Hosea 9:10

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness,

I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season,

They came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing,

And became abominable like what they loved.

Then He dredges up the past as an example to them. Let them remember that when YHWH had found His people (Deuteronomy 32:10) they had been like withered grapes, the kind which would grow on a vine in the wilderness, struggling to survive, and like the partially inedible firstfruits of a newly planted fig tree which no one wanted to eat (in Isaiah 28:4 the first ripe fig is compared to ‘the fading flower of a wilting floral crown's glorious beauty'). As with all fruit trees fruit from a fig tree was not to be eaten until the fifth year (Leviticus 19:23). And they had underlined this truth about themselves when they had arrived at Baal-peor and, instead of consecrating themselves to YHWH and remaining pure, had consecrated themselves to whoredom and idolatry (the shameful thing), chasing after Baal and thus becoming as abominable as the thing that they lusted after (see Numbers 25).

Others, however, see the initial words as indicating a touch of tender love in the midst of harsh judgments, as YHWH looks back to when He ‘found Israel' and saw her as a bunch of luscious grapes in the wilderness (an unexpected joy indeed), and as a tender fig which had ripened and become a delicacy. In that case the reversal at Baal-peor must be seen as finally indicating what they really were. They had subsequently proved a huge disappointment, and that was something that was now repeating itself. In the same way we must continually beware lest we also become a disappointment to Him