Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Hosea · About this commentary
Not Pitied, Not My People
Hosea 1:6-11
6 She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them. · WEB
Two more children are named with the two hardest sentences in the book, and both are revoked within five verses.
The second child is a daughter, and her name is a verdict: Lo-Ruhamah — not pitied. The sentence attached removes the thing Israel had always counted on: I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.
Verse 7 makes an exception for Judah, and the terms are pointed. Judah will be saved by Yahweh their God, and specifically not by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen — the same instruments Israel was trusting Hosea 1:5.
The third child gets the sharpest name in Scripture: Lo-Ammi — not my people. And the sentence is the covenant formula run backward. Where God had said I will be your God and you will be my people, this reads you are not my people, and I will not be yours. The relationship is not weakened; it is canceled in its own words.
A child grows up carrying that as a name, answering to it daily.
And then verses 10 and 11 revoke it, without a word about repentance. The people will be as the sand of the sea — the promise made to Abraham — and in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God.
The reversal happens in the same place as the verdict. Not somewhere else, not after a move — there.
And the last clause takes back the first child's name too: great will be the day of Jezreel. God sows, and the valley of the broken bow becomes the field.
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