Hosea 4:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Their drink is sour— Drunkenness hath turned them away. Houbigant. Those who understand it according to our translation, suppose that the prophet means the wine which was poured out in libations to their false gods. The Chaldee renders it, Their princes have multiplied banquets by rapine. See Pococke. The allusion is to libations made with wine grown dead or turning sour. The image represents the want of all spirit of piety in their acts of worship, and the unacceptableness of such worship in the sight of God; which is alleged as a reason for the determination, expressed in the preceding clause, to give Ephraim up to his own ways. "Leave him to himself," says God to his prophet; "his pretended devotions are all false and hypocritical; I desire none of them."