Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 4:8

"They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity." — Hosea 4:8 (ASV)

They eat up the sin of My people - The priests made a gain from the sins of the people, lived on them and by them, conniving at or upholding the people's idolatries, partaking in their idol-sacrifices and idolatrous rites. These actions, involving the desertion of God, were “the sin of the people,” and the root of all their other sins. The priests did this knowingly. Whether true or false, apostate or irregularly appointed, they knew there was no truth in the golden calves. Yet they withheld the truth, they held it down in unrighteousness, and preached Jeroboam’s falsehood, “these be thy gods, O Israel.” The reputation, station, and maintenance of the false priests depended on it. Not being of the line of Aaron, they could not be priests except to the calves. So they upheld the sin by which they lived and, so that they might themselves be accounted priests of God, taught them to worship the calves as representatives of God.

The word “sin” may indirectly include the sin-offerings of the people, as if they loved the sin or encouraged it, so that they might partake of the outward expiations for it.

And they set their heart on their iniquity - as the source of temporal profit to themselves. “Benefited by the people, they did not reprove them in their sinful doings, but charged themselves with their souls, saying, ‘On us be the judgment,’ as those who said to Pilate, ‘His blood be on us.’” That which was, above all, “their iniquity,” the source of all the rest, was their departure from God and from His ordained worship. On this they “set their hearts;” in this they kept them secure by their lies. They feared any misgivings that might tear the people from them and restore them to the true worship of God. But what else is it, to downplay or flatter sin now, to conceal it, not to see it, not openly to denounce it, for fear of losing our popularity or alienating those who commit it?

What else is it to speak smooth words to the great and wealthy, not to warn them, even in general terms, of the danger of making Mammon their god; of the peril of riches, of parade, of luxury, of immoral dressing, and, amid boundless extravagance, neglect of the poor—encouraging the rich, not only in the neglect of Lazarus, but in pampering the dogs, while they neglect him?

What is the praise of some petty dole to the poor, but connivance at withholding from God His due in them?

“We see now,” says an old writer, “how many prelates live on the oblations and revenues of the laity, and yet, while they are bound by words, by prayers, by exemplary life, to turn them away from sin and to lead them to amendment, they, in various ways, scandalize, corrupt, and infect them by ungodly conduct, flattery, connivance, cooperation, and neglect of due pastoral care. Therefore, Jeremiah says, ‘My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray’ (Jeremiah 50:6). Oh, how horrible and exceedingly great will be their damnation, who shall be tormented for each of those under their care who perish through their negligence!”