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“Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
You will stumble in the day,
    and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night;
    and I will destroy your mother.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
    Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you,
    that you may be no priest to me.
Because you have forgotten your God’s law,
    I will also forget your children.
As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me.
    I will change their glory into shame.
They feed on the sin of my people,
    and set their heart on their iniquity.
It will be, like people, like priest;
    and I will punish them for their ways,
    and will repay them for their deeds.
10 They will eat, and not have enough.
    They will play the prostitute, and will not increase;
    because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.
11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.

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“Don’t point your finger at someone else
    and try to pass the blame!
My complaint, you priests,
    is with you.[a]
So you will stumble in broad daylight,
    and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.
    And I will destroy Israel, your mother.
My people are being destroyed
    because they don’t know me.
Since you priests refuse to know me,
    I refuse to recognize you as my priests.
Since you have forgotten the laws of your God,
    I will forget to bless your children.
The more priests there are,
    the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God
    for the shame of idols.[b]

“When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed.
    So the priests are glad when the people sin!
‘And what the priests do, the people also do.’
    So now I will punish both priests and people
    for their wicked deeds.
10 They will eat and still be hungry.
    They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it,
for they have deserted the Lord
11     to worship other gods.

“Wine has robbed my people
    of their understanding.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:4 Hebrew Your people are like those with a complaint against the priests.
  2. 4:7 As in Syriac version and an ancient Hebrew tradition; Masoretic Text reads I will turn their glory into shame.