Hosea 1:8-9

8, 9. Birth of Lo-ammi.

8. The third child was a son.

When she had weaned After two or three years, the length of time allowed to elapse in Palestine even now before children are weaned. 9.

Lo-ammi That is, Not my people. Israel is to be cast off entirely, to be no longer the people of Jehovah. The three names form a climax Jezreel symbolizes a definite judgment; Lo-ruhamah, the withdrawal of the divine mercy; Lo-ammi, the utter rejection of Israel, its treatment as a foreign nation.

I will not be your God Literally, I will not be for you, that is, on your side, to help you. The thought remains the same, but the ordinary translation brings it out more strongly. Some manuscripts of the LXX. read “your God,” and this is favored by Hosea 2:3 (compare Zechariah 8:8). Perhaps the text has suffered in transmission.