As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy.
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...
Their goodness vanishes like morning mist and early dew, they were unstable, unsteady as water. God asks what He can do with them not from perplexity but to show how absurd and unreasonable they were. He had tried every method; He was loath to extremity; but what else could He do when He could not in honour save them?
AI summary
Commenting on Hosea 6:4-11
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...