Hosea / Question
The statement is in Hosea 4:6. In the same verse, rejection of knowledge is tied to rejection and consequences for priests and children.
In Hosea 4:4–7 the speaker (the LORD through Hosea) describes a breakdown in Israel’s moral and teaching leadership. The people resist correction and act like they are in constant conflict with the priest. As a result, both everyday guidance and prophetic guidance collapse, and the community is headed for ruin. These verses sit inside a larger accusation section where the LORD brings charges against the land for covenant unfaithfulness and its social effects (Hosea 4–5).
Hosea 4:4–7 portrays a society where correction is no longer working and religious leadership has collapsed. The people behave like they are locked in conflict with the priest (verse 4). The result is communal “stumbling”—failure in ordinary life and in the sphere of spiritual guidance—so that both “you” and “the prophet” fall (verse 5).
A common mistake is to treat this as trivia. Names, places, numbers, and sequence details often carry memory, covenant identity, or narrative movement in the biblical story.
Start with Hosea 4:6, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.