The conjunction Therefore introduces what Yahweh will do in response to the sins of Israel mentioned in the previous verse (see comments on 2.6).

I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season… means that what Yahweh once gave to Israel he will take away from Israel. The Hebrew expression for I will take back is literally “I will return and I will take.” The Hebrew verb for “return” is the same one used in 2.7, where the woman returns to her husband. Here the LORD returns and takes from his wife Israel, which is an opposite move. It may be hard to retain this wordplay in translation. NET Bible has “go back” in 2.7 and “take back” here. The same Hebrew words are used for grain and wine as in 2.8. The possessive pronoun my is used with each of these crops, emphasizing that they never came from Baal in the first place, but from the LORD, in contrast with the woman’s thoughts in 2.5. Drought seems to be implied as the means of destroying these crops (see 2.3). In its time and in its season refer to the time when grain is harvested and when grapes are gathered and their juice pressed out for making wine. Good News Translation combines these two phrases, saying “at harvest time.” Again, the translator has to consider the literary genre that is used to translate this text. In poetry a certain element of repetition is acceptable in many languages.

And I will take away my wool and my flax: The Hebrew verb for take away means “to snatch,” implying the use of sudden force in grabbing the material away from the woman. New American Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh say “snatch away,” and Bible en français courant and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translate “tear away.” This verb can also be understood to mean “rescue” (Andersen and Freedman), as if Yahweh is rescuing property that is rightfully his own. Either meaning is appropriate in this context.

My wool and my flax repeat the words used in 2.5. By referring back to things in 2.5 and 2.8, this prophecy demonstrates a feature of good Hebrew style in poetry: various parts of a poem are shown to relate to each other, almost like rhyming patterns of poetry in many Western languages.

Which were to cover her nakedness: Wool and flax would first have to be made into clothing to cover the woman, and some languages may need to specify this fact. The last two lines of this verse are another way of saying that Yahweh will strip her naked (see 2.3, 10).

A translation model for this verse is:

• Therefore I will take back
my grain when it is ripe,
and my wine when it is matured.
I will snatch my wool and my flax
used to cover her nakedness.

Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .