It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
Parallel translations
- KJV And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
- BSB And it shall be like people, like priest. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
- NKJV And it shall be: like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways, And reward them for their deeds.
- NASB And it will be, like people, like priest; So I will punish them for their ways And repay them for their deeds.
- NLT ‘And what the priests do, the people also do.’ So now I will punish both priests and people for their wicked deeds.
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 declares that priest and people will share the same judgment, each repaid for their deeds. No special status will shield the guilty.
Overview
The proverb 'like people, like priest' means the corrupt leaders and the people they misled will fall together under the same punishment. God's justice repays each according to his ways, without partiality toward the religious elite. The verse affirms the evenhandedness of divine judgment and warns that office or privilege offers no exemption from accountability before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jer 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
- Matt 15:14Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
- Isa 24:2It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.
- Jer 23:11–12for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says Yahweh.
- Hos 1:4Yahweh said to him, “Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.
- Zech 1:6But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”
- Hos 9:9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.
- Ezek 22:26–31Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
- Prov 5:22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
- Isa 3:10Tell the righteous “Good!” For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
- Jer 8:10–12Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
- Ps 109:17–18Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him.
- Hos 8:13As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it; But Yahweh doesn’t accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt.
- Isa 9:14–16Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 4:9 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.