Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
Gilead is a city - probably Ramoth-gilead, metropolis of the hilly region beyond Jordan, south of the Jabbok, known as "Gilead" (1 Kings 4:13: cf. "Mount Gilead," Genesis 31:21-25).
Of them that work iniquity - (Hosea 12:11 "Is there iniquity in Gilead?")
And is polluted with blood - `marked with blood-traces' (Maurer). Referring to Gilead's complicity in the regicidal conspiracy of Pekah against Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:25). See the note at Hosea 6:1. Many homicides were there, for there were beyond Jordan more cities of refuge in proportion to the extent of territory, than on this side of Jordan (Numbers 35:14; Deuteronomy 4:41-43; Joshua 20:8). Ramoth-gilead was one city of refuge in the tribe of Gad, beyond Jordan; Bezer was another in Reuben; and Golan another in Manasseh.