Do not rejoice, O Israel! Do not exult as other nations do; for you have played the whore, departing from your God. You have loved a prostitute’s pay on all threshing-floors. Threshing-floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not remain in the land of the Lord; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food. (Hosea 9: 1-3)

What do I value? Over what do I rejoice? What do I love? To what and to whom and how do I give myself?

Hosea complains that Israel has become as a common whore who will even go to the threshing floor to conduct her trade and collect her pay.

Israel has already returned to bondage in Egypt. She has given herself over to meaningless sensuality, corrupting indulgence, and vulgar materialism.

The threashing floor and wine vat do not feed - ra'ah - us. These material things cannot tend us, nurture us, or return our love. Ra'ah can also mean to be a special friend or teacher.

We are to love that which is capable of loving. The loving is to be, in itself, end and fulfillment. Love can be unconditional. But that which cannot love is not due our love.