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Hosea's children, like Isaiah's, were to be "for signs and wonders" in Israel (Isaiah 8:18). Their names - Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, Lo-ammi - were significant. A prophetic word was attached to each.

I. JEZREEL. (Vers. 4, 5.) This first name - "God will scatter" - foretells Israel's scattering. Through it judgment is denounced

(1) upon the house of the king - "Yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu;" and

(2) upon the kingdom - "I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." The lessons taught are:

1. The character of an action is determined by its motive. By the "blood of Jezreel" is meant the slaughter of the seed of Ahab (2 Kings 10.). God had commanded the extermination of Ahab's house (2 Kings 9:7). Jehu was his chosen instrument in executing the judgment. Yet God says, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." The apparent contradiction is solved, by remembering the unsanctified spirit in which Jehu went about his work of bloodshed. He did what God commanded, but there was no purity of motive in what he did. His "zeal for the Lord' was mere pretence, covering the seeds of personal ambition. He served God only so far as he could thereby serve himself. The massacre of Ahab's seed opened his own way to the throne. When, therefore, having extirpated Ahab's house, Jehu and his successors showed themselves heirs to Ahab's sins, the bloodshed of Jezreel was justly imputed to them as guilt. Actions formally right may yet become sin to us through the motives which prompt them.

2. Partners in guilt will be made partners also in punishment. The kingdom had followed in the steps of its guilty rulers. The doom of excision, therefore, which is denounced against them - the same doom as had been denounced formerly against the house of Ahab - will fall on it also. Judgment is impartial.

3. There is a law of symmetry in the Divine visitations. It was the "blood of Naboth," shed in Jezreel, which brought down on Ahab's house the sentence of extermination (1 Kings 21:17-25). It was in Jezreel that the doom was inflicted on Ahab (1 Kings 21:19; 1 Kings 22:34-38), on Jezebel (2 Kings 9:30-37), and on Ahab's sons (2 Kings 10:11). Jezreel was the head-quarters of the wickedness for which the whole nation was now to be punished. And now Jezreel is again chosen as the place of vengeance. "I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." A similar correspondence of sin and punishment may be traced in very many of God's dispensations. God would "break the bow." When he smites, weapons of defense afford but small protection.

II. LO-RUHAMAH. (Vers. 6, 7.) The first name spoke of external judgment. The second, "Unpitied," lays bare the ground of the judgment in the withdrawal of the Divine pity. It tells that Israel has nothing to hope for from God's mercy in the dire hour that was so rapidly approaching. "For I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel," etc. (ver. 6). The fact that mercy was no longer to be shown to Israel implied:

1. That mercy had been shown to Israel hitherto. This was the case. No attribute had been more conspicuously displayed in the history of God's dealings with the nation. Mercy was to be shown to Judah still (ver. 7). God's end was merciful, even in the threatened rejection.

2. That there are limits to the Divine mercy. Not, 'indeed, to the mercy itself, but to the exercise or manifestation of it. Righteousness sets limits to mercy. There comes a time when, consistently with righteousness, punishment can no longer be postponed. Even love sets limits to mercy. Paradoxical as it may seem, there are times when the only mercy God can show us is to show no mercy. It is no kindness to the incorrigible transgressor to continue sheltering him from the results of his transgression. God's very love for Israel compelled him to exchange kindness for a holy severity which would not spare. This was needful, as Hosea 2. shows, for Israel's salvation. The experience of the bitter fruits of sin may be the only thing which will bring the wayward one to repentance (cf. Luke 15:11-32).

3. God would pity Judah while rejecting Israel. (Ver. 7.) The distinction made was not arbitrary. Judah, too, had deeply sinned, but she had not yet filled up the cup of her iniquity. Mercy, therefore, was still to be extended to her. The ground of this mercy, however, was to be sought, not in Judah, but only in God. "I will save them by the Lord their God." There is indicated here

(1) the long-sufferingness of the Divine mercy;

(2) the sovereignty of the Divine mercy;

(3) the omnipotence of the Divine mercy. Will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. We read of many such signal deliverances granted to Judah (Isaiah 7:7, 8; Isaiah 37:6).

III. LO-AMMI. (Vers. 8, 9.) The third name, "Not my people," is most significant of all. It bespeaks a present, though, as the sequel shows, only temporary, dissolution of the covenant bond subsisting between the people and Jehovah. Through this rejection Israel would cease to be God's people - would sink to the level of the Gentiles.

1. In declaring Israel to be not his people, God but ratified the choice of the people themselves. They had refused to be God's people. They had resisted all attempts to bring them back to their allegiance. God at length ratifies their choice. It is the same with every sinner. He chooses his own position. He makes his choice, and God confirms it.

2. In declaring himself to be not their God, God took up the only attitude now possible to him. Many would gladly have God as their God, i.e., would retain the benefits of his favor, friendship, and protection, while refusing the counter-obligation of living as his people. This cannot be. If we refuse to be God's people, he has no alternative but to refuse to be our God. - J.O.

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KJV: So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.

WEB: So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.