Charles Ellicott Commentary Hosea 4:6

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children." — Hosea 4:6 (ASV)

For lack of knowledge, which you, O priest, should have kept alive in their hearts. The knowledge of God is life eternal . The Lord’s “controversy” repudiates the entire priesthood, as they had rejected the true knowledge of God. They had inclined to calf-worship, had been vacillating regarding Baal, and had connived at moral offences.

If, on the other hand, with most commentators, we consider the people themselves as addressed in this way, the passage refers to the cessation of the position of priesthood, which every member of the true theocracy ought to have maintained . The people should no longer be priests to Jehovah.