Hosea 1:9
in Hosea 1And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Jehovah said, Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
KJV
Then said God, Call his name Lo–ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
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This verse in Hosea 1
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Call his name Lo-ammi - that is, “not My people.” The name of this third child expresses the last final degree of chastisement. As the “scattering by God” did not involve the being wholly “unpitied;” so neither did the being wholly “unpitied” for the time involve the being wholly rejected, so as to be no more His people. There were corresponding degrees in the actual history of the kingdom of Israel. God withdrew his protection by degrees. Under Jeroboam, in whose reign was this beginning of Hosea’s prophecy, the people was yet outwardly strong.
This site's exposition
Now when she had weaned Lo–ruhamah
on Hosea 1:8-9
The weaning notice marks time between the second child and the third, whose name completes the sentence begun in the first two, not my people, undoing at a stroke the covenant formula given at the exodus, ye shall be my people and I will be your God, and setting Israel formally outside the relation Sinai had established. The commentators note the weight of I will not be your God set against the covenant name itself, the Lord unsaying his own word to a people who had unsaid theirs first. The three children stand together as a sentence read aloud over the northern kingdom, judgment and its ground both named before a word of hope interrupts it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"For he proclaims peace to his people, and to his faithful ones, and to those who turn to him from their hearts." I note here a threefold classification: his people, his loyal servants, and those who come back to him in hope. He proclaims peace to his people, not to the Jews of whom in Hosea he says, "You are not my people."
"And she that was without mercy hath taken him away and conceived and brought forth a son. And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. " (The Septuagint likewise) And he who was called the seed of God, turned into a woman and, on account of the weakness of his strength and the offence against God, was led captive, not mentioned as having been weaned, but as having been weaned: for he had already lost his strength as a man.
For this reason, our God spoke elsewhere about the Hebrew people to the prophet, saying, "Call his name Not Beloved," and again to the Jews, "You are not my people, and I am not your God." But he himself showed clearly elsewhere why he said …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
But our being cast out of covenant is owing purely to ourselves and our own folly. The breach is on man's side: You are not my people, and therefore I will not be your God; if God hate any, it is because they first hated him. This was fulfilled in Israel when they were utterly taken away into the land of Assyria, and their place knew them no more.
Then said God, call his name Loammi,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Jezreel, the first child, represents the dynasty of Jeroboam I and his successors, ending with Jehu's shedding the blood of Jeroboam's line in Jezreel; it was there that Jezebel was slain, in vengeance for Naboth's blood shed in the same Jezreel (1Ki 16:1;
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Call his name Lo-ammi - לא עמי Lo-ammi, “Not my people;” for which the reason is immediately given: Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God - The word God is not added here by any of the ancient versions or MSS.; and yet the construction absolutely requires it, as Houbigant properly observes, who thinks the present reading לא אהיה לכם lo eheyeh lachem, “I will not be to you,” a corruption of the word אלחיכם eloheychem, “your God.” It is strange that no various reading occurs on this verse in any MS. yet discovered. In two of the oldest of mine there is a blank of half a line left after the last word; and so it is in the Masoretic Bibles, though the sense is not complete; for it is evidently continued in the following verse. Probably God refers to the words, Exo 3:14: אהיה אשר אהיה I am that I am. I am, אהיה eheyeh, - I shall be, hath sent me unto you. I will not be your eheyeh, i.e., I will not be your God.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּ֕אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| קְרָ֥א | kera' | call | H7121 → | 733 times |
| שְׁמ֖וֹ | shemo | name his | H8034 → | 864 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | Lo- | H3818 → | |
| עַמִּ֑י | ʾami | Ammi | H3818 → | |
| כִּ֤י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אַתֶּם֙ | ʾatem | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| עַמִּ֔י | ʾami | [are] people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| וְאָנֹכִ֖י | veanokhi | and I | H595 → | 359 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֶהְיֶ֥ה | ʾehyeh | I will belong | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לָכֶֽם׃ ס | lakhem | to you |
וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
קְרָ֥אcall
kera'H7121 →733 times
שְׁמ֖וֹname his
shemoH8034 →864 times
לֹ֣אLo-
lo'H3818 →
עַמִּ֑יAmmi
ʾamiH3818 →
כִּ֤יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
אַתֶּם֙you
ʾatemH859 →1094 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
עַמִּ֔י[are] people my
ʾamiH5971 →1873 times
וְאָנֹכִ֖יand I
veanokhiH595 →359 times
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
אֶהְיֶ֥הI will belong
ʾehyehH1961 →3559 times
לָכֶֽם׃ סto you
lakhem
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 15:1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 14:14
then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.
- Ezekiel 14:20–21
then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.
- Jeremiah 14:11
Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.
- Jeremiah 11:14
As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in…
- Psalms 106:23
So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.
- Ezekiel 14:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this chapter
About Hosea
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, ALTERNATE SERIES 64; Jerome, Commentary on Hosea 1:8-9; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Salvian the Presbyter, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4:1.