Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 1:9
Then said [God], Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God].
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 Hoseas prophecy, the people was yet outwardly strong. This strength has been thought to be expressed by the sex of the oldest child, that he was a son. On this, followed extreme weakness, full of mutual massacre and horrible cruelty, first, in a long anarchy, then under Zechariah, Shallurn, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, Hosea, within, and through the invasions of Pul, Tiglathpileser, Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria, from without. The sex of the daughter, Lo Ruhamah, Unpitied, corresponds with this increasing weakness, and breaking of the spirit. When she was weaned, i. e., when the people were deprived of all consolation and all the spiritual food whereby they had here to been supported, prophecy, teaching, promises, sacrifices, grace, favor, consolation, it became wholly Lo-ammi, not My people. As a distinct part of Gods people, it was cast off forever; and yet it became outwardly strong, as the Jews became powerful, and often were the persecutors of the Christians. The same is seen in individuals. God often first chastens them lightly, then more heavily, and brings them down in their iniquities; but if they still harden themselves, He withdraws both His chastisements and His grace, so that the sinner even prospers in this world, but, remaining finally impenitent, is cast off forever.
I will not be your God – Literally I will not be to you, or, for you; for you, by providence; to you, by love. The words say the more through their silence. They do not say what God will not be to those who had been His people. They do not say that He will not be their Defender, Nourisher, Saviour, Deliverer, Father, Hope, Refuge; and so they say that He will be none of these, which are all included in the English, I will not be your God. For, as God, He is these, and all things, to us. I will not be to you. God, by His love, vouchsafes to give all and to take all. He gives Himself wholly to His own, in order to make them wholly His. He makes an exchange with them. As God the Son, by His Incarnation, took the Manhood into God, so, by His Spirit dwelling in them, He makes men gods, partakers of the Divine Nature 2Pe 1:4. They, by His adoption, belong to Him; He, by His promise and gift, belongs to them.
He makes them His; He becomes theirs. This mutual exchange is so often expressed in Holy Scripture, to show how God loveth to give Himself to us, and to make us His; and that where the one is, there is the other; nor can the one be without the other. This was the original covenant with Israel: I will be your God, and you shall be My people Lev 26:12; Exo 6:7; and as such, it is often repeated in Jeremiah Jer 11:4-5; Jer 24:7; Jer 30:22; Jer 31:1, Jer 31:33; Jer 32:38 and Ezekiel Eze 11:20; Eze 14:11; Eze 36:28; Eze 37:23, Eze 37:27. Afterward, this is expressed still more affectionately. I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters 2Co 6:18. And in Christ the Son, God saith, I will be his Father, and he shall be My son 2Sa 7:14. God, who saith not this to any out of Christ, nor even to the holy Angels, (as it is written, Unto which of the Angels said He at any time, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to Me a son? Heb 1:5), saith it to us in Christ. And so, in turn, the Church and each single soul which is His, saith, or rather He saith it in them Son 2:16, My beloved is mine, and I am His, and more boldly yet, I am my Beloveds, and my Beloved is mine Son 6:3. Whence also at the holy communion we say, then we dwell in Christ and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us; and we pray that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 1:9
Lo-ammi: ye are not My people, and I will not be your God.
Lo-ammi: the type of the third child
The last period of their sins ripening for Gods judgments, is represented under the type of the third child, called Lo-ammi, or not My people; pointing to the time of their utter captivity by Shalmaneser, whereby God made void the relation betwixt Him and that people, scattering them among the nations, and making them cease from being His Church and people. Whence learn–
1. Such is the long-suffering patience of God, especially toward the visible Church, that He is not only slow to anger, and to manifest the same by judgments; but even when He hath begun to strike, He yet waits patiently, to see what use they will make of present judgments, to prevent future and sadder strokes; and in particular it is very long ere the Lord come to unchurch a people that have been in covenant with Him.
2. However the Lords long-suffering patience be great and admirable, yet it will not always last towards a sinful people, especially after He hath begun to plead with them, but will at last come to a sad period.
3. Howbeit no limits ought to be set to the freedom and efficacy of the grace of God, who can and doth sanctify afflictions unto the Church, and make them a means to turn her, and cause her to cleave faster to Him: yet it doth ofttimes also prove too true, that when the Lord begins to contend with her, she proves so obstinate in sin, and so incorrigible and incessant in defection, that nothing ends it but her utter rejection, at least for a time.
4. The capstone of all judgment upon a people is their unchurching, and the cutting off the relations between God and them.
5. Whenever the Lord gives up with a people as to being their God, He will make it appear that the breach began on their side, and that they first voluntarily rejected Him, and chose that state and condition sinfully, to which, and the effects thereof, He gives them up judicially. (George Hutcheson.)
Lo-ammi
Ye are not My people. This is the final disowning of them. They had been before called Jezreelites, and then by the name of the daughter God testified that He was alienated from them; bat now the third name is still more grievous, Ye are not My people, for God here abolishes, in a manner, the covenant He made with the holy fathers, so that the people would cease to have any preeminence over the other nations. The Israelites were reduced to a condition in which they differed nothing from the profane Gentiles: and thus God wholly disinherited them. Let us hence learn, that those awfully mistake who are blind to their own vices, because God spares and indulges them. There is no reason for hypocrites to felicitate themselves in prosperity; they ought, on the contrary, to have regard to Gods judgment. But though these, as we see to be the case, heedlessly despise God, yet this passage reminds us carefully to beware lest we abuse the present favours of God. (John Calvin.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Call his name Lo-ammi] 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 lo eheyeh lachem, “I will not be to you,” a corruption of the word 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, Ex 3:14: I am that I am. I am, eheyeh, – I shall be, hath sent me unto you. I will not be your eheyeh, i.e., I will not be your God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then said God to the prophet, as before, Hos 1:4,6.
Call his name; the name of his new-born son, the sign or type of the ten tribes, who had rejected God, and would not be reclaimed.
Lo-ammi, Not my people; though once you were a peculiar people, you are so no more in my account, you are cast off as you deserved.
For ye; the whole house of apostate Israel, who first cast off the house of David and my temple, and at last rejected me, that I should not be your God.
Are not my people; though circumcised, . yet have you cast off my covenant, you neither worship me, nor come up to my temple, nor keep my law; Baal, the calves, and the idols of your neighbours are your gods; ye are their people: ye are neither mine as to the civil constitution, you made you kings, and I knew it not, Hos 8:4, without my leave or liking; nor as to church constitution are ye mine, for your whole worship is the politic contrivance of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. You have forgotten your Maker, and build temples, Hos 8:14; ye count the great things of my law strange things to you; I must count you strangers to me.
I will not be your God, to protect you against dangers and enemies, or to replenish you with blessings, the fruits of my wonted goodness, or to pity you when you do either want or smart, or to counsel you in difficulties, or to hear your cries, or pardon your sins, or accept an offering at your hand; as you have long and lang refused me, and I have tried all ways to prevent your final self-undoing obstinacy, so now I do for ever reject you, O house of Israel, and will be a God to you no more than to any of the heathen nations. This God executed when he gave them up into the hands of Shalmaneser, who sent them where none now can find them; they are lost to men, they know not where they are; they are lost to God, he loves not nor careth for them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Lo-Ammionce “Mypeople,” but henceforth not so (Eze16:8). The intervals between the marriage and the successivebirths of the three children, imply that three successive generationsare intended. Jezreel, the first child, represents the dynasty ofJeroboam I and his successors, ending with Jehu’s shedding the bloodof 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;2Ki 9:21; 2Ki 9:30).The scenes of Jezreel were to be enacted over again on Jehu’sdegenerate race. At Jezreel Assyria routed Israel [JEROME].The child’s name associates past sins, intermediate punishments, andfinal overthrow. Lo-ruhamah (“not pitied”), the secondchild, is a daughter, representing the effeminate period whichfollowed the overthrow of the first dynasty, when Israel was at onceabject and impious. Lo-Ammi (“not my people”), the thirdchild, a son, represents the vigorous dynasty (2Ki14:25) of Jeroboam II; but, as prosperity did not bring with itrevived piety, they were still not God’s people.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said God, call his name Loammi,…. Which Aben Ezra interprets of the children of the ten tribes horn in captivity, who never returned; but it rather signifies the ten tribes themselves, who were carried captive and had this name given them for the reason following:
for ye are not my people; though he had chosen them to be his people above all people, and had distinguished them from others by various blessings and privileges; yet they did not behave as such to him; they did not serve, obey, and worship him, but the calves at Dan and Bethel; and therefore did not deserve the name of his people: hence he says,
and I will not be your or “yours” a; that is, as we supply it, and so Aben Ezra, “your God”; will not behave toward you as such; will not take you under my care and protection, or continue you in your land, and in the enjoyment of the blessings of it; will not be your King, patron, and defender, but give you up into the hands of your enemies. This respects the captivity of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser,
2Ki 17:6. The Targum is,
“for ye are not my people; because ye do not confirm the words of my law, my word shall not be your help.”
