Hosea 4:8

They eat up the sin of my people The subject of the verb is evidently the priests (see Hosea 4:9), and the phrase can therefore only mean, they eat the sin-offering of my people (i.e. the portion assigned to the priests, comp. Leviticus 10:17). Here we come into collision with a theory of the radical school of criticism that the Levitical legislation (including the appointment of -sin-offerings" and -guilt-offerings") originated after the Babylonian captivity. There are however two earlier references to the sin-offering, viz. here and in Psalms 40:6, and one to the guilt-offering in Proverbs 14:9, not to insist on the disputable allusions in Isaiah 1:11; Micah 6:7; 2 Kings 12:16 (17). And if the dates of one or another of these passages be challenged, yet the supposed novelties are not referred to at all frequently in undoubtedly post-Captivity writings. Sin-offerings are mentioned twice (Nehemiah 10:34; 2Ma 12:43); guilt-offerings only once (if we accept a very probable emendation of Ezra 10:19, pointing ashâmîm). Next, granting a reference to the sin-offering, does the prophet mean to condemn the priests for eating of it? Certainly not; whatever were the traditional rules respecting the sin-offering, the priests would naturally have a just claim to their portion of the victim. The next clause explains the charge brought against them it is that (like the sons of Eli, 1 Samuel 2:13-17) they greedily devoured what the people brought to atone for their sins; so that in eating the -sin-offering", they also fed upon the -sin" (the same word, khattath, covers both) of Jehovah's people. Instead of trying to stem the tide of iniquity, they long for its onward march, with a view to unholy gains.

set their heart Literally, -lift up their soul" (or, -each one his soul"), i.e. -direct their desires", as Psalms 24:4; Psalms 25:1.