Hosea 9:3

"They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria."

"Jehovah's land ..." is a mistranslation, despite its being strictly true. All land is the Lord's, and Israel would still be "in the Lord's land" even when deported to Assyria. Furthermore, Palestine was not any more "God's land" than any other piece of real estate on earth. The meaning is that Israel shall not dwell any more "in the house of the Lord"; and "thus Hosea referred to it in Hosea 8:1; 9:15 ... it means the salvation history will be cancelled,"[10] for Israel.

"Ephraim shall return to Egypt. And they shall eat unclean food in Assyria"

From this arrangement it is clear that Hebrew parallelism is employed here, and thus the second clause means the same thing as the first; and from that, it is quite evident that "Egypt" is used in a figurative sense to mean a place of slavery. Nearly all commentators recognize this; but now and then one goes overboard with the allegation that Hosea could not make up his mind where the captivity would be, or designates the last clause as a gloss and proclaims that this is not a valid prophecy at all, since Hosea was sure it would be in Egypt! Such blunders are caused by the over-zealousness of some critics to support some previously adopted interpretation or theory. To be sure, this passage like the whole prophecy is valid; and even the use of Egypt in a metaphorical sense is most circumstantially accurate and scriptural. We have repeatedly become aware in Hosea of this sacred writer's absolute familiarity with much of the Old Testament that preceded him, included the Pentateuch; and he almost certainly had in mind Moses' words in Deuteronomy. In that passage:

"Though threatening a return to Egypt, it speaks (verse 36) of their being brought to a nation which neither they nor their fathers had known, showing that it is not the literal Egypt, but an Egypt-like bondage that is threatened."[11]

Mauchline believed that this verse prophesied that Israel would go to both Egypt and Assyria,[12] thus passing over the obvious parallelism employed and taking the passage literally. No one can deny that even that understanding of the prophecy was exactly fulfilled! As Clarke noted many years ago, with the onset of the Assyrian invasion:

Many of them fled to Egypt to avoid destruction, but they went there only to die.[13] (Mays believed that such a fleeing to Egypt would have occurred about 733 B.C .... J.B.C.) After 733 some Israelites had already been carried into exile in Assyria, and (Hosea) expected others to flee as refugees to Egypt.[14]

We do not believe, however, that the principal concern of commentators is that of determining what Hosea "probably thought." Hosea was not delivering to mankind what he thought, but what God said, and this should always be kept in mind. The true explanation of this dual reference to Egypt and Assyria lies in the figurative use of Egypt in Deuteronomy; and as God is the true author of both passages, it should be concluded that since the figurative use of Egypt in Deuteronomy 28 is absolutely clear, the most reasonable conclusion is that the figurative use applies here also. As Myers summed it up:

"Of course, the clause is explained by the parallelism, `they shall eat unclean food in Assyria,' for no actual exile in Egypt is contemplated ... in Assyria, it will not be possible to carry out the customary rituals of the Lord" (Hosea 9:4).[15]