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Monday, July 28th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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THE MESSAGE

Hosea 6:9

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Backsliders;   Minister, Christian;   Robbers;   Sin;   Thompson Chain Reference - Corrupt Priests;   Leaders;   Priests;   Religious;   Wicked, the;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Theft;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Hosea;   Jeroboam;   Priest;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Murder;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Robbery;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Troop;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ambush;   Lewdness;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Untoward;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Robber ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Company;   Enormity;   Hosea;   Lewd;   Money;   Murder;   Untoward;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for March 28;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.They commit atrocities.
Hebrew Names Version
As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, So the company of Kohanim murder in the way toward Shekhem, Committing shameful crimes.
King James Version
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
English Standard Version
As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy.
New American Standard Bible
And as a band of robbers lie in wait for a person, So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Certainly they have committed an act of infamy.
New Century Version
The priests are like robbers waiting to attack people; they murder people on the road to Shechem and do wicked things.
Amplified Bible
And as bands of robbers [lie in] wait for a man, So a band of priests murder on the road toward Shechem [covering their crimes in that city of refuge]; Certainly they have committed crimes and outrages.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And as the eues waite for a man, so the companie of Priestes murther in the way by consent: for they worke mischiefe.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
And as raiders wait for a man, So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Surely they have committed crime.
Legacy Standard Bible
And as raiders wait for a man,So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem;Surely they have committed lewdness.
Berean Standard Bible
Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.
Contemporary English Version
You priests are like a gang of robbers in ambush. On the road to Shechem you murder and commit other horrible crimes.
Complete Jewish Bible
just as bands of robbers wait to ambush someone, so does a gang of cohanim. They commit murder on the road to Sh'khem! Their conduct is an outrage!
Darby Translation
And as troops of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way of Shechem; yea, they commit lewdness.
Easy-to-Read Version
The priests are like gangs of robbers hiding and waiting on the road to attack someone. They murder people before they reach safety in Shechem. They do such evil things.
George Lamsa Translation
The priests have joined them on the way, and they have destroyed Shechem, because they have committed iniquities.
Good News Translation
The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for someone. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately!
Lexham English Bible
Like bandits lying in wait, so is a band of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem; indeed, they commit a monstrous crime.
Literal Translation
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, the company of priests murder in the way to Shechem; for they have done wickedness.
American Standard Version
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem; yea, they have committed lewdness.
Bible in Basic English
And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so doth the company of priests; they murder in the way toward Shechem; yea, they commit enormity.
King James Version (1611)
And as troupes of robbers waite for a man, so the company of priestes murther in the way by consent: for they commit lewdnesse.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And as theeues [armed] wayte for him that passeth by the way: suche is the counsell of the priestes, which with one agreed counsell murther cruelly suche as kepe the way, yea they dare do all vnspeakable mischiefe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
there the city Galaad despised me, working vanity, troubling water.
English Revised Version
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem; yea, they have committed lewdness.
World English Bible
As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, So the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem, Committing shameful crimes.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
as the chekis of men `that ben theues. Partener of prestis sleynge in the weie men goynge fro Sichem, for thei wrouyten greet trespasse.
Update Bible Version
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem; yes, they have committed lewdness.
Webster's Bible Translation
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, [so] the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
New English Translation
The company of priests is like a gang of robbers, lying in ambush to pounce on a victim. They commit murder on the road to Shechem; they have done heinous crimes!
New King James Version
As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, So the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Surely they commit lewdness.
New Living Translation
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.
New Life Bible
Like robbers lie in wait for a man, a group of religious leaders kill on the way to Shechem. For sure they have done a sinful thing.
New Revised Standard
As robbers lie in wait for someone, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the road to Shechem, they commit a monstrous crime.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, like liers in wait for a man, in troops, is a band of priests, on the road, will they murder towards Shechem, - because, a shameful deed, they have done.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.
Revised Standard Version
As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the way to Shechem, yea, they commit villainy.
Young's Literal Translation
And as bands do wait for a man, A company of priests do murder -- the way to Shechem, For wickedness they have done.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The multitude of the prestes is like an heape of theues, murtherers & bloudthurstie: for they haue wrought abhominacion.

Contextual Overview

4"What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What do I make of you, Judah? Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew. That's why I use prophets to shake you to attention, why my words cut you to the quick: To wake you up to my judgment blazing like light. I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God , not go to more prayer meetings. You broke the covenant—just like Adam! You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches! 8"Gilead has become Crime City— blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets. It used to be robbers who mugged pedestrians. Now it's gangs of priests Assaulting worshipers on their way to Shechem. Nothing is sacred to them. 10 "I saw a shocking thing in the country of Israel: Ephraim worshiping in a religious whorehouse, and Israel in the mud right there with him. 11 "You're as bad as the worst of them, Judah. You've been sowing wild oats. Now it's harvest time."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

as troops: Hosea 7:1, Ezra 8:31, Job 1:15-17, Proverbs 1:11-19

so: Hosea 5:1, Jeremiah 11:9, Ezekiel 22:27, Micah 3:9, Zephaniah 3:3, Mark 14:1, Luke 22:2-6, John 11:47, Acts 4:24

by consent: Heb. with one shoulder, or, to Shechem, 1 Kings 12:25

lewdness: or, enormity

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 3:34 - wicked men Psalms 119:61 - The bands Ezekiel 22:9 - they commit Ezekiel 22:25 - like Hosea 4:2 - toucheth Hosea 4:7 - they were Hosea 5:2 - the revolters Luke 10:31 - priest

Cross-References

Genesis 5:1
This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.
Genesis 5:24
Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.
Genesis 6:9
This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 7:1
Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.
Genesis 10:1
This is the family tree of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After the flood, they themselves had sons.
Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, "I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I'll make a covenant between us and I'll give you a huge family."
1 Kings 3:6
Solomon said, "You were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right. And you have persisted in this great and generous love by giving him—and this very day!—a son to sit on his throne.
Job 1:1
Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
Job 1:8
God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil."
Job 12:4
"I'm ridiculed by my friends: ‘So that's the man who had conversations with God!' Ridiculed without mercy: ‘Look at the man who never did wrong!' It's easy for the well-to-do to point their fingers in blame, for the well-fixed to pour scorn on the strugglers. Crooks reside safely in high-security houses, insolent blasphemers live in luxury; they've bought and paid for a god who'll protect them.

Gill's Notes on the 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 שכמה "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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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” John 20:7, and so also a city of Levites and priests John 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 1 Kings 12:1, and was rejected by them. There Jeroboam after the schism, for a time, made his residence 1 Kings 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 people’s lives but to destroy them. Whereas the way to the cities of refuge was, by God’s law, to be “prepared” Deuteronomy 19:3, clear, open, without let or hindrance to the guiltless fugitive, to save his life, the priests, the guardians of God’s 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 Jacob’s well John 4:5-6; there Joseph’s bones were buried Joshua 24:32; and the memory of the patriarch Jacob was cherished there, even to the time of our Lord John 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 Joshua 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 6:9. 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.


 
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