Hosea 6:7

Hosea 6:7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant That is, as all corrupt men are prone to do; and as other men, who are not under such strong obligations to keep covenant with me, use to do. In the Hebrew it is, like Adam: and it would have been better, it seems, to have rendered it so; the sense appearing to be, that their transgression of the covenant God had made with them, or of the commandments which he had given them, was very similar to the transgression of Adam in paradise. “As Adam transgressed a plain command, so the Israelites transgressed the plainest and the easiest precepts. As Adam’s crime was not to be excused by any necessity or want, so the Israelites, secure under the protection of Jehovah, had they continued faithful to him, had no excuse in seeking other aids. Adam revolted from God to Satan; so the Israelites forsook God to worship devils. Adam broke that one command, on which the justification of himself and his posterity depended; so the Israelites broke the one precept of charity,” on their observing which depended their continuance in the divine favour, and their right to the blessings of the Mosaic covenant: see Horsley. There have they dealt treacherously against me There, even in that very delightful and plentiful land, which I gave them to encourage them to obedience, a land like unto Eden itself, they have transgressed my law, as Adam did in paradise, and have behaved themselves falsely and ungratefully toward me; and that even with all the advantages of the prophetic teaching, and in spite of all admonition and all warning.