Introduction

Hoseah, chapter nine begins with words that seem to evoke a summons to a feast. However, rather than being summoned to celebrate a feast, israel is being commanded not to do so. Israel had turned to the bales for its fertility, and the threshing floor was the site where they presumed they received their payment. The source of the fertility of the land was always the lord and the lord alone. As israel had been unfaithful to the lord, the land would become barren to them. And in addition to the cutting off of the blessings of the land, israel itself would be cut off from the land. This becomes clearer in verse four. They won