Revised Standard Version prints this verse as a separate paragraph. Good News Translation and most modern translations print this verse and the two verses before it as one paragraph, and that decision follows the poetic form of the Hebrew text, which keeps this verse together with the verses before it. However, Dorsey has shown that the content of this verse in section A-b fits well with the content of 2.23 in section A-b′.

Say to your brother … and to your sister …: The imperative Hebrew verb rendered Say is plural. The addressees are most likely the people of Judah and Israel who have to speak the names here to one another. In English the verb Say normally introduces a statement rather than a name, so Good News Translation begins this verse with “So call your fellow Israelites….” Bijbel in Gewone Taal has “Address your brothers with … and greet your sisters with….”

There is a textual problem here. Revised Standard Version has the singular expressions brother and sister, which follows the Septuagint. This reading refers more directly to Hosea’s children. The Hebrew text has the plural words “brothers” and “sisters,” which fits the preceding references to the people of Judah and Israel (1.11). Good News Translation combines the two sexes with “fellow Israelites.” However, this rendering loses the specific connection with the brother named “Not my people” and the sister named “Not pitied.” In addition to that it also loses the Hebrew text’s poetic flavor. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project favors the plural reading with only a {C} decision, meaning there is some serious doubt, but the committee decided for the plural as the more reliable text. That decision fits well as we see this verse together with its matching references to Israel in section A-b′.

My people and She has obtained pity translate the names literally. They are the same names used in 1.6 and 1.9 (see comments there), but without the negative particle. Whose people are they, and from whom has she obtained pity? Some understand these names to be the way the people of Judah and Israel are to greet each other, after they are reconciled. Then they would consider each other as My people, that is, they would all belong to each other. But it is possible to continue the idea that they are Yahweh’s people and are loved by him. See 1.10, which also refers to God as the one rejecting and accepting his people. Good News Translation reflects this interpretation with “God’s People” and “Loved-by-the-Lord.” This interpretation can apply even if one relates it to a time of reconciliation between the two Israelite kingdoms. The disadvantage of this solution may be that the contrast with the names “Not my people” and “Not pitied” is less pronounced, while this is clearly intended in the original text.

Since this verse also applies to Hosea’s broken marriage, these names can be understood as Hosea’s efforts to accept these children so that they will be able and willing to confront their mother on his behalf. It is often the case, in the prophetic books, that what is said is intended to have more than one meaning, and this may be the case in this verse.

The following translation of this verse in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (1982) is noteworthy:

• You people of Judah, announce to your brothers and sisters in Israel:
“The Lord says to you ‘My people!’ and ‘Mercy is granted to you!’ ”

Another translation model is:

• Call your brothers, “My-people,”
and say to your sisters, “Pity.”

Quoted with permission from Dorn, Louis & van Steenbergen, Gerrit. A Handbook on Hosea. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .