“The Account of Hosea’s Symbolic Marriage and Family and the Themes of His Prophetic Mission—Hosea and His Family Are a Sign unto Israel—In the Day of Gathering, the People of Israel Will Become the Sons of the Living God”
Hosea 1:1–11
1 The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
4 And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8 Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9 Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Dr. Ellis T. Rasmussen wrote:
“After describing the setting of his ministry, Hosea described his call in symbolic terms. Whether the woman of unfaithfulness was that way when Hosea married her or became that way later is not stated, but Israel was certainly unstable religiously and morally when the Lord took her out of Egypt. She was faithful at times thereafter, but her faithfulness rose and fell throughout a long series of repenting and backsliding before her fall to conquering nations. Thus the strange, symbolic marriage of Hosea to Gomer represented the long, undulating covenant relationship of Israel with the Lord. The woman’s name, Gomer, means ‘one who finishes, one who ends,’ but whether that has anything to do with the end of northern Israel near the end of Hosea’s life is not told.
“The name of the first child of Hosea and Gomer was Jezreel, the name of the valley where King Jehu had put many people to death in violation of the Lord’s law of justice (Hosea 1:4a). Jezreel means ‘God shall sow’ or ‘scatter abroad.’ As a name for their first child, it doubtless alluded to the imminent overthrow and scattering of Israel, which came in 722 B.C., only about seventy years later. The name of the second child, Lo-ruhamah, or ‘not pitied,’ warned that the mercy of God would not rob justice to save northern Israel, though Judah still qualified to be saved. The name of the third, Lo-ammi, ‘not my people,’ is a lament over the broken covenant relationship. Then the prophecy immediately turned to the future gathering of both Israel and Judah and a happier time when ‘it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God’ (Hosea 1:10). Israel shall again be united and serve God under one King.”
(A Latter-day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament [1993], 629–30.)
