Hosea 4:4-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Guilt of Priest and of People
4 But let no one accuse, let no one rebuke;
with you is my dispute, priest![a]
5 You will stumble in the day,
and the prophet will stumble with you at night;
I will make an end of your mother.[b]
6 My people are ruined for lack of knowledge!
Since you have rejected knowledge,
I will reject you from serving as my priest;
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I will also forget your children.
Footnotes
- 4:4–6 Hosea is particularly severe with the priests in the Northern Kingdom who had led the way in the general apostasy from God’s law. The prophets here associated with the priests (v. 5) were doubtless cult prophets; cf. Jer 2:8; 4:9–10; 6:13–14; 23:9–40.
- 4:5 Your mother: the one who gave life to the priest, understood here as an extension of the punishment to his whole family (Am 7:17), or “mother” taken as a metaphor for the community of Israel, of which the priest is a member (Hos 2:4).
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