Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed The prophet cannot escape, because the people is on the brink of ruin through the prophet's fault. It is the perfect of prophetic certitude, -my people is already as good as destroyed."

for lack of knowledge More precisely, by reason of (their) lack of knowledge. The -knowledge of God" is meant (see on Hosea 4:1).

thou hast rejected knowledge Thouis emphatically expressed in the Hebrew. -Knowledge", viz. of God's revealed will, was theoretically a deposit in the priestly order (Deuteronomy 33:10; Ezekiel 44:23; Malachi 2:7). There is no reason to think that the -priest-people" of Israel is addressed; there was no priest-people till after the return from exile.

forgotten … forget To -forget" what has been committed to one's charge is the same as to ignore it. The penalty of the priests is not really distinct from that of the people (see Hosea 4:9); the priestly office could in no full sense be maintained in captivity.

the law of thy God -Thy God", because the priest was specially -brought near" to Jehovah. -The law", Heb. tôrâh, will cover oral as well as written instructions (comp. Deuteronomy 17:11), but a later passage (Hosea 8:12) shows that a written legislation existed in Hosea's time. The contents of this may be presumed from Hosea's language to have been, at any rate to a large extent, concerned with applications of religious morality.

thy children i.e. the members of the priestly caste; -thy brethren" would be more consistent with the figure (comp. -thy mother", Hosea 4:5).