Hosea 6:6-9

6. Why does Jehovah use these severe means? Because he has for the people a lofty ideal of righteousness to which they are strangers and against which they rebel. His ideal is mercy R.V. “goodness.” See on Hosea 2:19; used here in all the fullness of its meaning.

Sacrifice The whole external ceremonial service. The attitude of Hosea is that of the other eighth century prophets (Amos 5:21 ff.; Isaiah 1:11 ff.; Micah 6:6 ff.). Did these prophets intend to condemn sacrifice as such? Did they desire to abolish it entirely? Some think they did; but all the passages referred to bear a different interpretation. The people addressed were corrupt, steeped in sin, living under the false impression that the bringing of sacrifice met all religious requirements. Condemnation of sacrifices offered by these people, in this spirit, does not necessarily imply condemnation of sacrifice offered in the proper spirit by a penitent people. Besides, there are passages which show that the prophets did not discard sacrifice entirely. A prophet who considers the discontinuation of sacrifice a national calamity (Hosea 9:1 ff.; compare Hosea 3:4; Isaiah 19:21; Jeremiah 17:26; Jeremiah 33:18) cannot be understood as condemning all sacrifice. The prophets were not abolitionists, but reformers; they attacked the abuses of sacrifice and sought to place the emphasis where it belonged, on the life and spirit (1 Samuel 15:22). This the passage before us is intended to do. (See article “Sacrifice” in Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, and last sermon in Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament.)

Knowledge of God See on Hosea 2:20.

Burnt offerings The offerings entirely consecrated to God and completely burned upon the altar (Leviticus 1:3 ff.; compare Amos 5:22; Micah 6:6).

With Hosea 6:7 begins a description of the people’s corruption, the depth of which proves that they are incorrigible.

Transgressed the covenant Made with Israel at the time of the Exodus, when Jehovah adopted the nation as his child.

Like men A much-discussed expression. If the translation of A.V. is correct, the thought is, in human fashion, as men are wont to do; recognizing a tendency in unregenerate men to break covenants, the law written in the human heart (Job 31:33). Others consider men to be a designation of the neighboring nations. Israel, with all his special privileges, has broken the divine covenant like the heathen nations who enjoyed none of these. R.V. margin translates, with less probability and force, “they are as men that have transgressed a covenant.” The Revisers embodied in the text a translation favored by many moderns, “they like Adam have transgressed.” True, there is no statement in the Old Testament that Jehovah made a covenant with Adam, or that the latter broke such a covenant, but the command which God gave and which Adam broke was in the nature of a covenant; for on obedience to it depended continued fellowship with God. All the interpretations are based upon the text as it now stands; they all give fairly acceptable sense.

There Where? Some say the northern kingdom, to which the prophet turns with a “gesture of indignation”; others, the localities mentioned in 8ff. Ordinarily there refers to a locality already named. The divergence from the rule in this case leads some commentators to suspect in the word translated “like Adam” or “like men” the corrupt name of a locality. With very slight alterations one could read “in Edom,” or “in Aram,” or “in Admah” (Hosea 11:8); Marti suggests the modern Tel-ed-Damije, near the juncture of the Jabbok with the Jordan; Cheyne, Beth-aven. None of these places, except Beth-aven (Beth-el), is known as connected with special transgressions, and any conjecture must remain more or less doubtful. If the present Hebrew text is retained there must refer to Israel.

Two illustrations of Israel’s depravity are given in Hosea 6:8-9.

Gilead Here and in Judges 10:17, apparently the name of a city, everywhere else the name of the territory east of the Jordan. If a city, its location is not known. Among others, Ramoth-gilead, Jabesh-gilead, Mizpah-gilead, and Gal’ud, south of the Jabbok, have been suggested.

Them that work iniquity Why this locality receives special condemnation is not known; it must have been the scene of some startling outbreak of violence. If Gilead could be interpreted as the whole territory east of the Jordan the reference might be to some of the assassinations subsequent to the death of Jeroboam II. Shallum (2 Kings 15:10) may have been a Gileadite (compare name of his father); Gileadites were also involved in the murder of Pekah (2 Kings 15:25).

Polluted [“stained”] with blood Not the blood of idolatrous sacrifices, but a figure of violence and bloodshed. The verb is a derivative of the noun heel; Cheyne renders aptly, “tracked with bloody footprints.”

By consent Better, R.V., “toward Shechem,” a town frequently mentioned in the Old Testament; it is located among the hills of Ephraim, about thirty-one and a half miles north of Jerusalem; now Nablus.

The Hebrew text of Hosea 6:9 is obscure; it may have suffered in transmission. As a translation of the present Hebrew text, margin R.V. is more satisfactory than R.V. or A.V.: “And as robbers lying in wait, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem; yea, they have committed lewdness.” The thought is that even the priests have fallen from their holy estate and have become highway robbers. The prophet probably refers to a well-known recent event, though now unknown. For “the company” read, with the Hebrew, “a company”; for “murder,” “murdered.”

Lewdness Here equivalent to the more general outrage.