Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 6:9

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, [so] the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

9. And as troops ] Rather, And as bandits lying in wait, (so doth) the company of priests; they murder on the road towards Shechem; yea, they commit outrages. The reference in the figure is either to the doings of native banditti (comp. Hos 7:1), or to those of the guerilla-bands of Arameans, Moabites, &c., which were constantly invading Israel and Judah (2Ki 5:2; 2Ki 13:20), whenever the central power was weak. The word for ‘company’ ( khbher) implies an organized guild (such as the Pharisees afterwards), so that there was no public opinion to check the offenders. Shechem had long ago been notorious for the highway robberies committed by its inhabitants, and was therefore destroyed by Abimelech (Jdg 9:25; Jdg 9:45). It lay on the road, which was doubtless much frequented, from Samaria and the north to Bethel, now the chief sanctuary of the so-called Ten Tribes. Gilead and Shechem together represent the eastern and western divisions of the kingdom.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent – Or (more probably) in the way to Shechem. Shechem too was a city of refuge Joh 20:7, and so also a city of Levites and priests Joh 21:21. It was an important city. For there Joshua assembled all Israel for his last address to them, and made a covenant with them John 24:1, 25. There, Rehoboam came to be accepted by Israel as their king 1Ki 12:1, and was rejected by them. There Jeroboam after the schism, for a time, made his residence 1Ki 12:25. The priests were banded together; their counsel was one; they formed one company; but they were bound together as a band of robbers, not to save peoples lives but to destroy them. Whereas the way to the cities of refuge was, by Gods law, to be prepared Deu 19:3, clear, open, without let or hindrance to the guiltless fugitive, to save his life, the priests, the guardians of Gods law, obstructed the way, to roll and destroy. They, whom God appointed to teach the truth that people might live, were banded together against His law.

Shechem, besides that it was a city of refuge, was also hallowed by the memory of histories of the patriarchs who walked with God. There, was Jacobs well Joh 4:5-6; there Josephs bones were buried Jos 24:32; and the memory of the patriarch Jacob was cherished there, even to the time of our Lord Joh 4:5-6. Lying in a narrow valley between Mount Ebal and Gerizim, it was a witness, as it were, of the blessing and curse pronounced from them, and had, in the times of Joshua, an ancient sanctuary of God Jos 24:26. It was a halting-place for the pilgrims of the northern tribes, in their way to the feasts at Jerusalem; so that these murders by the priests coincide with the tradition of the Jews, that they who would go up to Jerusalem were murdered in the way.

For they commit lewdness – Literally, For they have done deliberate sin . The word literally means a thing thought of, especially an evil, and so, deliberate, contrived, bethought-of, wickedness. They did deliberate wickedness, gave themselves to do it, and did nothing else.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. 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.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

What is here charged upon these priests, they turned highway-men and murderers, some understand of their killing and spoiling those that were going up to Jerusalem to worship God there; but more likely it is, that in this Gilead were many murderers, who durst not go out, nor could get their livelihood within the city, but, reduced to straits, took this wicked course for a livelihood, robbed and murdered on the highway, and then divided the prey with the priests, whose consent to the thing made them deeply guilty. And thus in this manner they act most lewd things; or these things are done and encouraged by the priests, because they make it their business, it is their trade now to contrive and act wickedness, highest wickednesses. Or, if you rather like it in the brief, the priests by companies lay wait, and rob, and murder, like as do the troops which rob towards Shethem.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. company“association”or guild of priests.

murder by consentliterally,”with one shoulder” (compare Zep3:9, Margin). The image is from oxen putting theirshoulders together to pull the same yoke [RIVETUS].MAURER translates, “inthe way towards Shechem.” It was a city of refuge betweenEbal and Gerizim; on Mount Ephraim (Jos 20:7;Jos 21:21), long the civil capitalof Ephraim, as Shiloh was the religious capital; now called Naploos;for a time the residence of Jeroboam (1Ki12:25). The priests there became so corrupted that they waylaidand murdered persons fleeing to the asylum for refuge [HENDERSON];the sanctity of the place enhanced the guilt of the priests whoabused their priestly privileges, and the right of asylum toperpetrate murders themselves, or to screen those committed by others[MAURER].

commit lewdnessdeliberatecrime, presumptuous wickedness, from an Arabic root, “toform a deliberate purpose.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

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. , so written instead of (Ewald, 16, b), is an irregularly formed infinitive for (Ewald, 238, e). ‘Ish g e dudm , 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 with , and rendered the clause ( or instead of ) . Jerome has also rendered strangely, et quasi fauces ( ) 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 carries it still higher, and adds another crime to the murderous deeds. Zimmah 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. , a horrible thing, signifies abominations and crimes of every kind. In the second hemistich, z e nuth , 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.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Prophet pursues more at large what he had briefly touched; for he does, not now confine himself to the common people, but directs his accusation against the sacerdotal order. “See,” he says, “the priests conspire among themselves like robbers, that they may slay wretched men, who may meet them in the way.” It is indeed certain that the Prophet speaks not here of open murders; for it is not credible that the priests had proceeded into so great a licentiousness, that Gilead had become a slaughter-house. But the Prophets, we know, are thus wont to speak, whenever they upbraid men with being sanguinary and cruel; they compare them to robbers, and that justly. Hence he says, The faction of the priests kill men in the way, as if they were robbers conspiring together. And then he shows that the priests were so void of every thing like the fear of God, that they perpetrated every kind of cruelty as if they were wholly given to robberies. This is the meaning.

