Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
Parallel translations
- WEB “Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’
- KJV Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
- BSB “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
- NASB Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”
- NLT “In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God tells the people to rename one another 'My people' and 'My loved one,' reversing the judgment-names of chapter one. The verdict of rejection is overturned by grace.
Overview
The names Lo-Ammi ('not my people') and Lo-Ruhamah ('not loved') are here turned into Ammi and Ruhamah, declarations of belonging and compassion. This anticipates the restoration God will accomplish, in which the covenant relationship is renewed. The reversal embodies the gospel pattern in which those once estranged are welcomed back, a truth fulfilled in Christ who makes a people for God out of those who had no claim on Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 1 Pet 2:10who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
- Hos 2:23I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’”
- 1 Tim 1:13although I was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
- Rom 11:30–31For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
- Ezek 37:27My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Zech 13:9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”
- Ezek 36:28You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
- 2 Cor 4:1Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.
- Hos 1:9–11He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.
- Jer 32:38and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
- Ezek 11:20that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
- Jer 31:33“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
- Exod 19:5–6Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 2:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.