Hosea 9:3

In the Lord’s land. That is, in Palestine (see Ps. 85:1; Joel 2:18), which God intended should be His people’s permanent possession. Through their sin and apostasy, however, they were to lose it. It was theirs only on the basis of the covenant relationship. Now that they had renounced the covenant (Hosea 6:7; 8:1; 9:1), it was fitting that they should be removed from the land (see ch. 9:15, 17; cf. on ch. 2:5, 9).

Return to Egypt. See on ch. 8:13.

Eat unclean things. In the land of their captivity the people would eat that which was unclean, since they could not readily conform to the requirements of the law forbidding the eating of certain animals (see Lev. 11; Eze. 4:13).