Hosea 4:1-9

1Israelites, listen to the Lord's message! The Lord accuses the people who live in Israel of these bad things: ‘Nobody in the land of Israel is faithful. They have no true love. They do not want to know God.

2They curse people, they tell lies, they murder people, they rob people. They are guilty of adultery. They continue to kill more and more people.

3Because of this, the land will become like a desert. Everyone who lives there will become weak. Everything will die: the wild animals, the birds, and even the fish in the sea.

4Do not argue among yourselves or accuse one another. It is you priests who are guilty.

5You are always falling over. In the day and in the night, you trip and you fall. The false prophets are the same as you. So I will destroy Israel, your mother.

6The people do not know me. Because of that, they will come to an end. You refuse to respect my authority, so I will remove you as my priests. You refuse to obey the law of your God, so I will refuse to accept your children as my priests.

7The more priests that there are among you, the more sins they do against me. They should have received honour as priests, but I will make them ashamed.

8They get food to eat when the people bring their sin offerings to them. So the priests are happy when the people do bad things, because they get more food to eat.

9The people do whatever the priests do. I will punish them all for the bad things that they do. I will give them what their sins deserve.