John Calvin Commentary Hosea 9:2

"The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her." — Hosea 9:2 (ASV)

God now pronounces such a punishment as the Israelites deserved. They had been drawn away, as we have said, from the pure worship of God by allurements; they hoped for more profit from superstitions. Therefore, God shows that he would, for this reason, punish them by taking away their wine and grain, as we have already noticed in Hosea 2. For this is the only way by which the Lord restores people to a sane mind, or at least makes them inexcusable: by depriving them of his blessings.

Consider the prostitute: as long as there is gain to be had, as long as she surpasses all honorable and chaste married women in her dress and way of living, she is pleased with herself and blinded by her own splendor. But when she is reduced to extreme need, when she sees herself to be the laughingstock of everyone, and when she drags out a miserable life in poverty, she then sighs and admits how infatuated she had been in leaving her husband. So the Lord now declares by his Prophet that he would deal with the Israelites in this way, so that they might no longer delight themselves with such delusions.

Therefore, he says, The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall disappoint them (mentietur illis — it shall lie to them; ) — that is, the vineyards shall not meet their expectation. It is as if he said, “Since these people regard only their stomach, as they consider nothing important except provisions, therefore the floor and the wine-press shall not feed them; I will deprive them of their support, so that they may understand that they worship false gods in vain.”

Let us take a common analogy: We see some boys so obstinate that they are not moved by disgrace or even by beatings; but since they are subject to the cravings of their appetite, when their father deprives them of bread, they nearly lose all hope.

Beatings do no good; all warnings are disregarded. But when the boy who loves overindulgence sees that bread is denied to him, he discovers that his father’s displeasure is to be feared. In this way, God corrects people addicted to excessive indulgence, for they are so unresponsive that no other remedy can do them any good.

We now, then, understand the Prophet's meaning. He first reproaches the Israelites for loving a reward, for rushing after false gods so that they might gorge themselves with a great abundance of things. But when the Lord saw that they had become stupefied in their prosperity, he said, “I will deprive them of all their provisions; neither wine nor wheat shall be given to them; this need will at last drive them to repentance.”

We therefore see how the Lord deals with people according to their disposition. And his manner of speaking should be noted: he says that neither the floor nor the wine-press shall feed them. He does not say that the fields will be barren; he does not say that he would send hail or storms; but he says that neither the floor nor the wine-press shall feed them.

And further, that the new wine shall disappoint them; that is, when they will think themselves blessed with complete abundance, when the harvest will appear abundant, and when they will have already, in anticipation, devoured the large produce of their vineyards, all this will come to nothing. For neither the floor nor the wine-press shall feed them; indeed, the very wine which they thought had been prepared shall disappoint them.