Hosea 4:4–10

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.

⁵You 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.

⁶My 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.

⁷The more priests there are,

the more they sin against me.

They have traded their glorious God for that shameful god Baal.

⁸They live off the sins of my people.

And they want them to keep on sinning.

⁹So 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 is because they have deserted me.