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Friday, May 2nd, 2025
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Hosea 4:4

No one should argue or blame another person. Priests, my argument is with you!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Priest;   Sin;   The Topic Concordance - Knowledge;   Rejection;  

Dictionaries:

- Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Priests and Levites;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Judah;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Deuteronomy;   Hosea;   Priests and Levites;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Chemarim;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But let no one dispute; let no one argue,for my case is against you priests.
Hebrew Names Version
"Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a Kohen.
King James Version
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
English Standard Version
Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.
New American Standard Bible
Yet let no one find fault, and let no one rebuke; For your people are like those who contend with a priest.
New Century Version
"No one should accuse or blame another person. Don't blame the people, you priests, when they quarrel with you.
Amplified Bible
Yet let no one find fault, nor let any rebuke [others]; For your people are like those who contend with the priest.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Yet let none rebuke, nor reproue another: for thy people are as they that rebuke the Priest.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof; For your people are like those who contend with the priest.
Legacy Standard Bible
Yet let no man contend, and let no man offer reproof;Indeed, your people are like those who contend with the priest.
Berean Standard Bible
But let no man contend; let no man offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with a priest.
Contemporary English Version
Don't accuse just anyone! Not everyone is at fault. My case is against you, the priests.
Complete Jewish Bible
But no one should quarrel or rebuke, because your people are having to quarrel with the cohen.
Darby Translation
Yet let no man strive, and let no man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
George Lamsa Translation
Because none judges nor reproves another, for your people is engaged in controversy like a priest.
Good News Translation
The Lord says, "Let no one accuse the people or reprimand them—my complaint is against you priests.
Lexham English Bible
Yet, let no one contend, and let no one accuse, for with you, O priest, is my contention.
Literal Translation
Yet let not a man strive with nor reprove a man. For your people are as a priest striven with.
American Standard Version
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
Bible in Basic English
Let no man go to law or make protests, for your people are like those who go to law with a priest.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
King James Version (1611)
Yet let no man striue, nor reproue another: for this people are as they that striue with the priest.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yet let no man rebuke or reproue another, for thy people [are] as they that are at controuersie with the priest.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
that neither any one may plead, nor any one reprove another; but my people are as a priest spoken against.
English Revised Version
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
World English Bible
"Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Netheles ech man deme not, and a man be not repreuyd; for thi puple is as thei that ayen seien the prest.
Update Bible Version
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for your people are as those that strive with the priest.
Webster's Bible Translation
Yet let no man contend, nor reprove another: for thy people [are] as they that contend with the priest.
New English Translation
Do not let anyone accuse or contend against anyone else: for my case is against you priests!
New King James Version
"Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; For your people are like those who contend with the priest.
New Living Translation
"Don't point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.
New Life Bible
"Yet let no one put blame or guilt upon another. For your people are like those who argue with the religious leader.
New Revised Standard
Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Howbeit let, no man, contend, nor let him rebuke another, - since, thy people, are as they who contend against a priest:
Douay-Rheims Bible
But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.
Revised Standard Version
Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.
Young's Literal Translation
Only, let no one strive, nor reprove a man, And thy people [are] as those striving with a priest.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yet is there none, that wil chaste nor reproue another. The prestes which shulde refourme other me, are become like the people.
THE MESSAGE
"But don't look for someone to blame. No finger pointing! You, priest, are the one in the dock. You stumble around in broad daylight, And then the prophets take over and stumble all night. Your mother is as bad as you. My people are ruined because they don't know what's right or true. Because you've turned your back on knowledge, I've turned my back on you priests. Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God, I'm no longer recognizing your children. The more priests, the more sin. They traded in their glory for shame. They pig out on my people's sins. They can't wait for the latest in evil. The result: You can't tell the people from the priests, the priests from the people. I'm on my way to make them both pay and take the consequences of the bad lives they've lived. They'll eat and be as hungry as ever, have sex and get no satisfaction. They walked out on me, their God , for a life of rutting with whores.

Contextual Overview

1 People of Israel, listen to the Lord 's message. The Lord has something to say against those who live in this land: "The people in this land are not honest or loyal. They don't really know God. 2 They are always cursing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery. They murder one person after another. 3 So the country is like someone crying for the dead, and all of its people are weak. Even the animals of the field, the birds of the sky, and the fish in the sea are dying. 4 No one should argue or blame another person. Priests, my argument is with you! 5 You priests will fall in the daytime. And at night the prophet will also fall with you. I will also destroy your mother.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

