Don't rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; For you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.
Of very great significance is the appearance of three historical examples in this chapter, showing that Israel had, from the very first, refused to accept the terms of their covenant with God. (1) At Baal-peor, they enthusiastically rejected the stern morality of the Decalogue and made a rebellious covenant with Baal (with all of the licentiousness that went with the worship of the bull-gods) in the very shadow of Sinai itself.  (2) Both at Gibeah and at Gilgal, they had rejected the Theocracy through their insistence upon having a king like other nations, both places being sharply identified with Saul, their first king.  As a matter of fact, this chapter shows that all of Israel's subsequent sin and rebellion was summarized in these two primary rejections of God's will.  Their monarchy was one of their principal troubles, the root cause and expression of their evil ways. As Ward wrote: