A commentary on the prophecy of Hosea by Edward Pococke.

9 Then said God, Call his name Lo∣ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

Then said God, call his name Lo-ammi, i. e. as the Margin in our Bibles expounds it, not my People. For, saith he, ye are not my People, and I will not be your God. Lo-Ammi.] A name boding very grievous things to those who are by this son typified, and a sad alteration in their condition, from better to worse, yea

from the best to the worst. It was a privi∣ledge that Israel had long enjoyed, even ever since they were a People, to be owned by God for a peculiar People to himself, above all other Nations of the Earth, according to what we read Deut. 7.6. and 14.2. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special People to himself, above all People that are upon the face of the Earth. Needs must they while they so remained be the happiest People upon Earth, by so peculiar a relation to the God of the whole Earth. Happy is that People that is in such a case, happy is that People whose God is their Lord, Psal. 144.15. Being under his special care and providence no good can be wanting to them, no evil can approach them to do them hurt. If at any time he suffer any to befall them, it shall turn for good to them, and be but as fatherly chastisements t 1.1 for their profit. The greatest unhappiness then must it needs be to be deprived of this relation. Yet this is that in this name imposed on this son, who is a sign to them, denoted. They are thereby threatned that they shall be utterly disowned by him, no longer accounted his peculiar, but reckoned among the profane Nations, cast out of that Land which God had given them, and owned them in, into strange Lands, dispersed among the Heathen, who should be Lords over them, and swallowed up promiscuously among them, without hope of being restored to any form of government of their own; so that ceasing to be Gods People, they should cease to be a distinct People by themselves; by ceasing to be the Israel of God, cease to be Israel. So this name Lo-Ammi brings with it a severer sentence, and heavier degree of punishment then the two former names did; u 1.2 as the utter abdication and disinheriting of a son is more heavy then any other tokens of a fathers displeasure to∣ward a rebellious son, while as yet he ac∣knowledgeth him as his son. This is the ex∣tremity of all, which seals up the rest as irre∣versible. That it may not seem strange why God should thus shut up the bowels of his compassion toward them, the words adjoyned as a reason for imposition of this name declare, For ye are not my People, and I will not be your God. The condition on which they should be owned by him for his People, was that they should keep covenants with him, and behave themselves obediently toward him, as his People; so faith he, If ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all People, Exod. 19.5. but they behaved not themselves so, vv 1.3 they continued not in his Covenant, and there∣fore he will no more regard them; they have ceased to be his People, they run after Idols, and own not him alone for their God, there∣fore, saith he to them, I will not be your God. The word God is not here expressed in the o∣riginal Text, but only, and I will not be to you; which x 1.4 a Jewish Doctor thinks to be a sign of his indignation in that he would not express his name to be joyned with theirs; but it will necessarily be understood and sup∣plied, as in our Translation and y 1.5 several o∣thers it is. For which there is good ground from what we read in the second chapter, the last verse, I will say to them which were not my Peo∣ple, Thou art my People, and they shall say, Thou art my God, z 1.6 there being that mutual relation between the terms of God and his People, that one being expressed, the other will properly be understood as it is oft expres∣sed, and therefore there is no difference in the sense, a 1.7 w^ch other Translators give, though they express not the word God, but render only, and I will not be yours, or to you, b 1.8 i. e. You shall have nothing to do with me.

Neither will it be much (if at all) different, as to the meaning, if the way of the Chaldee Paraphrast be taken, who renders, my word shall not be for your help; so as to render it, I will not be for you, i. e. on your side, for your help, and protection: for these, the being to them a God, and the being for them to help, protect, and defend them, necessarily go to∣gether, and by denying the one, the other will be denyed: But it will be the plainest way to follow our Translation, and those that agree with it.

Here may two things be enquired; first as to the persons here spoken to and of, who they are to whom this is denounced; then as to the time, when it was made good on them, that they were no more owned by God for his People, and he would no more be their God. As to the persons, the name of Israel being sometimes taken more generally so as to comprehend all the twelve Tribes, some∣times so as more specially to denote the King∣dome of the ten Tribes, as distinct from Ju∣dah and Benjamin, both usually together cal∣led the house of Judah, some think as the former words and judgements to concern more especially the ten Tribes, so these to concern Judah, and such of the Israelites as were joyn'd with them, whither in respect to their condi∣tion in the Babylonish captivity, c 1.9 as some think, or to that destruction which should be brought on them by the Romans after Christs time, as d 1.10 others. My opinion, saith Abar∣binel, is, that this and his name are a denun∣tiation (or prediction) of the destruction of the second Temple, inasmuch as though he

would save the house of Judah, and have mer∣cy on them at that visitation (or restauration of the second Temple) yet they would not there continue in their righteousness, but re∣turn again to their folly, and therefore they should again go into another captivity, and concerning it therefore is said, Call his name Lo-Ammi, for this is a son that came after the daughter, which did intimate that visitation (or former restauration.) And he saith that the sons of Judah that were in the time of the second Temple, they also should not be the People of the Lord in their deeds, and therefore the Lord would not keep and pro∣tect them; so that they should return to ca∣ptivity. That is it which he saith, And I will not be to you, i. e. a Savior, as he above said, and I will save them by the Lord their God: and Isaiah in the beginning calls the sons of Judah particularly Ammi, (i. e. speaking in the per∣son of God, my People) as he saith concern∣ing the Kingdom of the house of Israel, Israel doth not know, and concerning the Kingdom of Judah, My People doth not consider, and therefore the Lord saith to Hoshea, concerning the children of Judah, For ye are not my People, as much as to say, Although ye have built my House, and my Temple, yet behold, in the time of the second Temple ye will not be the People of the Lord. These are the words of that Doctor at large, towards the end of w^ch he useth a very slender argument to prove that Ammi is a title peculiar to Judah to distinguish them from Israel: he may find easily where that title comprehends Israel also.

But as for this latter opinion, however backed by the authority of some learned men among Christians also, above cited, and however well appliable to that con∣dition of the Jews which they speak of, yet that the words were not here spoken concern∣ing it, seems manifest; First, inasmuch as what goes before was without doubt spoken more peculiarly to the house of Israel: that it may not be thought otherwise, there is a particu∣lar exception of Judah from that doom de∣nounced to them in the name of Lo-ruhamah, and there is nothing since expressed to give us to think that the person is here changed, and that they are now taken in who were be∣fore excepted: Again, inasmuch as this Pro∣phecy was fulfilled before their City Jerusa∣lem, and that second Temple were destroyed, and they carried captives by the Romans, as is evidently proved by what is said by S. Pe∣ter (who wrote to the Strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, &c.) referring to these words and the like, c. 2.23. in his 1 Epist. c. 2.10. that in time already past they were not a People, and had not obtained mercy, whence it appears (as we said) that in his time, who lived and wrote before that captivity un∣der the Romans, this Prophecy was already fulfilled by an argument undeniable by Chri∣stians, and not to be gainsaid by the Jews. And as to the first opinion that this unpeo∣pling them is to be referred to the carrying away of the two Tribes by Nabuchodonosor, e 1.11 it cannot be said to have been then fulfilled in regard that the Jews, during their captivity in Babylon, retained yet still as their Religion, so the f 1.12 title of the People of God, whose God he was, as Cyrus gives it them, Ezra. 1.3, &c. The plainest way therefore, and most a∣greeable to the words as here spoken, see ms to be to understand them of the house of Israel, the ten Tribes whom God would now reject and disown, and subtracting his wonted provi∣dence from them, give up into the hands of the Assyrians to be carried captive by them, and dispersed among the Nations, so as not to be acknowledged for a People belonging to him, for whom he would any more be peculiarly concerned, however they may seem to have respect to the two Tribes also, or be accom∣modated to them, in regard to that condition that they likewise should be brought to.

But there remains to be enquired when this was verified on them, that they were called Lo-Ammi, and God disowned them from having to do with them as their God. Kimchi thinks that it was made good even in the time of Pekah, under whom Israel seemed to have recovered some greater strength, and from the weak condition of a daughter, to have at∣tained to the stronger of a son, according to what is recorded of his warlike acts, 2 Chron. 28.1. and 2 Kings 16.5. yet because as Israel grew then in strength, so they continued to encrease in wickedness, according to what is said of him that he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, &c. 2 Kings 15.28. even against that generation was this sentence of utter abdication pronounced. To this pur∣pose He, although he had seen the opinion of one of their g 1.13 Rabbins (already cited) who thinks it to belong to the ten Tribes led into captivity, and there remaining among the Nations without returning to their own Country, and therefore then called Lo-Am∣mi; which he takes notice of, and observes to agree with the opinion likewise of the Chaldee Paraphrast, who applies what is said to those generations, who being carried ca∣ptives among the Nations, and there conti∣nuing to do evil, should not find mercy nor help from his word (or him) and therefore be called not his People, as those that did not follow his commandments. And this may seem

an opinion more agreeable to the words then his own, and is that to which those Christian Expositors who look on the words as more peculiarly concerning the ten Tribes, do more agree, and incline, h 1.14 and think that which was denoted by this sons name, made good by the carrying away of the last remainder of the ten Tribes by the Assyrians under Sal∣maneser; after which time being i 1.15 intermin∣gled with other Nations, and learning their manners, and made like to them, they were in no other account with God then they, not having any more peculiar relation to him, whom they had wickedly forsaken, k 1.16 how∣ever they might there increase in number.

Though these Interpreters may seem to differ among themselves, in peculiarly assi∣gning the age or time, when each of the names of these children became proper to Israel, whose condition was designed and described by them, we need not be solicitous concerning it; it will be sufficient to understand, that after God began to execute his Judgements by these names denounced against them, he proceeded in bringing them on them, till at last they were completed in his utter rejection and disown∣ing of them in their dispersion when they be∣came wanderers among the Nations, as he speaks, c. 9.17. and no more a distinct Na∣tion, that to distinguish them from others by any peculiar care and providence of his over them, or their adhering to his worship, they might be discerned to be a peculiar People to him, as when formerly they enjoyed those priviledges, and made good the Covenant between him and them on their parts, they evidently were. Though it be not perhaps easy precisely to determine when the import of each of the names of these children, which were for signs to them, had its first influence on them in their decaying condition, by Gods executing his Judgements, thereby in∣timated, on them; yet it is manifest that they had their completion in that final dispersion of them. This sentence being denounced a∣gainst them, and executed on them, what farther hope may remain of hearing any good concerning them? yet in the next words have we what may seem much to mitigate, if not altogether to reverse, this heavy sentence, and to make judgement give place to mercy, yet so as that upon due examination, they will be found not to thwart one another, and both to have had their due effects and intended accomplishment; Those words are,

Notes

• t 1.1

  Heb. 12.10.
• u 1.2

  Oecolamp.
• vv 1.3

  Heb. 8.9.
• x 1.4

  Ab. Ezra.
• y 1.5

  Arab. MS. Munst. & Tig.
• z 1.6

  See Lively, and Jer. 11. 2 Cor. 6.16.
• a 1.7

  Gr. Syr. and printed Arab.
• b 1.8

  Riber.
• c 1.9

  Ruffin. and see Riber.
• d 1.10

  Lyra, Mercer. Montan. Pelican. Vat. in 8^o.
• e 1.11

  See Riber.
• f 1.12

  And see Jer. 29. and especially verse the last.
• g 1.13

  Ab. Ezra.
• h 1.14

  Grot.
• i 1.15

  Rivet.
• k 1.16

  Riber. & Ch. à Castro.