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 ת 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, ακριβως παρα το εις ακρον βαινειν, 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. they not only transgress my covenant, but they do it naturally, and out of the vileness of their proper inclinations; like as the devil, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh de suo, of his own, John 8:44, he can do no otherwise. It is as impossible for those that are carnal and walk as men to keep covenant with God as for a toad to spit cordials. If at any time they make an overture of doing it, if they make an essay, it is but as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that goeth away, as Hosea 6:5, with which this verse applies; Hos 6:6 coming in between as it were by a parenthesis.
There have they dealt treacherously against me] There? where? in the very point of the covenant, which by their sacrifices and burnt offerings they so solemnly professed and engaged to observe; lo, therein have they prevaricated, and then at the same time have they falsified, as the same word is used, Psalms 14:5. I have been near in their mouth, but far from their reins, Jeremiah 12:2. In words they profess to know me, but in works they deny me, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, Titus 1:16. Or there, that is (as the Chaldee paraphrast senseth it), in that good land which I have given them, even in Gilead, as in the next words. They live in my good land, but not by my good laws; yea, "they have filled it" (as the cursed Canaanites did before them, Ezr 9:11) "from one end to another with their uncleanness," which therefore longs for a vomit to cast them out; there have they dealt treacherously, as the adulteress doth, who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. The sins of such as break covenant with God are sins of a double dye; they are wickedness with a witness, because "they do wickedly against the covenant," Dan 11:32 Proverbs 2:17; these treacherous dealers deal treacherously, yea, these treacherous dealers deal very treacherously, Isaiah 24:16. And this they have done against me, who have stooped so low as to strike a covenant with them, and such a covenant, 2 Samuel 23:5, and have never failed or falsified. See Deuteronomy 29:24,25 .