What Does Hosea 6:7 Mean?

(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 Psalm 82:7; Job 31:33. (See *Excursus.*) **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.