Hosea 6:9

9 Priests form bands of robbers, waiting in ambush for their victims. They murder travelers along the road to Shechem and practice every kind of sin.

Hosea 6:9 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 6:9

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" ^F5; 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" ^F6; 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (hmkv) "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.
F6 "Sicemice", so some in Drusius.

Hosea 6:9 In-Context

7 But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.

8 “Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood.

9 Priests form bands of robbers, waiting in ambush for their victims. They murder travelers along the road to Shechem and practice every kind of sin.

10 Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel: My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!

11 “O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you, though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.