When I would heal Israel, Then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, Also the wickedness of Samaria; For they commit falsehood, And the thief enters in, And the gang of robbers ravages outside.
For they - (i. e. all of them) commit falsehood Falsehood was the whole habit and tissue of their lives. : “They dealt falsely in all their doings both with God and man, being hypocritical and false in all their words and doings, given to fraud and deceit, from the highest to the lowest.” Night and day; in silence and in open violence; “within,” where all seemed guarded and secure, and “without,” in open defiance of law and public justice; these deeds of wrong went on in an unceasing round. In the night, “the thief cometh in,” breaking into people’s houses and pillaging secretly; “a troop of robbers spoileth without,” spreading their ravages far and wide, and desolating without resistance. It was all one state of anarchy, violence, and disorganization.