Hosea 9:4 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

They shall not offer wine offerings - literally, pour as a libation (Exodus 30:9, "Neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon;" Leviticus 23:13).

Neither shall they be pleasing unto him - as being offered on a profane soil. Pusey, however, is probably right in thinking that it is the persons, not the wine (offering, singular in the Hebrew) of whom it is said, "Neither shall they be pleasing unto Him;" for they should no longer have the means prescribed for reconciliation with God.

Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners - which was unclean (Deuteronomy 26:14; Jeremiah 16:7; Ezekiel 24:17, "Make no mourning for the dead ... and eat not the bread of men").

For their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord - their offering for the expiation of their soul (Calvin). (Leviticus 17:11.) Rather, 'their bread for their sustenance ('soul' being often used for the animal life, Genesis 14:21, in the persons, margin, the souls), shall not come into the Lord's house;' it shall only subserve their own animal uses, not my worship.

Hosea 9:4

4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.