They won't dwell in Yahweh's land; But Ephraim will return to Egypt, And they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
From this arrangement it is clear that Hebrew parallelism is employed here, and thus the second clause means the same thing as the first; and from that, it is quite evident that "Egypt" is used in a figurative sense to mean a place of slavery.  Nearly all commentators recognize this; but now and then one goes overboard with the allegation that Hosea could not make up his mind where the captivity would be, or designates the last clause as a gloss and proclaims that this is not a valid prophecy at all, since Hosea was sure it would be in Egypt!  Such blunders are caused by the over-zealousness of some critics to support some previously adopted interpretation or theory.  To be sure, this passage like the whole prophecy is valid; and even the use of Egypt in a metaphorical sense is most circumstantially accurate and scriptural.  We have repeatedly become aware in Hosea of this sacred writer's absolute familiarity with much of the Old Testament that preceded him, included the Pentateuch; and he almost certainly had in mind Moses' words in Deuteronomy.  In that passage: