Book of Hosea Chapter 6 Vs. 8

 Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. Hos. 6:8

is a city... If we regard Gilead as it elsewhere is, as the country beyond Jordan, where the two tribes and a half dwelt, this will mean that the whole land was banded in one, as one city of evil-doers. It had a unity, but one of evil. As the whole world has been pictured as divided between the city of God and the city of the devil, consisting respectively of the children of God and the children of the devil; so the whole of Gilead may be represented as one city, whose inhabitants had one occupation in common, to work evil.

and is polluted... Murders committed there have polluted it, or murderers protected there against the law of God, who provided these cities a relief for such. as unawares, without malice, by chance slew his neighbor, not for willful murderers. Yet some for money or interest got in and were secured there; and probably many were kept out or delivered up to the avenger of blood contrary to the law. Thus, Gilead by name and all the rest of the cities of refuge intended too, were polluted with blood.

That the discourse comes back to the ritual is very intelligible. For what could make repentance stem so easy as the belief that forgiveness can be won by simply offering sacrifices? Then the prophet leaps upon what each new year of that anarchy revealed afresh-the profound sinfulness of the people.

But they in human fashion have transgressed the covenant! There-he will now point out the very spots-have they betrayed Me! Gilead is a city of evil-doers: stamped with the bloody footprints.

Gilead is spoken of, in the New Testament, as beyond Jordan. This really is speaking of the Israelite's in their darker times, when there was much killing taking place. It could also be speaking of their connection with the crucifixion of Jesus.

Widespread physical violence was just one example of the people’s unfaithfulness (Hos. 6:8-9; cf. Exo. 20:13). Since Gilead was a district, not a city, the reference in Hos. 6:8 is probably to the city Ramoth Gilead, east of the Jordan. The town had become a center for wicked men (lit., workers of iniquity). In Psm. 5:5 this same expression is translated who do wrong. It refers to the worst sort of men, who actively oppose righteousness and are the objects of God’s hatred. In this case they were guilty of murder (Hos. 6:8). The city streets are pictured as being tracked with blood from the murderers’ sandals (cf. 1Ki. 2:5). The figurative language emphasizes both the extent and certainty of their guilt. Unfortunately the precise historical background for the crime cannot be determined. Perhaps oppression of the poor is in view. Elsewhere workers of iniquity are said to be guilty of oppressing the poor which is only occasionally associated with murder (cf. Psm. 94:4-6; Isa. 1:21-23).