Hosea 4:4
 Hosea 4:4 
New International Version (©2011)
"But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

New Living Translation (©2007)
"Don't point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.

English Standard Version (©2001)
Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O 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.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
But let no one dispute; let no one argue, for My case is against you priests.

International Standard Version (©2012)
"Let no one fight or bring charges against another, for my dispute is with you, priest.

NET Bible (©2006)
Do not let anyone accuse or contend against anyone else: for my case is against you priests!

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
"No one should accuse other people or bring charges against them. My case is against you priests.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for your people are as they that strive with the priest.

American King James Version
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for your people are as they that strive with the priest.

American Standard Version
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the 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.

Darby Bible Translation
Yet let no man strive, and let no man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

English Revised Version
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they 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.

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.

Young's Literal Translation
Only, let no one strive, nor reprove a man, And thy people are as those striving with a priest.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-5 Hosea reproves for immorality, as well as idolatry. There was no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in the land: it was full of murders, 2Ki 21:16. Therefore calamities were near, which would desolate the country. Our sins, as separate persons, as a family, as a neighbourhood, as a nation, cause the Lord to have a controversy with us; let us submit and humble ourselves before Him, that he may not go on to destroy.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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) "et ne reprehendito quisquam, scil. nos", Schmidt.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. let no man … reprove—Great as is the sin of Israel, it is hopeless to reprove them; for their presumptuous guilt is as great as that of one who refuses to obey the priest when giving judgment in the name of Jehovah, and who therefore is to be put to death (De 17:12). They rush on to their own destruction as wilfully as such a one.

thy people—the ten tribes of Israel; distinct from Judah (Ho 4:1).


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God's Charges against Israel
3Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwells therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yes, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for your people are as they that strive with the priest. 5Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. …

Deuteronomy 17:12 Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.
Ezekiel 3:26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people.
Hosea 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!
Amos 5:10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth.
Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.