Hosea 4:4

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

Mauchline paraphrased this verse: "It is God who has the controversy with his people; therefore, let no man enter into it."[11] The forbidding of any man to reprove, however, might also be referred to any who might have sought to reprove the prophet Hosea for pronouncing such stern judgments against Israel. In any case, the judgment is of God, and is not merely that of Hosea. Due to certain imperfections in the text, some scholars have understood the meaning of this rather ambiguous verse thus: "Let not anyone contend or make complaint, because the people are not really to blame";[12] but we cannot believe that even the reprobate priesthood who led the people in their sins could absolve them of guilt or blame.

"Thy people are as they that strive with the priest ..." This is a plain reference to Deuteronomy 17:8-13, condemning all of those who rejected the judgment of the priests acting in conformity with God's will. The sentence against persons thus rebelling against authority was death. Thus, the last clause of this verse is an emphatic declaration that Israel deserved the judgment of death that God pronounced upon them. It may be viewed as a mitigating circumstance for the people generally that their priesthood was illegitimate from its inception. Beginning with Hosea 4:5, below, Hosea directed God's judgment against the priesthood.