What Does Hosea 2:1 Mean in the King James?
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ru-hamah.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse removes the “not” from two identities at once: עַמִּי (ʿammî, Ammi) means “my people,” and רֻחָמָה (ruḥāmāh, Ruhamah) names one met with compassion.
THE MEANING
The address is happening now: you are named as belonging, and compassion is spoken over you. These names give exclusion no final word in the relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That an earlier verdict of exclusion is final: here “not my people” becomes “my people,” and the one once denied compassion is now named as receiving it.
THE ROOT
רֻחָמָה
ruḥāmāh
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ם
To show tender compassion.
Ruhamah is the feminine form naming one who has received compassion. The root’s word family also holds רֶחֶם (reḥem, womb), placing compassion alongside intimate, life-bearing tenderness.
ALSO GROWS
raḥamîm: Compassion
רַחֲמִים
This noun names the compassion that Ruhamah receives; the name turns that quality into an address for a person.
reḥem: Womb
רֶחֶם
The shared root connects compassion with intimate, life-bearing tenderness, giving the name more depth than an abstract reprieve.
THE PATTERN
A declaration of belonging and compassion can answer a name that once marked exclusion.
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.“Have mercy” here comes from the same ר־ח־ם (r-ḥ-m; racham) root carried in Ruhamah. The earlier name Lo-ruhamah bears a “not”; this verse speaks the name without it, turning withheld compassion into a direct address.
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