Lo-Ruhamah

Lo-ruhamah is the symbolic name given to Hosea's daughter, marking the withdrawal of mercy from the house of Israel.

The naming oracle

When the prophet's wife bears a daughter, the name carries the message in itself: "And she became pregnant again, and gave birth to a daughter. And [Yahweh] said to him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any wise pardon them" (Hos 1:6). The name "Lo-ruhamah" — "not pitied" — is the contents of the verdict; mercy on Israel has reached its end.

Mercy reserved for Judah

Set against the verdict on Israel, the same oracle marks out a different course for the southern kingdom: "But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by [the Speech of] Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen" (Hos 1:7). The deliverance of Judah is explicitly disengaged from military means — "not by bow, nor by sword" — and located instead in "the Speech of Yahweh."

Weaning and the next sign

The narrative moves on with the briefest of family notes: "Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she became pregnant, and gave birth to a son" (Hos 1:8). The naming of the next child — Lo-ammi — follows immediately, but Lo-ruhamah's weaning marks the close of her own scene as the embodied sign of withheld mercy.