What Does Hosea 6:9 Mean in the King James?
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The people entrusted with the path have joined together as an ambush on it.
THE MEANING
The priests move as a joined company, turning the road into a place of murder. The verse calls their wrongdoing a devised, shameful scheme: their violence is coordinated, not incidental. Their position of trust makes the betrayal sharper, not smaller.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a religious title makes its bearer safe or trustworthy. Here, the priestly company itself becomes the danger.
THE ROOT
חֶבֶר
ḥeber
GROWS FROM
ח־ב־ר
to join, bind, or associate
The word for the priests’ company grows from the root meaning to join. The verse’s horror lies partly in that joining: people acting together make a coordinated ambush of the very path they are meant to serve.
ALSO GROWS
ḥābar: to join or associate
חָבַר
This verb makes the company’s unity visible as an action: they are joined in what they do.
ḥāver: a companion or associate
חָבֵר
The word for a companion shares the seed of this company, exposing how fellowship can be turned toward shared harm.
זִמָּה
zimmah
GROWS FROM
ז־מ־ם
to devise, plan, or plot
The word translated “lewdness” also carries the sense of a devised scheme. It adds deliberation to the verse’s violence: this is a shameful design carried out by a joined group.
ALSO GROWS
zāmam: to devise or plot
זָמַם
The verb reveals the planning beneath the deed the verse condemns.
mĕzimmāh: a plan, device, or scheme
מְזִמָּה
This related noun shows the same root can name a formed plan; here, that planning takes a shameful and violent shape.
THE PATTERN
When a trusted role becomes a coordinated instrument of harm, its authority turns into cover for predation.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.THE THREAD
Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.Jeremiah names the same inversion inside the house itself: a place bearing God’s name becomes a den where robbers shelter. Hosea’s priests turn the road into an ambush; together, the verses expose sacred authority and space being occupied by the violence they should protect people from.
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