Hosea 9:15

‘All their wickedness is in Gilgal,

For there I hated them.

Because of the wickedness of their doings,

I will drive them out of my house,

I will love them no more,

All their princes are rebels.'

‘All their wickedness is in Gilgal' has in mind that Gilgal was one of Israel's cultic centres parallel to Bethel (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 12:11). There Israel engaged in all forms of wickedness, centring on adultery and idolatry. These were central to Canaanite worship, for Baalism was a very ‘earthy' religion. By engaging in sexual activity before the altar the people hoped to persuade Baal to reproduce through the earth. We can therefore see why it might have been seen as parallel with pleasant Tyre (Hosea 9:13) which had produced the Tyrian Baal who worked on the same basis. In Israel's eyes Gilgal was one of their pleasant places, where they indulged in their ritualistic sexual activities. In God's eyes it was hateful for that very reason. And as a result of the wickedness of their doings practised there, He would drive them from His house (from Israel) and love them no more, because their whole leadership approved of the worship there, thus proving that they were rebels against YHWH.

Gilgal was also the place where Saul was finally rejected by Samuel because of his gross disobedience and lies (1Sa 15:22; 1 Samuel 15:26; 1 Samuel 15:28) and was thus an example of treachery.

Furthermore Gilgal was not far from Baal-peor. and was the first place at which Israel had erected the Tabernacle after leaving Baal-peor and crossing the Jordan. Thus false worship at Gilgal was almost like a repetition of what had happened at Baal-peor. It was introducing the same curse into the promised land itself. That holy site which had represented a new beginning was now being turned into another Baal-peor by an Israel who were just as wayward as they had been at Baal-peor..