And she weaned Lo-ruhamah; and she conceived and bore a son;
Each of Hosea's children carries a name God chose as a sign to Israel, and the second — No Mercy — is also called Lo-ruhamah. When that child is weaned, a third is born, and his name will cancel the tie that set Israel apart from every other nation.
The names run in order, and each one takes the sentence further than the last.
The first child is "Jezreel" — the sign of the doom of both the house of Jehu and the house of Israel. The second child is "Lo-ruhamah" — the sign that God would withdraw His mercy from the house of Israel. The third is "Lo-ammi" — the sign that He would disown Israel, so that they should be no more His people. But a promise of final re-gathering follows all this, called "the day of Jezreel," when that very same nation, now cast off, will be restored.
The gap between the second child and this son is not empty. Judah, the southern kingdom, still had quiet years left, and the house of David still stood.
Judah's time of quiet lasted longer. For the moment, at least, they showed faithfulness to the LORD in their own measure. Afterwards another child is born — a son… It was no longer simply a case of breaking Israel up completely. Now Judah comes into judgment. As long as the royal tribe stood, there was still a centre around which all the people could be gathered. As long as the house of David was true in any measure… God could, morally speaking, still work a recovery. But now, on the proved faithlessness of the innermost circle, God represents the solemn crisis by the birth of the son called Lo-ammi.
The birth announces a sentence that would take years to land. Commentators mark two points in the nation's history where the two names came true. Nebuchadnezzar, named below, was the king of Babylon.
There are two phases in the history of the Jewish people. First He owns them as the people of God; He disciplines them by Egypt and Assyria, yet still owns them. Later on He rejects them, and the people become Lo-ammi, Not-His-people. When Israel was carried away captive, it was Lo-ruhamah, but there was not yet an absolute cutting off as a people. When Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, the people become Lo-ammi. Israel is rejected. God no more owns His people. He watches over them still for final restoration to their land, but "the times of the Gentiles" begin.
Israel had suffered defeats and deportations before without losing this. The third name removes something no earlier trouble had touched.
In all their previous calamities, they had still been owned of God as His people, and He had owned Himself to be their God. This was what constituted, in fact, the great distinction between them and other nations. But this was now in judgment set aside.
Writers apply this child's name to Israel today, not only to the ancient past. Stephen was the first follower of Jesus put to death, stoned after preaching to the nation's leaders.
For long centuries God had looked for fruit from Israel, but found none as a nation. After our Lord had been rejected and cast out, God gave Israel another chance in the testimony of the Holy Spirit. But the only answer to it was the murder of Stephen, and the defiant message sent with him, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." As a result the barren fig tree has been cut down. Israel as a nation has been set aside by God.
Once God writes that name on them, Israel has no claim left. That is what turns any future blessing into pure gift.
God, because of His people's sin and turning away, gave them the name, wrote the sentence upon them, of Lo-ammi (not my people). They have therefore forfeited all claim. So their restoration and blessing will be just as much a work of grace and mercy as the salvation of the Gentiles in the present time of God's favour… What they had lost under responsibility He will give back — and how much more! — in keeping with His own purposes of grace.
Commentators differ on emphasis. Some read the third name as falling mainly on Judah's later failure. Others take it as covering the whole nation.
- Sequence. Three children, three steps down: scattering, then mercy withdrawn, then the tie itself cut.
- Delay. The weaning is a pause of patience — Judah's extra quiet years — before God speaks the heaviest name.
- Reach. Earlier judgment fell on the northern kingdom. This one reaches the royal line — the place where any recovery had to begin.
- Loss. The name takes away the one thing defeat had never touched: God owning them as His people.
- Reversal. Israel forfeited every claim. Future blessing can only be mercy — the same grace that saves anyone outside — and God gives back more than was lost.
and he said, Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be for you.
Hosea's second son carries the heaviest name of all. God tells the nation He drew out of Egypt that it is no longer His. The verse raises two questions the rest of the book will answer — when did this sentence fall, and is it the last word?
The first two children announced judgment on the house of Jehu and the end of mercy toward the ten tribes. This third name widens the ruin to include the tribe that had so far been spared.
A second son is named Lo-ammi (that is, "not my people"), for now Jehovah no more acknowledged the people to be His. Judah held this position for a time, even though the ten tribes were lost. At last her unfaithfulness has plunged the whole nation under the terrible judgment of being no longer the people of God, with Jehovah no longer their God.
Israel had suffered defeats and invasions before. What made this different is that God had always claimed them through those disasters.
God has disowned them as His people. In all their previous troubles, they had still been owned by God as His people, and He had owned Himself to be their God. This was in fact what made the great distinction between them and other nations. But this was now set aside in judgment.
The verse ends, "I am not your God." Others render it, "I will not be for you." Here is what that meant in practice.
They rebelled against Jehovah again and again. So He separated Himself from them. He gave them the name "Lo-ammi," which means "You are not My people, and I will not be for you" (Hosea 1:9). From their rescue out of Egypt to their captivity under Gentile rule, the children of Israel had been His own special people. He no longer regarded them so. Jehovah hid His face of favour from them and withdrew His protecting arm. They were cast back into the sea of nations out of which He had drawn them.
Commentators differ over when the words landed. Some tie it to Nebuchadnezzar's capture of Jerusalem.
There are two phases in the history of the Jewish people. There is first the time when they are owned as the people of God, whom He disciplines by Egypt and Assyria, yet owns. Later He rejects them, and the people become Lo-ammi, Not-His-people... When Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, the people become Lo-ammi. Israel is rejected. God no more owns His people. He watches over them still for final restoration to their land, but "the times of the Gentiles" begin.
Others date its full moral force to the death of Christ.
