But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
Parallel translations
- WEB But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.
- BSB But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.
- NKJV “But like men they transgressed the covenant; There they dealt treacherously with Me.
- NASB But like Adam they have violated the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously with Me.
- NLT But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Like Adam, the people have broken God's covenant and dealt faithlessly with Him.
Overview
Israel's treachery is compared to a covenant breach, recalling Adam's primal transgression (or, as some translate, breaking covenant "at Adam," a place). Either way, the point is willful, deliberate unfaithfulness to the God who bound Himself to them. The reference to Adam reminds readers that covenant-breaking runs through fallen humanity, and that only the last Adam, Christ, keeps covenant perfectly on our behalf.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Gen 3:11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
- Hos 5:7They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
- Hos 8:1Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
- Job 31:33If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
- Jer 9:6Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
- 2 Kgs 17:15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
- Gen 3:6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
- Ezek 16:59–61For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
- Jer 5:11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
- Isa 24:5The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
- Jer 3:7And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
- Jer 31:32Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
- Isa 48:8Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
- Isa 24:16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
- Heb 8:9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 6:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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