Hosea 9:4

They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord Libations of wine were accompaniments of the burnt-offerings and the peace-offerings, and so are naturally mentioned in connexion with the -sacrifices." It is implied that wine in general would become -unclean", if a certain measure of it were not devoted to this sacred and sanctifying purpose. The clause is therefore equivalent to this -The wine that they drink shall not be pleasing to the Lord"; comp. the following words.

neither shall they be pleasing(lit. sweet) unto him Strangely enough, the accentuation of the text separates between the verb and its subject; the Sept., Targ., and Peshito preserve the obviously right view of the construction, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him. The peculiar accentuation was possibly caused by a wish to preclude a misinterpretation of Hosea's language, viz. that the Israelites would go on sacrificing to Jehovah even when in captivity. But the truth is that the Hebrew zébakh(like ἱερεῖον, see Mahaffy's Old Greek Life, p. 32) has a twofold meaning: 1, a sacrifice, and 2, a feast of animal food. Fleshmeat was not the habitual food of the Israelites, any more than it is of the Arabs at the present day; to partake of it was a special divinely given privilege (comp. Genesis 9:3), and those who from time to time availed themselves of this privilege had to make an acknowledgment of it by presenting, at the very least, the blood before Jehovah (comp. 1 Samuel 14:32-35). The Book of Leviticus (Leviticus 17:3-4) prescribes that the blood of all slain beasts should be offered to Jehovah at the door of the tabernacle, and though a milder rule is given in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 12:15-16), yet, from what we know of the religious habits of the people, we may safely assume that not only did they worship Jehovah at the -high places", but they also in one way or another presented any animal food of which they partook at the local shrines, as well as at the central sanctuary. Hence we may very probably lay down that in old Hebrew as in old Greek life the conceptions of sacrifice (and presenting the blood was a minor kind of sacrificial act) and of feasting upon animal food were inseparable; indeed, we find in the semi-secular Book of Proverbs two synonymous proverbs, in one of which a feast is described as -a stalled ox", and in the other as -sacrifices" (comp. Proverbs 15:17; Proverbs 17:1). Consequently, we might, in the clause before us, with equal justice render -neither shall their sacrifices", and -neither shall their feasts (i.e. meat-meals) be pleasing unto him." It must be admitted, however, that the sense is improved if, with Kuenen, we alter a Bethinto a Caph, and render, neither shall they lay out their sacrifices before him (upon the altar); comp. Hosea 3:4. Such a mistake in the reading of the text would escape notice the more easily, because the phrase produced by it is so idiomatic (comp. Jeremiah 6:20 b). If we accept this emendation, all that has been said on the connexion of sacrificing and feasting will still retain its explanatory value. We may illustrate this connexion further by Ezekiel 39:17, where Ezekiel is bidden to invite -every feathered fowl" to the -sacrifice" (so A.V.) that Jehovah doth -sacrifice for them"; -sacrifice" (zébakh) is here evidently equivalent to -feast" (in the sense described above).

their sacrifices … mourners Rather, (their bread) shall be unto them as the bread of mourning; the first two words seem to have fallen out of the text. -Bread of mourning" means such as was eaten during the seven days of mourning, when everything in the vicinity of the dead body was regarded as unclean (Numbers 19:14); it is therefore the emblem of utter impurity. Or there may possibly be a more special reference to the funeral feasts, which lingered on among the Israelites, as St Jerome has noticed (see his note on Jeremiah 16:7 and see Deuteronomy 26:14), but which are to be distinguished from the offerings made at intervals (in Sirach's time) at the grave (Sir 7:33; Sir 30:18). See Ewald, Antiquities, E. T., p. 153, Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, p. 132, Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 27.

for their bread for their soul Rather, for their bread shall be (only) for their hunger (i.e. to satisfy their appetite); it shall not come into the house of the Lord. They will not have the joy which belongs to those who have duly presented the tithes of their corn, or the firstlings of their flock, or offered their burnt sacrifices the joy of the sense of the divine favour. They cannot have this, because their food lacks the consecration of -the house of the Lord" (not the temple at Jerusalem, but any of the -high places" dedicated to Jehovah).