Priests Who Reject Knowledge Feed on the People's Wrong

Lack of knowledge is charged first to those who were to teach

Let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. The line is disputed in its punctuation, but the next verses are not: the priest is cut off, the prophet falls, the mother is destroyed, and 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 will also forget thy children.

Destroyed for lack of knowledge is often quoted as if ignorance itself were the people's crime. The because-clauses point at rejected knowledge and forgotten instruction — a charge against the office entrusted to teach. It does not blame disability, limited education, trauma, or denied access. Judgment on children does not authorize harm to a minister's family.

They eat up the sin of my people, and they are not satisfied

As they were increased, so they sinned against me; therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. Like people, like priest. They shall eat and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase, because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

Eating sin can mean feeding on the people's wrong, and it may play on the sin-offering from which priests eat. The incentive is the wound: the office profits from the failure it should heal. Fair support for religious work is not condemned. Building status on recurring crisis is.