Hosea 4:6-9

4:6 You have destroyed ¹  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ² 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ³  the law of your God,

I will reject ⁴  your descendants.

4:7 The more the priests increased in numbers,

the more they rebelled against me.

They have turned ⁵  their glorious calling

into a shameful disgrace!

4:8 They feed on the sin offerings of my people;

their appetites long for their iniquity!

4:9 I will deal with the people and priests together: ⁶ 

I will punish them both for their ways,

and I will repay them for their deeds.

[4:6]  ¹ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ² tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ³ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

[4:7]  ⁵ tc The MT reads אָמִיר (’amir, “I will change, exchange”; Hiphil imperfect 1st person common singular from מוּר, mur, “to change, exchange”). However, an alternate scribal tradition (tiqquneh sopherim, that is, an intentional scribal change when the Masoretes believed that the received consonantal reading was corrupt) preserves the reading הֵמִירוּ (hemiru, “they have exchanged”; Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from מוּר). This alternate scribal tradition is also found in the Targum and reflected in the Syriac Peshitta. Several translations follow the MT: KJV, RSV, NASB “I will change their glory into shame” and TEV “I will turn your honor into disgrace”; however, others adopt the alternate tradition: NRSV “they changed their glory into shame” and NIV “they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.” For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.

[4:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “And it shall be, like people, like priest” (so ASV); NAB “The priests shall fare no better than the people.”