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As troops of robbers - What a sad picture is this of the state of the priesthood! The country of Gilead was infamous for its robberies and murders. The idolatrous priests there formed themselves into companies, and kept possession of the roads and passes; and if they found any person going to Jerusalem to worship the true God, they put him to death. The reason is given: -
For they commit lewdness - They are gross idolaters.
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent - Or (more probably) “in the way to Shechem.” Shechem too was a “city of refuge” John 20:7, and so also a city of Levites and priests John 21:21. It was an important city. For there Joshua assembled all Israel for his last address to them, and made a covenant with them 1 Kings 12:1, and was rejected by them. There Jeroboam after the schism, for a time, made his residence 1 Kings 12:25. The priests were banded together; their counsel was one; they formed one company; but they were bound together as a band of robbers, not to save people‘s lives but to destroy them. Whereas the way to the cities of refuge was, by God‘s law, to be “prepared” Deuteronomy 19:3, clear, open, without let or hindrance to the guiltless fugitive, to save his life, the priests, the guardians of God‘s law, obstructed the way, to roll and destroy. They, whom God appointed to teach the truth that people might live, were banded together against His law.
Shechem, besides that it was a city of refuge, was also hallowed by the memory of histories of the patriarchs who walked with God. There, was Jacob‘s well John 4:5-6; there Joseph‘s bones were buried Joshua 24:32; and the memory of the patriarch Jacob was cherished there, even to the time of our Lord John 4:5-6. Lying in a narrow valley between Mount Ebal and Gerizim, it was a witness, as it were, of the blessing and curse pronounced from them, and had, in the times of Joshua, an ancient sanctuary of God Joshua 24:26. It was a halting-place for the pilgrims of the northern tribes, in their way to the feasts at Jerusalem; so that these murders by the priests coincide with the tradition of the Jews, that they who would go up to Jerusalem were murdered in the way.
For they commit lewdness - Literally, “For they have done deliberate sin”. The word literally means “a thing thought of,” especially an evil, and so, deliberate, contrived, bethought-of, wickedness. They did deliberate wickedness, gave themselves to do it, and did nothing else.