And as troops of robbers wait for a man,
So the company of priests murder in the way towards Shechem,
Yes, they have committed mischief (or ‘a heinous crime'),
In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing,
There whoredom is found in Ephraim,
Israel is defiled.
Just as Gilead was a city of blood, so was Shechem. But even worse in this case was that, (if we take it literally), the blood was being shed by priests who were acting as bandits. They (or their appointees) would wait in the road that led to Shechem and murder people for their possessions. The word translated ‘mischief' can mean a heinous crime. However, the comparison ‘as troops of robbers wait for a man' may suggest that we are to see the reference to the priests' activities as to be interpreted metaphorically with the idea being that by their activities as priests of the false cult they are symbolically ‘murdering men'. This would tie in well with the words that follow, where the activities of the false cult are certainly in mind. But the literal interpretation appears more likely. In that case the reference to ‘the house of Israel' must be seen as bringing up a new sin, the practise of idolatry accompanied by sacred prostitution. The ‘house of Israel' may refer to the cult temple at either Shechem or Bethel. Both were ancient sanctuaries. And this would fit well with the use of ‘there'. However, the general use of the phrase by Hosea is to refer to the people of Israel (Hosea 4:1; Hosea 4:6; Hosea 5:1; Hosea 11:12), in which case the crime of which they are guilty is both spiritual and literal whoredom by engaging in the activities of the false cult. The horror with which this was looked on comes out in the description of it as a ‘horrible thing'. It left Israel/Ephraim totally defiled.