 evidently belong to Hos 5:15, and form the happy termination of Israel's punishment: primarily, the return from Babylon; ultimately, the return from their present long dispersion. Hos 6:8 perhaps refers to the murder of Pekahiah; the discourse cannot be later than Pekah's reign, for it was under it that Gilead was carried into captivity (Kg2 15:29). let us return--in order that God who has "returned to His place" may return to us (Hos 5:15). torn, and . . . heal-- (Deu 32:39; Jer 30:17). They ascribe their punishment not to fortune, or man, but to God, and acknowledge that none (not the Assyrian, as they once vainly thought, Hos 5:13) but God can heal their wound. They are at the same time persuaded of the mercy of God, which persuasion is the starting-point of true repentance, and without which men would not seek, but hate and flee from God. Though our wound be severe, it is not past hope of recovery; there is room for grace, and a hope of pardon. He hath smitten us, but not so badly that He cannot heal us (Psa 130:4).

company--"association" or guild of priests. murder by consent--literally, "with one shoulder" (compare Zep 3:9, Margin). The image is from oxen putting their shoulders together to pull the same yoke [RIVETUS]. MAURER translates, "in the way towards Shechem." It was a city of refuge between Ebal and Gerizim; on Mount Ephraim (Jos 20:7; Jos 21:21), long the civil capital of Ephraim, as Shiloh was the religious capital; now called Naploos; for a time the residence of Jeroboam (Kg1 12:25). The priests there became so corrupted that they waylaid and murdered persons fleeing to the asylum for refuge [HENDERSON]; the sanctity of the place enhanced the guilt of the priests who abused their priestly privileges, and the right of asylum to perpetrate murders themselves, or to screen those committed by others [MAURER]. commit lewdness--deliberate crime, presumptuous wickedness, from an Arabic root, "to form a deliberate purpose."

In these crimes the priests take the lead. Like highway robbers, they form themselves into gangs for the purpose of robbing travellers and putting them to death. חכּי, so written instead of חכּה (Ewald, 16, b), is an irregularly formed infinitive for חכּות (Ewald, 238, e). 'Ish gedūdı̄m, a man of fighting-bands, i.e., in actual fact a highway robber, who lies in wait for travellers. (Note: The first hemistich has been entirely misunderstood by the lxx, who have confounded כּחכּי with כּחך, and rendered the clause καὶ ἡ Ἰσχύς ἀνδρὸς πειρατοῦ· ἔκρυψαν (חבו or חבאו instead of חבר) ἱερεῖς ὁδόν. Jerome has also rendered כחכי strangely, et quasi fauces (כּחכּי) virorum latronum particeps sacerdotum. Luther, on the other hand, has caught the sense quite correctly on the whole, and simply rendered it rather freely: "And the priests with their mobs are like footpads, who lie in wait for people.") The company (chebher, gang) of the priests resembled such a man. They murder on the way (derekh, an adverbial accusative) to Sichem. Sichem, a place on Mount Ephraim, between Ebal and Gerizim, the present Nablus (see at Jos 17:7), was set apart as a city of refuge and a Levitical city (Jos 20:7; Jos 21:21); from which the more recent commentators have inferred that priests from Sichem, using the privileges of their city to cover crimes of their own, committed acts of murder, either upon fugitives who were hurrying thither, and whom they put to death at the command of the leading men who were ill-disposed towards them (Ewald), or upon other travellers, either from avarice or simple cruelty. But, apart from the fact that the Levitical cities are here confounded with the priests' cities (for Sichem was only a Levitical city, and not a priests' city at all), this conclusion is founded upon the erroneous assumption, that the priests who were taken by Jeroboam from the people generally, had special places of abode assigned them, such as the law had assigned for the Levitical priests. The way to Sichem is mentioned as a place of murders and bloody deeds, because the road from Samaria the capital, and in fact from the northern part of the kingdom generally, to Bethel the principal place of worship belonging to the kingdom of the ten tribes, lay through this city. Pilgrims to the feasts for the most part took this road; and the priests, who were taken from the dregs of the people, appear to have lain in wait for them, either to rob, or, in case of resistance, to murder. The following כּי carries it still higher, and adds another crime to the murderous deeds. Zimmâh most probably refers to an unnatural crime, as in Lev 18:17; Lev 19:29. Thus does Israel heap up abomination upon abomination. Hos 6:10. "In the house of Israel I saw a horrible thing: there Ephraim practises whoredom: Israel has defiled itself." The house of Israel is the kingdom of the ten tribes. שׁערוּריה, a horrible thing, signifies abominations and crimes of every kind. In the second hemistich, zenūth, i.e., spiritual and literal whoredom, is singled out as the principal sin. Ephraim is not the name of a tribe here, as Simson supposes, but is synonymous with the parallel Israel.