Commentary on Hosea John Calvin (continued)
HOSEA
have shone forth in the priests, it was quite monstrous that they were like robbers, and that the holy city, which was as it were the sanctuary of God, became a den of thieves.
It was then for this reason that the Prophet especially inveighs against the city Gilead, and says Gilead is a city of the workers of iniquity, and is covered with blood But if Gilead was so corrupt, what must have been the case with the other cities? It is then the same as if the Prophet had said, "Where shall I begin? If I reprove the people indiscriminately, the priests will then think that they are spared, because they are innocent; yea, that they are wholly without blame: nay," he says, "the priests are the most abandoned, they are even the ringleaders of robbers. Since then so great corruptions prevail among the order of priests, in whom the highest sanctity ought to have shone forth, how great must be the licentiousness of the people in all kinds of wickedness? And then what must be said of other cities, since Gilead is so bad, which God has consecrated for a peculiar purpose, that it might be a sort of sanctuary? Since then Gilead is a den of robbers, what must be the other cities?" We now comprehend the meaning of the Prophet.
"Polluted with blood," {,}עקובה{ }מדםokube medam: {,}עקבokob, in Hebrew, means "to deceive," and also, "to hold" or "retain." {,}עקבokob, is the sole of the foot; hence {,}עקבokob, signifies "to supplant." And there is no doubt but that "to deceive" is its meaning metaphorically. I will now come to the meaning of the Prophet; he says that the city was {,}עקובה{ }מדם okube, medan; some say, "deceptive in blood," because they did not openly kill men, but by lying in wait for them; and hence they elicit this sense. But I approve more of what they hold who say, that the city was "full of blood;" not that such is the strict sense of the Hebrew word; but we may properly render it, "occupied by blood." Why so? Because {,}עקבokob, as I have said, means sometimes to hold, to stay, and to hinder. We may then properly and fitly say, that Gilead was "occupied" or "possessed by blood." But here follows a clearer and a fuller explanation of this sentence —
Hosea 6:9
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. Et sicut expectant latrones hominum, societas sacerdotum (vel, factio;) in via trucidant consensu, quia cogitationem (aut, scelus) perficiunt.
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