Hosea 1:6

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter,.... One of the weaker sex; denoting the weaker state of the kingdom of Israel after Jeroboam, as Kimchi thinks; Zachariah his son reigning but six

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

And she, Gomer, the hieroglyphic wife, who was to be a sign to Israel, conceived again, whether visionary or really it comes to one, and bare a daughter; which is to be a sign too, as was her mother. It is too nice which Ribera observes, that the state grew weaker, as appeared by the bringing forth of one of the weaker sex. This daughter was fit to be an emblem, and therefore it is a daughter rather than a son, though it will be next a son and no daughter. But Lo-ruhamah is feminine, and in congruity of speech it must be a female who bears this name. God said unto him: as before God imposed, so now again he imposeth a name, signifying what he would do with Israel. Though God direct what it shall be, the prophet is to give the name. Lo-ruhamah, Not pitied. Israel’ s name had been through many ages Ruhamah, i.e. Pitied. God had with marvellous patience forborne them, and with tender bowels pitied them, and saved them from enemies, but now Israel should be no more pitied as formerly, God would throw them up to the rage of usurpers, and to the merciless hands of prosperous conspirators; so Menahem mercilessly ripped up women with child in Tiphsah, , and God gave up this bloody tyrant into the hand of Tiglath-pileser. I will no more have mercy; I was wont to add mercy unto mercy for Israel, I was never weary of showing them mercy, but I will do no more so for them; my pity saved them in Jeroboam’ s time, and raised them to a great height and glory, but now they shall, unpitied by me, sink lower and lower. Restraints of Divine pity are sure forerunners of destruction, . Upon the house of Israel: this to me seems a qualifying of the former threat; though the house of Israel as a body politic, as a kingdom, under this character, shall no more be as it hath been, pitied, yet many among them may obtain mercy in the days of gospel grace, and many of them had mercy showed to them by the Lord, when they joined with Judah in the return from Babylon’ s captivity; but the whole house, the families of the ten tribes, united in a kingdom, shall no more be to God Ruhamah, but ever Lo-ruhamah. Thus it hath been through the long series of two thousand four hundred years and more. I will utterly take them away; taking away I will take away, till the whole kingdom is utterly overthrown, and removed out of the land wherein. it once had flourished. Thus some were taken away by the sword of civil wars, some ruined by oppression of the prevailing faction in those divided times, whole cities and all the land of Naphtali was taken away by Tiglath-pileser, , and at last all swept away by Shalmaneser, .

Hosea 1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And [God] said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.Ver. 6. And she conceived again] To show, in a continued allegory, the weak and woeful state of the ten tribes, when the Assyrian took from them all the land of Gilead and Galilee, together with all the land of Nephthali, and carried them captive, subduing, in a manner, five tribes of Israel: to wit, those without Jordan (who as they had first their inheritance given them, so they were now first carried captives), and the tribes of Zebulon and Nephthali, who were seated in the land of Galilee. And this was the first captivity of Israel: see 2 Kings 15:29 Isaiah 9:1. And bare a daughter] This age is compared to a daughter, because from that time forward, after the bow of Israel was so broken, as Hosea 1:5, they should be no more able to defend themselves than if they were a commonwealth of women. Their spirits should be so cowed out and emasculated, their backs so bowed down with unsupportable burdens and bondages, that there was scarcely place left of a worse condition, nor hope of a better. Like them were those we read of Isa 51:23, that yielded to such as would but say to them, "Bow down that we may go over you." Or as those in Nahum, Nahum 3:13, Their "men shall be as women," Aχηιδεςουκετ Aχαιοι, timorous and cowardly, like Issachar’ s ass, Genesis 49:14 (whose lot fell in Galilee, Joshua 19:18), or those fugitives of Ephraim, Judges 12:4, that therefore bare a brand of dishonour, because they would not rather die bravely than live basely. Of such it may be said, as of harts and stags, they have great horns and strength, but do nothing with them, quia de est animus, because their spirits are imbased: as the Israelites in Egypt were of old by Pharaoh, and as the Grecians are to this day by the Turk. Call her name Loruhamah] When God once calls a people or a person by this name, we may well write upon their doors (if any place be yet left for prayer, any good to be done by it), Lord, have mercy upon them: their condition is deplorable, if not desperate. Vade frater in cellam et dic, Miserere mei Deus, Brother, go into thy cell, and say, Lord, have mercy upon me, said Crantzius to Luther, when he began to declaim against the pope, for he looked upon him as an undone man, and yet he was not (Scaltet. Annal.). But those are doubly undone, to whom God shall say, as here to Israel, I will no more have mercy] Heb., I will add no more to show mercy: but my so often abused mercy shall turn into fury.

(6) Lo-ruhamah.—“Unloved,” or, perhaps, “unpitied.” The prophet’s growing despondency about his country’s future is revealed in her name. The rest of the verse is best rendered—For I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel, that I should indeed forgive them.

Verse 6. Call her Lo-ruhamah] לא רהמה, "Not having obtained mercy." This also was a prophetic or typical name; and the reason of its imposition is immediately given: For I will no more have mercy] כי לא אושיף עיד ארחם ki lo osiph od arachem, "For I will no more add to have mercy upon the house of Israel." This refers to the total destruction of that kingdom.

6. bare a daughter] The nation being personified sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman. Lo-ruhamah] i.e., Uncompassionated. but I will utterly take them away] Rather, that I should forgive them.

Call her name Lo-ruhamah - The name is rendered in Paul “not beloved” Romans 9:25, in Peter, “hath not obtained mercy” 1 Peter 2:10.

6, 7. Birth of Lo-ruhamah. 6. The second child of the union was a daughter. Lo-ruhamah — Meaning She is not pitied, or loved; that is, she does not experience the love which is ordinarily bestowed by parents upon their children.