I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.¹  I don’t consider this a quotation of Hosea 2:23 so much as a conclusion.  Bill Braun analyzed it as a quotation for any who are interested [Addendum 5/27/2025: This site is no longer available].  The translation of Hosea 2:23 is as follows in the NET: “Then I will plant her as my own in the land.  I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah).  I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’  And he will say, ‘You are my God!’”²  None of this makes much sense without the context (Hosea 1:2 NET).

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, he said to him, “Go marry [literally, take for yourself] a prostitute [literally, a wife of harlotries; Septuagint: γυναῖκα πορνείας] who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution [literally, children of harlotries; Septuagint: τέκνα³ πορνείας], because the nation continually commits [Septuagint: ἐκπορνεύουσα] spiritual⁴ prostitution [Septuagint: ἐκπορνεύσει] by turning away from the Lord” [Table].

Israel’s northern kingdom’s spiritual prostitution was described in the next chapter (Hosea 2:2, 5, 8 NET).

Plead earnestly with your mother (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle [Septuagint: μοιχείαν], and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior [Septuagint: πορνείαν⁵]…. For their mother has committed adultery [Septuagint: ἐξεπόρνευσεν]; she who conceived them has acted shamefully.  For she said, “I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine….Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold – which they used in worshiping Baal!

The note in the NET after the phrase I will seek out my lovers reads: “This statement alludes to the practice of sexual rites in the Canaanite fertility cult which attempted to secure agricultural fertility from the Canaanite gods…”  So Hosea married (literally so he went and took) Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim.  Then she conceived and gave birth to a son for him.⁶  God told Hosea to name his first son Jezreel, because in a little while I will punish the dynasty of Jehu on account of the bloodshed in the valley of Jezreel.⁷  Then Gomer gave birth to a daughter and the Lord told Hosea, Name her “No Pity” (Lo-Ruhamah) because I will no longer have pity on the nation of Israel.⁸  Then God told Hosea to name his next son “Not My People” (Lo-Ammi), because you are not my people and I am not your God.⁹

However, the Lord continued, in the future the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which can be neither measured nor numbered.  Although it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are children of the living God!”¹⁰  Paul’s quotation of this verse was identical with that found in the Septuagint.

I looked to the Jewish Virtual Library out of curiosity how this story would be interpreted there.  Essentially chapter 3 was viewed not as a continuation of the story begun in chapters 1 and 2, but as a restatement of that same story, the “real” story, in fact.  In that “real” story Hosea did not “love” a promiscuous woman but “befriended” her.

To marry such a woman in the first place would be contrary to a law of righteousness.  To receive her back again as a wife after having divorced her for unfaithfulness would be unthinkable.¹¹  Obviously, God would never command such a thing, therefore He didn’t, no matter what the text says.  Despite all this fussiness the author(s) of this particular article in the Jewish Virtual Library got the point of Hosea 2:19 and 20 better than I could ever hope to tease out of an English translation:  I will commit myself to you forever; I will commit myself to you in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion.  I will commit myself to you in faithfulness; then you will acknowledge the Lord”¹² it reads in the NET.  What it means according to the Jewish Virtual Library is as follows:

“YHWH will, moreover, espouse her a second time, and in such a way as to insure the permanence of the new marriage for…he will bestow upon her as bride-price the three pairs of qualities, righteousness – justice, goodness – graciousness, and loyalty – devotion to YHWH. In non-allegorical language, of course, that means that YHWH will make a new God-and-people covenant with Israel and will obviate any occasion for dissolving it like the first by making Israel constitutionally incapable of breaking it.” [Addendum 5/27/2025: This file is no longer available online.]

I would regard this as an excellent synopsis of Paul’s understanding of the Gospel in his letter to the Romans—if that had been its source.  By the way, the note in the NET reads: “The preposition בְּ (bet), which is repeated throughout 2:19-20 [21-22], denotes price paid (BDB 90 s.v. בְּ III.3; e.g., Ezek 3:14). The text contains an allusion to the payment of bridal gifts. The Lord will impute the moral character to Israel that will be necessary for a successful covenant relationship (contra 4:1).”

I’ve already covered what I think about the paraphrase/quotation in Romans 9:33 elsewhere.  Bill Braun’s analysis is available at [Addendum 5/27/2025: This site is no longer available.]

Addendum: May 27, 2025

The Masoretic text and Septuagint differ as to who will put away, put an end to or remove her whoredoms, adulterous lifestyle, adultery or fornication.

Tables comparing Hosea 2:2; 2:5; 2:8; 1:4; 2:19 and 2:20 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Hosea 2:2 (2:4); 2:5 (2:7); 2:8 (2:10); 1:4; 2:19 (2:21) and 2:20 (2:22) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.