What is the context?
The Lord brings a case against a land lacking truth, loving devotion, and knowledge of Him. The following violence, theft, lies, and adultery show what that absence means.
The mourning reaches the land and its creatures. Human unfaithfulness is portrayed as destructive beyond the individual wrongdoer.
The rejection of knowledge is then addressed through priestly responsibility and forgotten Law. This is a refusal of what should guide worship and life, rather than a contemptuous verdict on people with little formal education.
Priests who benefit from the people’s sin face the same accountability as the people. Religious office does not provide an exemption from judgment.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley understands knowledge through God’s Law, character, and dealings and reads the feeding on sin through priests’ interest in offerings. That explanation is a possible account of the image’s force, not a claim that the chapter has given an independent financial audit of the priesthood.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.