The word שכמה, shicame, is no doubt taken by the Prophet for “consent.” What is meant by שכם, shicam, is properly the “shoulder;” but it is metaphorically changed into the sense which I have mentioned; as it is in the Zep 3:0 (38) ‘They shall serve the Lord שכם אחד, shicam ached, with one shoulder;’ that is, “with one consent.” So also in this place, the priests conspire together שכמה, shicame, with consent.” For they who think that the name of a place is intended are much mistaken.

Now in the last clause of the verse it is made evident why the Prophet had said that the priests were like robbers, ‘because,’ he says, ‘they do the thought,’ or ‘wickedness.’ The verb to זמם, zamem signifies “to think,” as it has been already said: hence זמה, zame is “thought” in general; but is often taken by the Hebrews in a bad sense, for a “bad design,” or “wicked trick:” They do then their conceived wickedness We hence learn that they were not open robbers, and publicly infamous in the sight of men, but that they were robbers before God, because the city was full of wicked devices, which were there concocted; and since they executed their schemes, it is justly said of them by the Prophet, that they imitated the licentiousness of robbers. Let us now go on —

(38) Zep 3:9. — fj.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(9) Should be rendered, As a robber lies in wait, so the company of priests murder on the road to Shechem; yea, they execute the plot. Shechem, charged with historic interest (Genesis to Judges), is also a city of refuge, a Levitical city, on the road to Bethel, where the priests of the calves resided. (Comp. Hos. 5:1.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

And as troops of robbers wait for a man,

So the company of priests murder in the way towards Shechem,

Yes, they have committed mischief (or ‘a heinous crime’),

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing,

There whoredom is found in Ephraim,

Israel is defiled.

Just as Gilead was a city of blood, so was Shechem. But even worse in this case was that, (if we take it literally), the blood was being shed by priests who were acting as bandits. They (or their appointees) would wait in the road that led to Shechem and murder people for their possessions. The word translated ‘mischief’ can mean a heinous crime. However, the comparison ‘as troops of robbers wait for a man’ may suggest that we are to see the reference to the priests’ activities as to be interpreted metaphorically with the idea being that by their activities as priests of the false cult they are symbolically ‘murdering men’. This would tie in well with the words that follow, where the activities of the false cult are certainly in mind. But the literal interpretation appears more likely. In that case the reference to ‘the house of Israel’ must be seen as bringing up a new sin, the practise of idolatry accompanied by sacred prostitution. The ‘house of Israel’ may refer to the cult temple at either Shechem or Bethel. Both were ancient sanctuaries. And this would fit well with the use of ‘there’. However, the general use of the phrase by Hosea is to refer to the people of Israel (Hos 4:1; Hos 4:6; Hos 5:1; Hos 11:12), in which case the crime of which they are guilty is both spiritual and literal whoredom by engaging in the activities of the false cult. The horror with which this was looked on comes out in the description of it as a ‘horrible thing’. It left Israel/Ephraim totally defiled.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Hos 6:9. So the company of priests murder, &c. So the company of priests meet together, and murder the traveller at Shechem; that they may execute their wickedness. The prophet seems to mean that wickedness by which those men of the kingdom of Israel who worshipped the true God were prohibited from going to Jerusalem; and who, if they attempted to do so secretly, and were found out, were put to death. See Houbigant.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Hos 6:9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, [so] the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

Ver. 9. And as troops of robbers wait for a man ] This verse hath much of the former in it, saith an interpreter. The sum of it is, saith Wigandus, to show, that all the forementioned wickednesses were committed, instinctu doctorum, by the instinct of their priests, who were now turned tories or moss troopers. Jerome asked his Jewish doctor the meaning of this text, and received this answer: that at the time of the Passover and the Pentecost the people used to come to Jerusalem; and as they were going in their journey, these priests would stand in the way and slay them. Others think that these corrupt priests took into their city of refuge divers thieves and murderers; who not having whereupon otherwise to subsist, turned highwaymen (as they call them), and returning again into the city, divided the spoil with the priests, who had their share: and are therefore called companions of robbers, and are said to murder in the way by consent, or with one shoulder, or as Simeon and Levi did at Shechem, q.d. Sichemice, craftily and cruelly (for so many ways these words are rendered), and all this they did with malice forethought, of prepensed mischief ( ex destinata malitia et inito consilio ), called here committing lewdness. Even as they thought in their hearts so they acted, saith King David. They executed the counsel of the wicked, saith the Chaldee paraphrast. They machinated mischief, and then practised what they had plotted with a deliberate will, and as it were with a high hand. Look now upon the Popish monks, saith Tarnovius, and compare them with these priests whom Hosea reproveth, non tam ovum ovo simile. And Luther saith, that they had a proverb in Germany, that there was nothing so bad which the monks could think of but they would dare to do it. Faciunt quicquid cogitant. 079 &&& Ministers-Immoral

“ Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet

Effrenis Monachus, ” –

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)