Hosea 1

The LORD commands Hosea to marry Gomer, “a wife of whoredom,” picturing how the land has forsaken the LORD. Their children are given symbolic names of judgment: Jezreel (for coming bloodshed), Lo-ruhamah (“No Mercy”), and Lo-ammi (“Not My People”). Yet even here a promise breaks through, that one day the children of Israel will be as numberless as the sand and called “children of the living God.”