"Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
"Thy people are as they that strive with the priest ..." This is a plain reference to  Deuteronomy 17:8-13, condemning all of those who rejected the judgment of the priests acting in conformity with God's will.  The sentence against persons thus rebelling against authority was death.  Thus, the last clause of this verse is an emphatic declaration that Israel deserved the judgment of death that God pronounced upon them.  It may be viewed as a mitigating circumstance for the people generally that their priesthood was illegitimate from its inception.  Beginning with  Hosea 4:5, below, Hosea directed God's judgment against the priesthood.