Hosea 4:4-11

New Century Version

God’s Case Against the Priests

⁴“No one should accuse
    or blame another person.
Don’t blame the people, you priests,
    when they quarrel with you.
⁵You will be ruined in the day,
    and your prophets will be ruined with you in the night.
I will also destroy your mother.^[a]
⁶My people will be destroyed,
    because they have no knowledge.
You have refused to learn,
    so I will refuse to let you be priests to me.
You have forgotten the teachings of your God,
    so I will forget your children.
⁷The more priests there are,
    the more they sin against me.
I will take away their honor
    and give them shame.
⁸Since the priests live off the sin offerings of the people,
    they want the people to sin more and more.
⁹The priests are as wrong as the people,
    and I will punish them both for what they have done.
    I will repay them for the wrong they have done.

¹⁰“They will eat
    but not have enough;
they will have sexual relations with the prostitutes,
    but they will not have children,
because they have left the Lord
    to give themselves to ¹¹prostitution,
to old and new wine,
    which take away their ability to understand.