Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, June 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 6 / Ordinary 11
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Hosea 4:4

The Lord says, "Let no one accuse the people or reprimand them—my complaint is against you priests.

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.
Easy-to-Read Version
No one should argue or blame another person. Priests, my argument is with you!
George Lamsa Translation
Because none judges nor reproves another, for your people is engaged in controversy like a priest.
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 The Lord has an accusation to bring against the people who live in this land. Listen, Israel, to what he says: "There is no faithfulness or love in the land, and the people do not acknowledge me as God. 2 They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another. 3 And so the land will dry up, and everything that lives on it will die. All the animals and birds, and even the fish, will die." 4 The Lord says, "Let no one accuse the people or reprimand them—my complaint is against you priests. 5 Night and day you blunder on, and the prophets do no better than you. I am going to destroy Israel, 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
And Cain went away from the Lord 's presence and lived in a land called "Wandering," which is east of Eden.
Genesis 4:17
Cain and his wife had a son and named him Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son.
Genesis 4:19
Lamech had two wives, Adah and Zillah.
Genesis 4:20
Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the ancestor of those who raise livestock and live in tents.
Genesis 15:17
When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals.
Exodus 13:12
you must offer every first-born male to the Lord . Every first-born male of your animals belongs to the Lord ,
Leviticus 9:24
Suddenly the Lord sent a fire, and it consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. When the people saw it, they all shouted and bowed down with their faces to the ground.
Numbers 16:35
Then the Lord sent a fire that blazed out and burned up the 250 men who had presented the incense.
Numbers 18:12
"I am giving you all the best of the first produce which the Israelites give me each year: olive oil, wine, and grain.
Numbers 18:17
But the first-born of cows, sheep, and goats are not to be bought back; they belong completely to me and are to be sacrificed. Throw their blood against the altar and burn their fat as a food offering, an odor pleasing to me.

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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