The Lord certainly appears to be making reference to a celebratory occasion, both for Israel and for other nations, as this chapter opens. It very well may be that it is the harvest time of year in Israel and surrounding nations. But the Lord warns Israel that it's not a time of celebrating for her. She has violated His laws, bowed to other gods, and participated in immoral religious rites (such as asking "the gods" for a good harvest) like the heathen nations.
The Lord says, "Do not rejoice, Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor." (Hosea 9:1) All manner of debauchery went on at pagan harvest festivals, including sexual immorality on the threshing floors, and verse 1 lets us know that a large number of people in Israel must have been participating in these shameful deeds.
Interestingly, the Lord isn't telling the heathen nations not to rejoice at harvest time, although they were living in the abject depths of sin. It's not that He didn't judge other nations for idolatry and immorality (many of the nations and tribes mentioned in the Bible do not exist as a distinct group of people in today's world; their cities and towns fell long ago to invaders), but that He and Israel had made a covenant with each other---a covenant the Israelites repeatedly broke. We've talked before about how our deeds are judged by the knowledge we possess. A person who knows the laws and commandments of God is far more responsible for keeping them than a person who knows very little about what the Lord considers godly living. The Lord initiated a personal relationship with the people of Israel. He chose to reveal His character to them and to give them His laws and commandments. He communicated with them in a way no other group of people on earth at that time had ever experienced. He brought them into a prosperous land and made a great nation of them. But in spite of all this, they desired to serve the gods of the nations. They wanted to go their own way and do their own thing. They didn't aspire to the holy mode of living to which the Lord called them; they served gods whose character was presumed to be just like man's character---a character that contained jealousy, lust, anger, greed, and all the other qualities of the carnal side of man.
The debauchery in the threshing floors and vineyards and orchards will do them no good. The Lord abhors immorality and "the gods" they called upon there do not exist and cannot help them. An invader will take whatever crops manage to come to harvest. An invader (Assyria) will take the people to other lands; some will flee to other lands (such as Egypt) in an effort to escape the invasion. The people will eat and drink in foreign lands where only foreign gods are served. "Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them. They will not remain in the Lord's land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria." (Hosea 9:2-3) The purpose in sending them to foreign lands where they will see nothing but idols is not so they will serve idols more and more but that they will see the futility of worshiping idols and turn back to the Lord. It's so they will long for Him, repent to Him, and commit themselves to Him wholeheartedly.
After the people have either refugeed to other lands or have been taken forcibly to other lands, those who have eschewed the temple for so long will wish they were free to go there and make offerings to the Lord. But they will not be free to return for some time. While they were still free to come and go as they pleased, they chose not to, resorting instead to pagan temples and altars. "They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, nor will their sacrifices please Him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the Lord." (Hosea 9:4)
The Lord continues with the theme of how little good it has done them to serve other gods. The gods will not protect them from crop failure or crop destruction. The gods will not protect them from an invading enemy. The gods will not protect them from captivity and deportation. The gods will not prevent their worldly goods and treasures from being carried off by the enemy. Only by remaining faithful to Him could they have remained secure and prosperous in their own land. "What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals, on the feast days of the Lord? Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents." (Hosea 9:5-6)
Some of the commentaries I consulted suggested that Hosea preached this part of his message during a time of great prosperity. We know that he ministered to the nation during the reign of King Jeroboam II, which was the most prosperous of any of the reigns of the kings of the northern kingdom, and the people scoffed at Hosea's warning that bad times were coming. They didn't believe him, so the Lord says, "The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac." (Hosea 9:7)
The people preferred to remain in their wayward mode of living, so they dismissed Hosea's pleas to repent and his warnings of a coming judgment by convincing themselves he was a madman. In the face of the prosperity they were currently enjoying, they could not picture a time when things would not be just as good as they are right now. But the Jehu dynasty, to which Jeroboam II belongs, is about to come to an end. The Lord told Jehu that his dynasty would only last to the fourth generation and the time is almost up, for Jeroboam's son and heir (King Zechariah) will be assassinated only six months into his reign by a man named Shallum who is not of the family line of Jehu. There will follow a quick succession of short-reigning kings, each of whom will be assassinated and succeeded by his killer. The glory days of the northern kingdom will soon come to an end, just as Hosea has said.
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