Book of Hosea Chapter 9 Vs. 4

 The Lord Will Punish Israel

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. Hos. 9:4

the bread of... The bread of mourners was unclean. In fact, everything where the dead were was unclean (Num. 19:11-14; Deut. 16:14). Food eaten on the occasion of mourning was considered unclean, defiling anyone eating it (Deut. 26:12-15).

They shall not pour libations to Jehovah, nor prepare for Him their sacrifices. Like the bread of sorrows shall their bread be; all that eat of it shall be defiled: yea, their bread shall be only for their appetite; they shall not bring it to the temple of Jehovah. He cannot be worshiped off His own land. They will have to live like animals, divorced from religion, unable to hold communion with their God.

In Assyria, they would not be able to keep any of the offerings and sacrifices. As we said, even if they did keep them, God would not accept these offerings of obligation. God has turned His back on them and their offerings. Worship that is done out of obligation only, is unacceptable to God. Even the thought of sacrificing will just bring sadness for their lost fellowship.

Again, in exile, opportunity for legitimate worship to the Lord would end. Again, the punishment was highly appropriate. Israel’s Levitical worship had been corrupted by hypocrisy (cf. Hos. 6:6; 8:11-13). A nation that refused to conduct its formal worship in the proper spirit would be denied its privilege of worship. Wine offerings, which accompanied certain types of sacrifices (cf. Num. 15:1-12), would cease. Sacrifices offered in a foreign land would not be acceptable to the Lord. They would have the same effect on a worshiper as bread eaten by mourners, who made everything they touched ceremonially unclean because they had contacted a dead body (cf. Num. 19:14-15, 19:22). Such bread was not fit for use in worship.

Hos. 9:4 would be better translated, all who eat it (i.e., the mourners’ bread) become unclean; such bread can be used to satisfy one’s appetite, but it may not enter the Lord’s temple. In this way Hos. 9:4 is understood as a general statement about the nature of mourners’ bread rather than an additional prediction about the exilic worshipers and their sacrifices.