Hosea 9:4

4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.

Hosea 9:4 in Other Translations

KJV
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.
ESV
4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners' bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the LORD.
NLT
4 There you will make no offerings of wine to the LORD . None of your sacrifices there will please him. They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning. All who present such sacrifices will be defiled. They may eat this food themselves, but they may not offer it to the LORD .
MSG
4 As refugees in Egypt and Assyria, you won't have much chance to worship God - Sentenced to rations of bread and water, and your souls polluted by the spirit-dirty air. You'll be starved for God, exiled from God's own country.
CSB
4 They will not pour out their wine offerings to the Lord, and their sacrifices will not please Him. Their [food] will be like the bread of mourners; all who eat it become defiled. For their bread will be for their appetites [alone]; it will not enter the house of the Lord.

Hosea 9:4 Meaning and Commentary

Hosea 9:4

They shall not offer wine [offerings] to the Lord
This is either a threatening of the cessation of sacrifices, being carried into Assyria, a strange land, where it was not lawful to offer sacrifice, there being no temple nor altar to offer in or at; and so as they would not offer to the Lord when they should, now they shall not if they would: or this respects not, the future time of their exile, but their present time now, as Kimchi observes; and so is a reproof of their present sacrifices, which are forbidden to be observed; because they were offered not in faith, nor in sincerity, but hypocritically, and before their calves: besides, the future tease is sometimes put for the present; and this way goes Schmidt; neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him;
unto the Lord, if they were offered; and is a reason why they should not, because unacceptable to him, and that for the reasons before mentioned: their sacrifices [shall be] unto them as the bread of mourners: all
that eat thereof [shall be] polluted;
as all that ate of the bread of such who were mourning for their dead, that partook of their funeral feasts, or ate bread with them at any time during their mourning, were defiled thereby, according to the Levitical law, and were unqualified for service, ( Leviticus 21:1 ) ( Deuteronomy 26:14 ) ; so the sacrifices of these people being offered up with a wicked mind instead of atoning for their sins, more and more defiled them; and, instead of being acceptable to God, were abominable to him: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the
Lord;
in the captivity there was no house of the Lord for them to bring it into; and, when in their own land, they did not bring their offerings to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, as they should have done, but offered them before their calves at Dan and Bethel; and which is the thing complained of, that the bread for their souls, that is, the offerings accompanied with the "minchah", or bread offering, for the expiation of the sins of their souls, were not brought into the house of the Lord (the future for the present); or else, this being the case, their sacrifices were reckoned by the Lord as no other than common bread, which they ate for the sustenance of their lives.

Hosea 9:4 In-Context

2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not remain in the LORD’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
5 What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals, on the feast days of the LORD?
6 Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents.

Cross References 5

  • 1. Joel 1:9,13; Joel 2:14
  • 2. Jeremiah 6:20; S Hosea 8:13
  • 3. S Jeremiah 16:7
  • 4. S Deuteronomy 26:14; Haggai 2:13-14
  • 5. S Ezekiel 4:13-14
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.