let: Hosea 4:17, Amos 5:13, Amos 6:10, Matthew 7:3-6

as: Deuteronomy 17:12, Jeremiah 18:18

Reciprocal: Psalms 95:11 - my rest Malachi 2:12 - the master and the scholar

Cross-References

Genesis 4:16
Cain went away from the Lord and lived in the land of Nod.
Genesis 4:17
Cain had sexual relations with his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Enoch. Cain built a city and gave the city the same name as his son Enoch.
Genesis 4:19
Lamech married two women. One wife was named Adah, and the other was named Zillah.
Genesis 4:20
Adah gave birth to Jabal. Jabal was the father of people who live in tents and earn their living by keeping cattle.
Genesis 15:17
After the sun went down, it got very dark. The dead animals were still on the ground, each animal cut into two pieces. Then a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the dead animals.
Exodus 13:12
you must remember to give the Lord every firstborn boy. And every male animal that is the firstborn must also be given to the Lord .
Leviticus 9:24
Fire came out from the Lord and burned the burnt offering and fat on the altar. When all the people saw this, they shouted with joy and then bowed to the ground to show their respect.
Numbers 16:35
Then a fire came from the Lord and destroyed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
Numbers 18:12
"And I give you all the best olive oil and all the best new wine and grain. These are the things that the Israelites give to me, the Lord . These are the first things that they gather in their harvest.
Numbers 18:17
"But you must not make a payment for the firstborn cow, sheep, or goat. These animals are holy. Sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a sweet-smelling gift to the Lord .

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Yet, let no man strive, nor reprove another,.... Or rather, "let no man strive, nor any man reprove us" q; and are either the words of the people, forbidding the prophet, or any other man, to contend with them, or reprove them for their sins, though guilty of so many, and their land in so much danger on that account: so the Targum,

"but yet they say, let not the scribe teach, nor the prophet reprove:''

or else they are the words of God to the prophet, restraining him from striving with and reproving such a people, that were incorrigible, and despised all reproof; see Ezekiel 3:26 or of the prophet to other good men, to forbear anything of this kind, since it was all to no purpose; it was but casting pearls before swine; it was all labour lost, and in vain:

for thy people are as they that strive with the priest; they are so far from receiving correction and reproof kindly from any good men that they will rise up against, and strive with the priests, to whom not to hearken was a capital crime, Deuteronomy 17:12. Abarbinel interprets it, and some in Abendana, like the company of Korah, that contended with Aaron; suggesting that this people were as impudent and wicked as they, and there was no dealing with them. So the Targum,

"but thy people contend with their teachers;''

and will submit to no correction, and therefore it is in vain to give it them. Though some think the sense is, that all sorts of men were so corrupt, that there were none fit to be reprovers; the people were like the priests, and the priests like the people, Hosea 4:9, so that when the priests reproved them, they contended with them, and said, physician, heal thyself; take the beam out of your own eye; look to yourselves, and your own sins, and do not reprove us.

q ואל יוכה איש "et ne reprehendito quisquam, [scil.] nos", Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another - Literally, “Only man let him, not strive, and let not man reprove.” God had taken the controversy with His people into His own hands; the Lord, He said , “hath a controversy (rib) with the inhabitants of the land” Hosea 4:1. Here He forbids man to intermeddle; man let him not strive. He again uses the same word . The people were obstinate and would not hear; warning and reproof, being neglected, only aggravated their guilt: so God bids man to cease to speak in His Name. He Himself alone will implead them, whose pleading none could evade or contradict. Subordinately, God, teaches us, amid His judgments, not to strive or throw the blame on each other, but each to look to his own sins, not to the sins of others.

For thy people are as they that strive with the priest - God had made it a part of the office of the priest, to “keep knowledge” Malachi 2:7. He had bidden, that all hard causes should be taken “to Deuteronomy 17:8-12 the priest who stood to minister there before the Lord their God;” and whose refused the priest’s sentence was to be put to death. The priest was then to judge in God’s Name. As speaking in His Name, in His stead, with His authority, taught by Himself, they were called by that Name, in Which they spoke, אלהים 'elohı̂ym Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8-9, “God,” not in regard to themselves but as representing Him. To “strive” then “with the priest” was the highest contumacy; and such was their whole life and conduct. It was the character of the whole kingdom of “Israel.” For they had thrown off the authority of the family of Aaron, which God had appointed. Their political existence was based upon the rejection of that authority. The national character influences the individual. When the whole polity is formed on disobedience and revolt, individuals will not tolerate interference. As they had rejected the priest, so would and did they reject the prophets. He says not, they were “priest-strivers,” (for they had no lawful priests, against whom to strive,) but they were like priest-strivers, persons whose habit it was to strive with those who spoke in God’s Name. He says in fact, let not man strive with those who strive with God. The uselessness of such reproof is often repeated. He “that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot” Proverbs 9:7-8. “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee” Proverbs 23:9. Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.” Stephen gives it as a characteristic of the Jews, “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do ye” Acts 7:51.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hosea 4:4. Yet let no man strive — Or, no man contendeth. All these evils stalk abroad unreproved, for all are guilty. None can say, "Let me pluck the mote out of thy eye," because he knows that "there is a beam in his own."

For thy people are] The people and the priest are alike rebels against the Lord; the priests having become idolaters, as well as the people. Bp. Newcome renders this clause, "And as is the provocation of the priest, so is that of my people." The whole clause in the original is ועמך כמריבי כהן veammecha kimeribey cohen, "and thy people as the rebellions of the priest." But one of my oldest MSS. omits כהן cohen, "priest;" and then the text may be read, And thy people are as rebels. In this MS. כהן cohen is added in the margin by a much later hand.


 
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