Hosea 1

6. Lo-ruhamah--that is, "not an object of mercy or gracious favor."
take . . . away--Israel, as a kingdom, was never restored from Assyria, as Judah was from Babylon after seventy years. MAURER translates according to the primary meaning, "No more will I have mercy on the house of Israel, so as to pardon them."

7. Judah is only incidentally mentioned to form a contrast to Israel.
by the Lord their God--more emphatic than "by Myself"; by that Jehovah (Me) whom they worship as their God, whereas ye despise Him.
not . . . by bow--on which ye Israelites rely ( Hosea 1:5 , "the bow of Israel"); Jeroboam II was famous as a warrior ( 2 Kings 14:25 ). Yet it was not by their warlike power Jehovah would save Judah ( 1 Samuel 17:47 , Psalms 20:7 ). The deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib ( 2 Kings 19:35 ), and the restoration from Babylon, are herein predicted.

8. weaned--said to complete the symbolical picture, not having any special signification as to Israel [HENDERSON]. Israel was bereft of all the privileges which were as needful to them as milk is to infants (compare Psalms 131:2 , 1 Peter 2:2 ) [VATABLUS]. Israel was not suddenly, but gradually cast off; God bore with them with long-suffering, until they were incurable [CALVIN]. But as it is not God, but Gomer who weans Lo-ruhamah, the weaning may imply the lust of Gomer, who was hardly weaned when she is again pregnant [MANGER].

9. Lo-Ammi--once "My people," but henceforth not so ( Ezekiel 16:8 ). The intervals between the marriage and the successive births of the three children, imply that three successive generations are intended. 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 ( 1 Kings 16:1 , 2 Kings 9:21 2 Kings 9:30 ). The scenes of Jezreel were to be enacted over again on Jehu's degenerate race. At Jezreel Assyria routed Israel [JEROME]. The child's name associates past sins, intermediate punishments, and final overthrow. Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied"), the second child, is a daughter, representing the effeminate period which followed the overthrow of the first dynasty, when Israel was at once abject and impious. Lo-Ammi ("not my people"), the third child, a son, represents the vigorous dynasty ( 2 Kings 14:25 ) of Jeroboam II; but, as prosperity did not bring with it revived piety, they were still not God's people.

10. Literally fulfilled in part at the return from Babylon, in which many Israelites joined with Judah. Spiritually, the believing seed of Jacob or Israel, Gentiles as well as Jews, numerous "as the sand" ( Genesis 32:12 ); the Gentiles, once not God's people, becoming His "sons" ( John 1:12 , Romans 9:25 Romans 9:26 , 1 Peter 2:10 , 1 John 3:1 ). To be fulfilled in its literal fulness hereafter in Israel's restoration ( Romans 11:26 ).
the living God--opposed to their dead idols.

11. Judah . . . Israel . . . together--( Isaiah 11:12 Isaiah 11:13 , Jeremiah 3:18 , Ezekiel 34:23 , 37:16-24 ).
one head--Zerubbabel typically; Christ antitypically, under whom alone Israel and Judah are joined, the "Head" of the Church ( Ephesians 1:22 , 5:23 ), and of the hereafter united kingdom of Judah and Israel ( Jeremiah 34:5 Jeremiah 34:6 , Ezekiel 34:23 ). Though "appointed" by the Father ( Psalms 2:6 ), Christ is in another sense "appointed" as their Head by His people, when they accept and embrace Him as such.
out of the land--of the Gentiles among whom they sojourn.
the day of Jezreel--"The day of one" is the time of God's special visitation of him, either in wrath or in mercy. Here "Jezreel" is in a different sense from that in Hosea 1:4 , "God will sow," not "God will scatter"; they shall be the seed of God, planted by God again in their own land ( Jeremiah 24:6 , 31:28 , 32:41 , Amos 9:15 ).