Did Jesus say "My people perish for lack of knowledge"?

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I think you're looking for Hosea 4:6a:

My people are ruined for lack of knowledge!

This is part of a longer tirade against the priests of Israel, whom Hosea saw as leading Israel away from God (Hosea 4:1–6):

But let no one accuse, let no one rebuke;
with you is my dispute, priest!
You will stumble in the day,
and the prophet will stumble with you at night;
I will make an end of your mother.
My people are ruined for lack of knowledge!
Since you have rejected knowledge,
I will reject you from serving as my priest;
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I will also forget your children.

Thus, of course it is not Jesus who says this, but Hosea speaking for God.

There is another passage in Job 36:11–12:

If they listen and serve him,
they spend their days in prosperity,
their years in happiness.
But if they do not listen, they pass to the grave,
they perish for lack of knowledge.

Again this is part of a longer discourse: the speech of Elihu to Job, discussing God's purpose and actions:

God is great, not disdainful;
his strength of purpose is great.
He does not preserve the life of the wicked.
He establishes the right of the poor;
he does not divert his eyes from the just
But he seats them upon thrones
with kings, exalted forever.
If they are bound with fetters,
held fast by bonds of affliction,
He lets them know what they have done,
and how arrogant are their sins.
He opens their ears to correction
and tells them to turn back from evil. If they listen and serve him,
they spend their days in prosperity,
their years in happiness.
But if they do not listen, they pass to the grave,
they perish for lack of knowledge.

These are the only two places in the New American Bible (Revised Edition) which contain the phrase "for lack of knowledge".

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