And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
Parallel translations
- WEB It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
- 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 bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
- Matt 15:14Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
- Isa 24:2And it shall 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 lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
- Jer 23:11–12For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
- Hos 1:4And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
- Zech 1:6But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.
- Hos 9:9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
- Ezek 22:26–31Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
- Prov 5:22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
- Isa 3:10Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
- Jer 8:10–12Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
- Ps 109:17–18As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
- Hos 8:13They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
- Isa 9:14–16Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:9 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
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