Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
merchant—a play on the double sense of the Hebrew, "Canaan," that is, a Canaanite and a "merchant" Ezekiel 16:3 : "Thy birth is . . . of Canaan." They who naturally were descendants of pious Jacob had become virtually Canaanites, who were proverbial as cheating merchants (compare Isaiah 23:11, Margin), the greatest reproach to Israel, who despised Canaan. The PhÅ“nicians called themselves Canaanites or merchants (Isaiah 23:8).
oppress—open violence: as the "balances of deceit" imply fraud.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Hosea 12:7:
Job 41:6
Isaiah 23:8
Hosea 12:1
Zephaniah 1:11
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