Hosea 4:4-11

New International Reader's Version

⁴ “But you priests should not blame the people.
    You should not find fault with one another.
After all, your people
    could also bring charges against you.
⁵ You trip and fall day and night.
    And the prophets fall down along with you.
So I will destroy your nation.
    She is the one who gave birth to you.
⁶ My people are destroyed
    because they do not know me.

“You priests have refused to obey me.
    So I will refuse to accept you as my priests.
You have not paid any attention to my law.
    So I will not let your children be my priests.
⁷ The more priests there were,
    the more they sinned against me.
    They have traded their glorious God for that shameful god named Baal.
⁸ They live off the sins of my people.
    And they want them to keep on sinning.
⁹ So here is what I will do.
    I will punish people and priests alike.
I will judge them because of their sinful lives.
    I will pay them back
    for the evil things they have done.

¹⁰ “My people will eat.
    But they will not have enough.
They will have sex with prostitutes.
    But they will not have any children.
    That’s because they have deserted me.
They have sex ¹¹ with prostitutes.
    They drink old wine and fresh wine.
Their drinking has destroyed their ability to understand.