Hosea 4:4-11

New Living Translation

⁴ “Don’t point your finger at someone else
    and try to pass the blame!
My complaint, you priests,
    is with you.^[a]
5 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.
⁶ 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.
⁷ The more priests there are,
    the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God
    for the shame of idols.^[b]

⁸ “When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed.
    So the priests are glad when the people sin!
⁹ ‘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.