Hosea 1:8,9

The birth of a Son

Lo-ammi i.e. not my people. Observe the climax in the names. -Jezreel" announces the judgement; Lo-ruhamah, the withdrawal of Jehovah's affection; Lo-ammi, the treatment of Israel as a foreign people.

I will not be your God Lit., -I will not be for (or, to) you", i.e. perhaps, -on your side" (comp. Psalms 56:10; Psalms 118:6; Psalms 124:1-2), or, as Prof. Robertson Smith [54], -I am no longer Ehyeh", alluding to Exodus 3:14, -And God said unto Moses, I will be that which I will be (viz. what I have promised and you look for); and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I will be (Ehyeh) hath sent me unto you". According to this view, Ehyeh is equivalent to Yihyeh or whatever is a more correct form of the name miswritten Jehovah the revealed name of Israel's God, and Hosea 1:9 is the earliest witness to the true meaning of Exodus 3:14. -I am no longer Ehyeh for you" will thus be a contrast to -I will save Judah as the Lord (Yahveh = Yihyeh) their God" (Hosea 1:7). It is however doubtful whether Hosea shews acquaintance elsewhere with the document to which Exodus 3:14 belongs, and at any rate it is more natural to suppose, as A. V. (after Yefet the Karaite) has done that lçlôhîm-(for) God" has dropped out of the text.

[54] British and Foreign Evangelical Review, Jan. 1876, pp. 153 165.