I. JEZREEL. (Vers. 3-5.) "Jezreel" was the name of the great plain in the heart of the northern kingdom which was the glory of Palestine for its beauty and richness, and which has been in all ages a battle-field of nations. It was also the name of the fair city which stood near the eastern end of the plain, where Ahab had his ivory palace, and where Jezebel and he committed so many infamous murders. Now, Hosea's firstborn was called "Jezreel:"

1. To recall the blood spilt there, which was still crying for vengeance. (Ver. 4.) This must mean the blood shed by Ahab and Jezebel - the murder of Naboth and his sons, and the massacre of the Lord's prophets. But it probably includes also the revolting cruelties of John, by which he exterminated the whole family of Ahab. Divine retribution may slumber for many generations; but it will awake some day, and do its dreadful work. Jehu had destroyed the house of Ahab in obedience to a Divine command, and God had commended him for it (2 Kings 10:30). But, while his act was in accordance with his commission, his motive was not. He had complied with the will of God only in so far as he judged that compliance would advance his own political ends. His "zeal for the Lord " (2 Kings 10:16) was only a thin veneer overlaying his zeal for Jehu. So, although he overturned the altar of Baal, he clave to the calves of Jeroboam. Calvin refers here to Henry VIII. of England as having been a modern Jehu. Henry broke with the pope, not that he might repudiate the errors of the papacy, but because he was determined to divorce Queen Catherine. He suppressed the monasteries, not because they were dens of vice, but that he might deliver a blow at the papal power, and at the same time fill his own coffers with the treasures of the monks. But, again, Hosea's firstborn was called "Jezreel:"

2. To suggest that Israel was about to be scattered by God for its sins. (Vers. 4, 5.) "Jezreel" in Hebrew sounds and spells like "Israel;" and the play of sound suggests the thought that the nation which had "seen God," and been a "prince that prevailed with God," was to become "Jezreel" in the sense of being "God-scattered among the heathen. The impending ruin of John's dynasty was to be the beginning of the end. For although the northern kingdom continued for half a century afterwards, it was constantly distressed with civil war, or distracted with revolution and anarchy, until at last Assyria came and subverted it altogether. Not only so, but Israel was to lose its prowess and meet its overthrow in the valley of Jezreel" itself, hitherto the theatre of its military glory. That smiling plain had been to Israel what Marathon was to Greece, or what Bannockburn is to Scotland. Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Saul, Ahab, had all gained great victories there. Yet "in the valley of Jezreel" "the bow of Israel," which still seemed so strong, was to be irreparably broken. Hosea himself lived to witness, at least in part, the fulfillment of this oracle (Hosea 10:14). And illustrations may be readily multiplied from history of how God can break the pride of an ungodly nation at the innermost shrine of its glory. He did so with Nineveh, with Babylon, with Tyro. He did so again and again at Jerusalem. He did so a few years ago in France, when the victorious German army entered Paris by the Arc de Triomphe, and when King William of Prussia was crowned the first Emperor of United Germany in the palace of Versailles.

II. LO-RUHAMAH. (Vers. 6, 7.) This second child of Hosea and Gomer was a daughter. Her name, meaning "Not-pitied," brought a still sadder message to the guilty nation than the name "Jezreel" did. To be unpitied by God is a worse calamity than even to be "God-scattered." Hitherto Jehovah had at least always compassionated his erring children. And does not the whole of revelation tell us that the heart of God yearns with infinite tenderness over frail, suffering humanity? "Can a woman forget her sucking child?... Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Why, then, was Israel called "Lo-ruhamah"? Not because the Divine heart had changed, but simply because she herself insisted upon not being "his own." She persistently "would none of" him. And so, at last, there was nothing for it but to allow her to "eat of the fruit of her own way." Hosea's daughter was to be a living witness by her name that the Divine patience was now at length exhausted. And the presage of this name would be fulfilled in the total and irremediable deportation of the ten tribes into Assyria. In case, moreover, the people should cling to any false hope, the opposite lot of the kingdom of Judah is referred to (ver. 7) by way of contrast. Judah was not so thoroughly and hopelessly dissolute as Israel. The southern kingdom had not deserted the temple and the sacrifices. When it was spiritually at the worst, it possessed at least "a very small remnant." So Judah would receive chastisement rather than judgment. And God would "save" Judah, although not "by bow, nor by sword." There would soon be the marvelous deliverance from Sennacherib. Then, after the seventy years' exile, the return from Babylon. And, last of all, in the fullness of the time, the spiritual salvation of Jesus Christ. But all the while, alas! the northern kingdom, as such, was to be unsaved. For Ephraim's apostasy had been unanimous and universal. Not one of its kings was a godly man. And the people would not hearken to God's prophets, but settled down in confirmed wickedness and impenitence. So now at length there was no refuge for Israel even in the compassion of God itself.

III. Lo-AMMI (Vers. 8, 9.) The name of this third child, meaning "Not-my-people presaged still worse disaster than either of the preceding. The third installment of judgment would plunge the nation into the lowest depth of all. The withdrawal of the Divine favor could only lead to positive rejection. What though the Jews kept boasting that they were the Lord's chosen people, when by their works they denied him"! The life of the nation was such as at length to allow him no alternative but to declare that he would not be their God. Jehovah must dissolve his covenant relation to them. He is compelled to disown and disinherit them. Henceforth they are to be no longer a sacred people; they are to differ in nothing from the profane Gentiles. A dreadful doom! Yet still that nation is finally cut off, and that soul is lost for ever, to whom God says these withering, woeful words (ver. 9), "I will not be yours."

CONCLUSION. If we can conceive what a dreadful trial it must have been to Hosea to give his children these mystic names, so ominous of woe, we shall be enabled in some measure, as he was, to sympathize with the Lord's sorrow for those in his human family who live and die in obdurate impenitence, and over whom his wailing, despairing lament is, "How often I would have gathered you together, but ye would not!" - C.J.

(Dean Stanley.)