Hosea 4:4-11

The Voice

⁴     Be careful in bringing these charges and contending with one another,
        for this is My charge against you,
        you priests—I have a divine contention against you!
⁵     You stumble around during the day, and the prophets stumble with you at night.
        And so I will destroy your mother, the land where you live.
⁶     You’ve forgotten the law of your God: you’ve rejected My judgments.
    I’ll reject you because of your lack of knowledge—reject you as My priests;
        I’ll even forget your children!

⁷     The more powerful the priests grew, the more they sinned against Me.
        So I’ll turn their honor^[a] into shame.
⁸     Because these priests are allowed to eat the sin offerings,
        they actually want the people to sin so they’ll have more meat to eat!
⁹     And so it’s “like priest, like people”: a low standard for living.
        I’ll punish them for this and repay them for what they’ve done:
¹⁰     They’ll eat, but they won’t be satisfied; they’ll be active like whores, but have no children
        because they’ve rebelled in guarding Me and My ways.

¹¹     Through prostitution, wine, and new wine,
        My people have lost their senses;