Bible Commentaries
Hosea 9

Verse 1

do not rejoice: This is probably a reference to the Festival of Shelters, when Israel celebrated the final harvest of the year. This festival was ordained by God (Deuteronomy 16:13-15), but the Israelites had turned it into a wild pagan festival, just as other nations had.

threshing floor … winepress. These were the very places where sacred prostitution took place in an attempt to cause Baal to bring prosperity.

hiring yourselves out like prostitutes (literally you have loved a prostitute’s pay): The Israelites ignorantly believed that their grain and wine were payment for their worship of the Canaanite fertility god.

Hosea urged Israel not to rejoice over the plentiful harvest like the nations. The heathen considered the harvest to be the gift of the gods in return for their sacrifices. Thus they made the obtaining of material blessings the aim and object of worship. Since Israel believed that material blessings came from the Baal gods, they had given themselves over to the debased worship of their local Baal shrine. They had “committed whoredom” against Yahweh. - J.Smith

Verse 15

Gilgal. As a center of idol worship (cf. 4:15), the place was representative of Israel’s spiritual adultery; therefore He had rejected them from intimate fellowship. - MSB

A site near Jericho that was an important religious center in the time of Samuel. See note on Hosea 4:15. FSB

Verse 17

wanderers. God promised global dispersion for disobedience (cf. Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64-65).

Hosea’s God would cast the Ephraimites out of the land because they proved unresponsive to Him. They would end up wandering among the other nations of the world. Because they had wandered from the Lord, they would wander in the earth, like Cain whom the Lord also cursed (cf. Gen. 4:12). - TCENB

“God never forsakes unless He be first forsaken.”