From this scripture we learn that a time was coming when God would disown His ancient people the Jews, and cast them off. And this took place at the death of their Messiah. Then the dreadful sentence "Lo-ammi" took effect morally, and they are no longer owned by God as His people. This suspension of relationship is clearly taught in Matthew 23:38-39... The Jews being thus rejected, room was left for the gathering in of the Gentiles.
The sentence touches how God governs His people. It does not touch what He has decided about them.
When God said to Israel, "not my people," it was not that God gave them up. He did not change His mind; no, never! They shall be His people at last, because He did not mean it in purpose when He said Lo-ammi — but now they are Lo-ammi still.
Paul takes up Hosea's words in Romans 9. Once God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew — and the promised title is higher than the one forfeited.
God drops the word "people" and uses "sons" instead. With perfect fitness He signals through His prophet that when He was going to work in grace, He would work worthily of His name. He would bring Gentiles not merely into the place of Israel, but into a better standing. Granted that they were the vilest of the vile: even so grace could and would raise them into the nearest relationship to God Himself.
Hosea 2 turns each name of judgment inside out, and the reply from the people's own mouth completes the exchange.
"And I will sow her to Me in the earth [this refers to the name Jezreel]. And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy (Lo-ruhamah). And I will say to those who were not My people (Lo-ammi), You are My people; and they shall say, My God."
- Cause. Long rebellion, reaching at last into Judah, brought the whole nation under the name "not my people."
- Loss. God withdrew the one thing that marked Israel out from every other nation: He owned them as His, and owned Himself as theirs.
- Purpose. He disowned them, but He did not give them up. They are Lo-ammi still, and in His purpose they will be His people at last.
- Reach. Israel's rejection made room for the Gentiles. God calls them "sons" — a nearer place than the one Israel lost.
- Reversal. Hosea himself turns each name around: no mercy becomes mercy, not my people becomes "My people" — answered by "My God."
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Sons of the living God.
God has just called Israel Lo-ammi — "not my people." In the same chapter He promises a people beyond counting and a new name, given in the very place where that sentence fell — so who are these sons?
Lo-ammi describes how God deals with Israel, not what He has decided about them.
Because of the sin of Israel they are, for a time, outwardly not God's people. God has not changed His purpose concerning His ancient people, Romans 11:29; He has only changed His manner toward them. Hosea 2:23 adds, "I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, You are my God." This will be when God's set time arrives for bringing them again into blessing.
Everything here turns on one word. God does not cancel Lo-ammi by saying "Ammi" — "my people." He says something else. (The ESV reads "children of the living God"; the writers quoted here use the older wording "sons," and the argument rests on that word.)
In a vague and general sense, compared with distant Gentile nations, Israel is called son, child, firstborn. But that is only as a nation, while "sons" is individual. The expression "in the place… you are the sons of the living God" is the faint allusion to the call of the Gentiles I mentioned earlier. It is so faint that many people swallow it up altogether and make it bear on Israel. If God had said, "Then they shall be Ammi," we could have read this of Israel. He does not, however, say this. He says "sons of the living God."
The promise does not hand Israel's old title to someone else. It gives a better one.
He would bring Gentiles not merely into the place of Israel, but into a better standing. Granted, they were the vilest of the vile. Even so, grace could and would raise them into the nearest relationship to God Himself. Then they should be, not a mere substitute for Israel, but "the sons of the living God" — a title never given in its full force to any but the Gentiles who are now being called.
Paul applies the verse to Gentiles, and the wording fixes where the new name is spoken.
Paul, writing to the saints in Rome — chiefly Gentiles — applies in Romans 9:25-26 not only Hosea 2:23, which predicts the future recall of Israel, but also Hosea 1:10, which reveals the actual call of Gentiles. They are not to be His people as Israel will be later, but to have the blessed title of Christians now, "sons of the living God." Notice the peculiarity of the phrase "in the place where it was said to them Lo-ammi, there it shall be said to them, 'sons'". It was among the nations while the Jews are not recognised as such.
That sentence puts Israel where the nations already stood.
The Gentiles were always "Lo-ammi," and He says to Israel, "Lo-ammi"; so all are "Lo-ammi." But now we get a new principle. "In the place where it was said to them, Lo-ammi, there they shall be called the children of the living God." And this is going on now. When Israel is restored, it is as "the people of God."
Peter and Paul both quote Hosea, but not the same lines. One writer makes that difference the strongest proof that this verse looks past Israel.
What confirms this as the true interpretation is that Peter also quotes from our prophet. Peter was writing to a remnant of Jews only, while the apostle Paul was writing in his own proper place to Gentiles. Peter does quote Hosea, but he leaves out the words "They shall be called the sons of the living God." See 1 Peter 2:10. For his purpose he quotes from Hosea 2, not from Hosea 1.
So does the verse speak of Israel or of the nations? One writer holds both together.
The first chapter shows more than the restoration of Israel. That restoration is perfectly true, and no one should argue against it. But in a mysterious way God also left room for bringing in the Gentiles. The form of the allusion is very easy to overlook. By it He proves His perfect knowledge beforehand, and tells us of the call of the Gentiles in their own proper distinctive relationship as sons of the living God, and not merely His people.
- Sentence. Lo-ammi changed God's manner toward Israel, not His purpose; the name has a set time to expire.
- Substitution. God does not answer "not my people" with "my people" — He says "sons," and that single word is where the wider promise hides.
- Standing. Sonship is individual, and it lifts those who had no claim at all above the place Israel held as a nation.
- Spot. God speaks the new name in the very place He spoke the rejection — among the nations, while Israel goes unrecognised.
- Split. Peter quotes Hosea 2:23 to believing Jews and stops. Paul adds this verse for the Gentiles — one prophet, two reaches of the same mercy.