“Do not rejoice!
O Israel!
Do not exult
As other nations do!
You have played
The prostitute!
You departed from
Your God!
You have loved
A prostitute’s pay
On all the threshing floors.
Threshing floor
With wine vat
Shall not feed them.
The new wine
Shall fail them.
They shall not remain
In the land of Yahweh.
But Ephraim shall return
To Egypt.
They shall eat
Unclean food
In Assyria.”
Hosea told the people of Israel, perhaps at a harvest festival, that they would no longer rejoice and exalt like other countries. They had prostituted themselves. They had departed from their God. They had accepted the prostitute’s pay on the threshing floor. No longer would grain and wine feed them, as the new wine would fail. They were not going to remain in the land of Yahweh. They would be sent to Egypt and Assyria, where they would eat unclean food.