My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
- NKJV My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
- NASB My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children.
- NLT 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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, having rejected His law, so He will reject the priests in turn. Willful ignorance of God brings ruin.
Overview
The 'lack of knowledge' is not innocent ignorance but a deliberate rejection of God's law, especially by the priests whose duty was to teach it. Because they spurned this knowledge, God declares He will no longer recognize them as His priests. The verse is a sober warning that neglecting God's revealed truth leads to destruction, and it highlights the necessity of knowing God, a knowledge fully given in Christ, the Word made flesh.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 40
- Isa 5:13Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
- Prov 19:2Even zeal is no good without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps misses the mark.
- Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- 2 Cor 4:3–6And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
- Hos 4:1Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
- Matt 15:8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
- Prov 1:30–32They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.
- Isa 17:10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines—
- Hos 8:14Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
- Mal 2:7–9For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
- 2 Chr 15:3For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.
- Jer 2:8The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.
- Mal 2:1–3“And now this decree is for you, O priests:
- 1 Sam 3:12–15On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I have spoken about his family, from beginning to end.
- Hos 13:6When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.
- Jer 4:22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- Isa 1:3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
- Jer 8:7–9Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
- Job 36:12But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.
- Luke 20:16–18He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!”
- Jer 5:21“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
- 2 Kgs 17:16–20They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.
- Ps 119:61Though the ropes of the wicked bind me, I do not forget Your law.
- Jer 5:3–4O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- Ps 119:139My zeal has consumed me because my foes forget Your words.
- Isa 3:12Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.
- Isa 56:10–12Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.
- Hos 8:1Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
- 1 Sam 2:12Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD
- Hos 4:12My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.
- Hos 8:12Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
- Hos 2:13I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD.
- 1 Sam 2:28–36And out of all the tribes of Israel I selected your father to be My priest, to offer sacrifices on My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave to the house of your father all the offerings of the Israelites made by fire.
- Matt 21:41–45“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.”
- Zech 11:8–9And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.
- Mark 12:8–9So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
- Matt 15:14Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
- Isa 27:11When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
- Isa 45:20Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.
- Matt 15:3–6Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 4:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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