a “non ero vester”, Pagninus; “nec ego sum futurus vester”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The reason is added For ye are not my people, and I will not hereafter be your God. This, as I have said, is the final disowning of them. They had been before called Jezreelites, and then by the name of the daughter God testified that he was alienated from them; but now the third name is still more grievous, Ye are not my people; for God here abolishes, in a manner, the covenant he made with the holy fathers, so that the people would cease to have any preeminence over other nations. So then the Israelites were reduced to a condition in which they differed nothing from the profane Gentiles; and thus God wholly disinherited them. The Prophet, doubtless, was not well received, when he denied them to be God’s people, who had yet descended from Abraham according to the flesh, who had ever been so accounted, and who continued proudly to boast of their election.
But let us hence learn, that those awfully mistake who are blind to their own vices, because God spares and indulges them. For we must ever remember what I have said before, that the kingdom of Israel was then opulent; and yet the Prophet denies them, who flourished in strength, and power, and riches, to be God’s people. There is then no reason for hypocrites to felicitate themselves in prosperity; but they ought, on the contrary, to have regard to God’s judgement. But though these, as we see to be the case, heedlessly despise God, yet this passage reminds us carefully to beware lest we abuse the present favours of God. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) Closes the chapter in the Hebrew text. The episode above described is, in some particulars, the model for Ezekiel 16. Gomers child Lo Ammi (not my people), is type of utter and final repudiation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And YHWH said, “Call his name Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your Ehyeh (I AM).”
The message proclaimed by the naming of this child would come as a profound shock to those who took notice, mainly the faithful in Israel. Whereas the first two names had been somewhat ambiguous, the first affecting the royal dynasty and the national security, and the second reflecting a certain coldness in their relationship with YHWH, there could be no doubt about what this one signified. It was Lo-ammi’ and indicated ‘not My people’. It was notification of the direct rejection of Israel as YHWH’s people.
Furthermore He would no longer be their Ehyeh (‘I am’ or ‘I will be’). Ehyeh was the name of God stressed when God came to Moses prior to the Exodus (Exo 3:14). The idea is that God will no longer be acting on their behalf. From now on they could not look to Him for deliverance. Exo 6:7 (‘I will take you for My people, and I will be your God’) is to be seen as having been reversed. This was because the kind of religious exercise in which they now indulged in the name of YHWH was looked on as meaningless, having become prostituted to the level of a nature religion. They no longer saw YHWH as the covenant God of Sinai, the Deliverer from Egypt, but simply as a parallel to Baal.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 1:9 Then said [God], Call his name Loammi: for ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God].
Ver. 9. Call his name Loammi ] Nomen extremum et deploratum, saith Pareus, the last and most lamentable name of all, containing a most heavy, but spiritual, and therefore less sensible, punishment, viz. an utter abjection and abdication from the covenant, from grace, from God, from life eternal.
For ye are not my people
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lo-ammi = Not My people.
I will not be your God = I am not “I am” to you.
your = to you. Hebrew. lakem.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
my people
“My people” is an expression used in the O.T. exclusively of Israel the nation. It is never used of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mat 2:6.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Loammi: that is, Not my people, Jer 15:1
Reciprocal: 2Ki 17:6 – the king of Assyria Psa 69:28 – blotted Psa 102:22 – General Isa 6:9 – Go Isa 9:14 – will cut Isa 29:17 – Lebanon Isa 41:10 – for I am thy God Isa 62:4 – shalt no Jer 5:10 – they are not Eze 16:61 – when Dan 9:26 – and the people Hos 1:4 – Call Hos 2:1 – unto Hos 9:15 – I will drive Zec 11:3 – for their Zec 11:10 – that Luk 1:13 – thou Joh 8:54 – ye say Rom 9:26 – And it 2Co 6:18 – a Father 1Pe 2:10 – were
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 1:9. Here a fact about literal Israel iH used as a symbol of a spiritual fact, The name which God gave to be used for this son means “not my people.” When the nation of the Jews became corrupt, God suffered it to be taken off into a strange land. By such an event it could be said that He no longer considered the Jews as His people since they ceased to exist aa a free political people. That circum-stance is used as a symbolic prediction of the time when a Jew could not claim to belong to Gcd merely on the ground of his being a Jew. That agrees with the statement of Paul in Gala-tians 3: 28 on what it means to be In Christ. In that relationship he says, “There Is neither Jew nor Greek [Gentile], . . . for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1:9 Then said [God], Call his name {l} Loammi: for ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God].
(l) That is, not my people.