What will you do on the day of appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the LORD?: This is a rhetorical question. The positioning of this question strongly suggests that the Israelites’ return to Egypt or their move to Assyria will make it impossible to celebrate their festivals. This may have to be made explicit as in Good News Translation with the word “then.” If a rhetorical question is used, it should be clear in the receptor language that it implies there will be no festival celebrations. Contemporary English Version uses a strong statement to make this clear: “You will no longer be able to celebrate the festival of the LORD.”
The second person pronoun you refers to the Israelites, which is a shift from the third person pronouns for them in 9.2-4. Regarding this pronominal switch, see 9.2. Good News Translation uses the third person pronoun “they” here, but it may be better to keep second person if it is used throughout 9.1-4. This question serves somewhat as a taunt to the people; it expects an answer such as “We will be able to do nothing.” This taunting style is greatly weakened if the people are no longer addressed directly.
The parallel phrases the day of appointed festival and the day of the feast of the LORD refer to Israel’s three annual festivals, which included the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters (Exo 23.14-17; 2 Chr 8.13). The people were to celebrate these festivals at the shrine of the LORD (Exo 34.23), but in foreign lands there was no proper Temple of the LORD, so the observance of the pilgrimage feasts was impossible. The Hebrew words for appointed festival and feast also occur in 2.11 (see comments there). As there, these words are singular in Hebrew, but have a collective sense, so many versions use plural for them; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “feast days” and “festivals of the LORD.” Good News Translation combines these parallel phrases, saying “the appointed festivals in honor of the LORD.” If translators want to reflect the parallel structures of Hebrew poetry, this model is not recommended. Repetition may be a valuable stylistic element in the receptor language.
A translation model for this verse is:
• What will you then do on the festival days,
during the festivals of the LORD?
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 .