Bible Strands
Hosea 6:8
Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through the prophet Hosea to a covenant-breaking Israel, addressing the nation’s systemic apostasy in the wake of their transgression like Adam. The oracle targets Gilead as a representative center of this rebellion.
The words — The text identifies גִּלְעָ֕ד (gil.'Ad) = Gilead as a קִרְיַ֖ת (kir.Yat) = town of evildoers, and describes it as עֲקֻבָּ֖ה ('a.ku.Bah) = tracked with footprints of blood. These terms literally mark the region as a place where perpetrators of wickedness leave a trail of violence.
The thread — Hosea 6:8's condemnation of Gilead appears in Hosea 12:11, which condemns Gilead for iniquity and idolatrous sacrifices at Gilgal, not for bloodshed. The motif of pervasive violence continues in Hosea 4:2 and Micah 7:2, where bloodshed and ambush are described as rampant practices.
Why it lands — The text asserts that Gilead's leadership and populace are defined by deliberate wickedness and a trail of violence. It demands a reader acknowledge that covenant unfaithfulness produces systemic corruption and leaves no room for self-justification.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
Cross-references
- Hosea 12:11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.
- Hosea 4:2 Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Joshua 21:38 And from the tribe of Gad they were given Ramoth in Gilead, a city of refuge for the manslayer, Mahanaim,
- 2 Samuel 3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.
- 2 Samuel 20:8 And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath.
- 1 Kings 2:5 Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.
- Psalms 10:8 He lies in wait near the villages; in ambush he slays the innocent; his eyes watch in stealth for the helpless.
- Psalms 59:2 Deliver me from workers of iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed.
- Isaiah 59:6 Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.