Hosea 6:7

But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant,.... The false prophets, as Aben Ezra, whom he threatened to cut off and slay, Hosea 6:5; or rather Ephraim and Judah, whose goodness was so fickle

But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant - the common sort of men (Psalms 82:7, "Ye shall die like men").

I told them by my prophets what I required of them by covenant, but I could not obtain it, they regarded not what I said. Like men; or, like Adam: some take it for a proper name, and so refer it unto the first man, and his breaking covenant; and, for aught I see, it may well enough refer to him, who forgot or slighted the threat, who judged of what he did by what it appeared, as a small matter; and so these forget and slight my threats, and judge of the place where, and the persons by whom, and the times when, sacrifices are to be offered as no material circumstances, and therefore do choose what places they please, and appoint what priest liketh them best to offer; or else transgress the covenant, as if it were the covenant of a man like themselves. The covenant; the law of their God, which directed and encouraged their obedience, and which threatened their disobedience, and cursed it. There; in that very place, the good land, which by covenant I gave them, they have broken my covenant; or in the things in which they thought they kept covenant, in their sacrifices, and observing of feasts, in these things they transgress the covenant. Dealt treacherously against me; very frowardly, and with wilful resolutions perverted my law; their transgressing was a designed perfidiousness. I told them, Obedience, not sacrifice; they reply, Sacrifice, and stop there; they give no obedience, though they offer many sacrifices.

Hosea 6:7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.Ver. 7. But they like men] Heb. like Adam, that archrebel, that old παραβατης, after the similitude of whose transgressions these men had sinned, Romans 5:14, and so deserved in like sort to be punished, by being cast out of their country, as he was out of paradise. Thus some sense it; as if the prophet would here reduce these covenant breakers to that frst transgressor Adam, in whom they all were; as the whole country is in a parliament man, and as Levi was in Abraham’ s loins, and paid tithes in him, Hebrews 7:9. Others take Adam for an appellative, and give a reason for it out of the text, because it is Keadam, and not Kahadam, with ϊ emphatic. And of these some again read it thus, Illi tanquam hominis transgressi sunt foedus, they transgressed the covenant, as if it had been a man’ s covenant ( perinde ae foedus alicuius hominis infimi et infirmi, Polan.); they made no more of breaking it than as if they had had to do with dust and ashes like themselves, with their fellow creatures, and not with the great God: and might therefore deal by their covenants, as monkeys do by their collars, which they fit on for their master’ s pleasure, and slip off again for their own. Others read it, as we do; "They like men have transgressed," &c., sorry men, fickle and false hearted men, such as David pointed at when he said, "All men are liars," Psalms 116:11, and Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:3. Are ye not carnal, and walk as men, that is, as profane men, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel? Singular things are expected from God’ s peculiar, Matthew 5:47, as to be eminent in good works, Titus 3:14, to get above others, as Saul was above the people by head and shoulders; to get to the very top of godliness, as the apostle’ s phrase importeth, ακριβωςπαρατοειςακρονβαινειν, Ephesians 5:15, to keep God’ s covenant as the apple of the eye, as Solomon saith, Proverbs 7:2, that little man in the eye, Ishon, that cannot be touched but he will be distempered. This the world counts preciseness, and makes nothing of transgressing, of leaping over the hedge of any commandments, so they may shun a piece of foul way. Lo, this is the manner of most men, yea, of all men by nature; they make no bones about transgressing the law, of changing the ordinance, of breaking the everlasting covenant, Isaiah 24:5. And this when they do, they work de suo et secundum hominem; for Homo est inversus Decalogus, the natural man stands across to the law of God, to the whole Decalogue; the two tables whereof are called the tables of the covenant, Deuteronomy 9:9; Deuteronomy 9:11. Neither is this any excusing or extenuation of their sin, that they do but their kind, they do it as men. It is an aggravation rather, q.d.

(7) Critics differ much as to the interpretation of this verse. The marginal rendering supplies the strongest meaning. God made a covenant with Adam, and promised him the blessings of Paradise on condition of obedience. He broke the condition, transgressed the covenant, and was driven from his Divine home. So Israel had violated all the terms on which the goodly land of conditional promise had been bestowed. For the other references to Adam in the Old Testament see Psalms 82:7; Job 31:33. (See Excursus.) B (Hosea 6:7). Buhl, in Zeitschrift für Kirchliche Wissenschaft, Part 5, 1881, throws some light on the enigmatical phrase keAdam, by pointing out that Adam is employed in many places to express all the other races of mankind as opposed to Israel. Thus, he translates Jeremiah 32:20, “Thou who didst perform wonders in Israel, as well as in Adam.” Similarly Isaiah 43:4, on which Delitzsch remarks that those who do not belong to the chosen people are called Adam, because they are regarded as nothing but descendants of Adam. In this passage the emphatic position of the Hebrew pronoun hemmah lends significance to the contrasted term Adam. The meaning, therefore, is—the Israelites, who should be a chosen race, belong now, through their violation of the covenant, to the heathen: have become, in fact, Lo’Ammi. (Comp. Hosea 1:9.) The word “there” in the last clause may refer to some local sanctuary, notorious for idolatrous corruption. This is confirmed by the mention of localities in the next verse. We prefer, however, to understand it (with the Targum of Jonathan) as referring to the Holy Land.

Verse 7. But they like men (כאדם keadam, "like Adam") have transgressed the covenant] They have sinned against light and knowledge as he did. This is sense, the other is scarcely so. There was a striking similarity in the two cases. Adam, in Paradise, transgressed the commandment, and I cast him out: Israel, in possession of the promised land, transgressed my covenant, and I cast them out, and sent them into captivity.

7. The contrast between Israel’s conduct and Jehovah’s requirements. But they like men …] Literally, But they—they like (other) men transgress the covenant (or, perhaps, the ordinance, see on Hosea 8:1). The word rendered ‘men’ (’âdâm) means ordinary or less privileged men, as in Psalms 82:7 and most probably Job 31:33, ‘If I covered like (common) men my transgressions.’ It is assumed (as in Job l.c.) that ordinary men are addicted to certain vices, and that such privileged persons as Job or the Israelites ought to act up to a higher standard. The mention of the transgressions of ‘(other) men’ reminds us of Isa 24:5, where the inhabitants of the world are said to have ‘transgressed commandments, violated the statute, broken the perpetual covenant’, partly perhaps with reference to the ‘law written in the heart’, and partly to Genesis 9:1-16. The Targum, the Talmud, and the Vulgate (followed by Delitzsch on Job 31:33) render, ‘like Adam’, but the Book of Genesis says nothing of a ‘covenant’ with Adam. there] Implying a gesture of indignation. The divine speaker points to the northern kingdom as the scene of the unfaithfulness (comp. ‘there’ in Hosea 6:10).

But they like men - Or (better as in the E. M) “like Adam, have transgressed the covenant.” As Adam our first parent, in Paradise, not out of any pressure, but wantonly, through self-will and pride,

6. Why does Jehovah use these severe means? Because he has for the people a lofty ideal of righteousness to which they are strangers and against which they rebel. His ideal is mercy — R.V.