Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
Call his name Lo-ammi - once "my people," but henceforth not so (Ezekiel 16:8, "I sware unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine"). The intervals between the marriage and the successive births of the three children imply that three successive generations are intended. Jezreel, the first child, represents the dynasty of Jeroboam I and his successors, ending with Jehu's shedding the blood of Jeroboam's line in Jezreel: it was there that, Jezebel was slain, in vengeance for the Jezreelite Naboth's blood shed in the same Jezreel (1 Kings 21:1; 2 Kings 9:21; 2 Kings 9:30). The scenes of Jezreel were to be enacted over again on Jehu's degenerate race. At Jezreel the Assyrian. Shalmaneser routed Israel (Jerome). The child's name associates past sins, intermediate punishments, and final overthrow. Lo-ruhamah (Not pitied), the second child, is a daughter, representing the effeminate period which followed the overthrow of the first dynasty, when Israel was at once abject and impious. Lo-ammi (Not my people), the third child, a son, represents the vigorous dynasty (2 Kings 14:25) of Jeroboam II; but, as prosperity did not bring with it revived piety, they were still not God's people. Therefore both his house and his kingdom fell with him. So little is temporal prosperity to be recorded as a certain proof of God's favour, or of permanence and stability. For another view (Pusey's) see Remarks.
I will not be your God - literally, 'I will not be for you' (by my Providence), or 'to you' by love (Pusey).