Hosea 4:6

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, etc.] This is not to be understood of those who are the Lord’s people by special grace; for they cannot he destroyed, at least with everlasting destruction; God’s love to them, his choice of them, covenant with them, the redemption of them by Christ, and the grace of God in them, secure them from such destruction: nor can they perish through want of knowledge; for though they are by nature as ignorant as others, yet it is the determinate will of God to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, in order to salvation; and that same decree which fixes salvation as the end, secures the belief of the truth as the means; and the covenant of grace…”

“lack of knowledge--"of God" (Hos 4:1), that is, lack of piety. Their ignorance was wilful, as the epithet, "My people," implies; they ought to have known, having the opportunity, as the people of God. thou--O priest, so-called. Not regularly constituted, but still bearing the name, while confounding the worship of Jehovah and of the calves in Beth-el (Kg1 12:29, Kg1 12:31). I will . . . forget thy children--Not only those who then were alive should be deprived of the priesthood, but their children who, in the ordinary course would have succeeded them, should be set aside.”

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge - “My people are,” not, “is.” This accurately represents the Hebrew . The word “people” speaks of them as a whole; are, relates to the individuals of whom that whole is composed. Together, the words express the utter destruction of the whole, one and all. They are destroyed “for lack of knowledge,” literally, “of the knowledge,” i. e., the only knowledge, which in the creature is real knowledge, that knowledge, of the want of which he had before complained, the knowledge of the Creator. So Isaiah mourns in the same words , “therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge” Isaiah 6:13. They are destroyed for lack of it,…”

“Destroyed - Many were already cut off by Pul king of Assyria, and many destroyed by the bloody tyranny of Menahem. Of knowledge - Of God, his law, his providence, his holy nature, his hatred of sin and power to punish it. Because thou - The prophet now turns from the people to the priests, to whom he speaks as to one person. Rejected knowledge - Art and wilt be ignorant. Seeing thou - O Israel, and you O priests, you have broken all the precepts of it. Thy children - The people of Israel, the whole kingdom of the ten tribes. Hosea 4:7”

“4:6 Because the priests refused to know the Lord, neither did the people know their God. As a result, the people were being destroyed. • A primary function of the priests of Israel was to know, practice, and teach the laws of . . . God. Ironically, these guardians of the law had forgotten it.”

“My people: Hos 4:12; Isa 1:3, Isa 3:12, Isa 5:13; Jer 4:22, Jer 8:7 destroyed: Heb. cut off for: Hos 4:1, Hos 6:6; Ch2 15:3; Job 36:12; Pro 19:2; Isa 27:11, Isa 45:20; Jer 5:3, Jer 5:4, Jer 5:21; Mat 15:14; Co2 4:3-6 because: Sa1 2:12; Pro 1:30-32; Isa 28:7, Isa 56:10-12; Jer 2:8, Jer 8:8, Jer 8:9; Mal 2:7, Mal 2:8; Mat 23:16-26 I will also reject: Zac 11:8, Zac 11:9, Zac 11:15-17; Mal 2:1-3, Mal 2:9; Mat 21:41-45; Mar 12:8, Mar 12:9; Luk 20:16-18 seeing: Hos 8:14, Hos 13:6; Kg2 17:16-20; Psa 119:61, Psa 119:139; Isa 17:10; Mat 15:3-6 I will also: Hos 1:6; Sa1 2:28-36, Sa1 3:12-15 Hosea 4:7”

“This thought is carried out still further in the second strophe, Hos 4:6-10. Hos 4:6. "My nation is destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou, the knowledge hast thou rejected, and so do I reject thee from being a priest to me. Thou didst forget the law of thy God; thy sons will I also forget." The speaker is Jehovah: my nation, that is to say, the nation of Jehovah. This nation perishes for lack of the knowledge of God and His salvation. Hadda‛ath (the knowledge) with the definite article points back to da‛ath Elōhı̄m (knowledge of God) in Hos 4:1. This knowledge Israel might have drawn from the law, in which God had revealed His counsel and will ( Deu 30:15), but it would not. It rejected…”