AS HE SAYS ALSO IN HOSEA: os kai en to Osee legei (3SPAI): (Hosea 1:1,2) (Hosea 2:23; 1 Peter 2:10)

In this section Paul begins with some passages from Hosea to establish the acceptability of the Gentiles, then goes on to some from Isaiah to show that the call does not include all Israel.

He says (3004) (lego) speaks with a focus upon the content of what is said. God spoke and present tense indicates He is still speaking.

Paul quoted (Hosea 2:23) somewhat freely using it as a statement to indicate that God would turn (temporarily) from the Jews and call the Gentiles...

Hosea 2:23 "And I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion (corresponds to Hosea's daughter "Lo-Ruhamah = not compassion, without compassion or love), and I will say to those who were not My people (corresponds to Hosea's son named "Lo-Ammi"- Apostate Israel, God says, was "not My people" for they had lived as heathens and now they had become as heathens. But that was not God’s last word as the next clause shows!), 'You are My people!' (Those whom God wills to restore will be restored) and they will say, 'Thou art my God!'" (Comment: Interpreted in its OT context, Hosea 2:23 refers to Israel and not to the Gentiles. It looks forward to the time when Israel will be restored as God’s people and as His beloved.)

English translation of Hosea 2:23 in the Septuagint: "And I will sow her to me on the earth; and will love her that was not loved, and will say to that which was not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art the Lord my God."

Paul's point is that the call of the Gentiles should not have come as a surprise to the Jews.

God directed Hosea to give his children symbolic names—one son Lo-Ammi (not my people = Gomer's second son, his name symbolized the rejection of Israel, who, at Sinai, had covenanted to be God's people) and the daughter Lo-Ruhamah (not...loved or means "not pitied" or "not having obtained mercy," signifying that Israel will not find mercy when the impending judgment falls).

These names of Hosea's children represented God’s abandonment of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrian Captivity and Exile (Hosea 1:2-9). However, God was not permanently casting away the people of Israel.

In the verses quoted by Paul, God promised to restore them as His beloved and as His people. By ethnic heritage the Gentiles were not God’s people, so Paul was led by the Spirit of God to apply these verses to Gentiles—and Jews also—who were sovereignly chosen by God and called to be His people in Christ. The quotation of Hosea 2:23 is rather free with the order of the clauses reversed to fit the application to Gentiles. Paul was applying these verses from Hosea to the Gentiles, not reinterpreting them. He was not saying that Israel of the Old Testament is part of the church.

Dr S Lewis Johnson the respected former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary wrote...

Paul follows with a series of Old Testament quotations in support of the fact that God has called Gentiles to faith and left Israel with a remnant in the earth. In other words if Israel had read the Scriptures, they would have understood what might happen, if they should reject the revelation of God climaxed in the appearance of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Ro 9:25-29). Oh! How many things become clear when we read the Scriptures! (Romans 9:14-33)

I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE 'MY PEOPLE': kaleso (1SFAI) ton ou laon mou laon mou:

Peter (1 Peter 2:10) uses the same passage from Hosea in his first epistle, but probably with a slightly different  desired "endpoint" (see comment after verse below)...

for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. (see note 1 Peter 2:10) (Comment:  In Hosea it is Israel who is not God's people. In Romans it is the Gentiles to whom Paul applies Hosea's words. Thus in 1 Peter the words could apply to both Jews before they met their Messiah and pagan Gentiles before the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This is especially apropos in light of the difficulty to dogmatically label the recipients of Peter's letter as Jewish versus Gentile believers.)

Although Hosea was speaking of the remnant Israel, Paul (writing under the Spirit's inspiration) applies the same principle to God's calling of a remnant of the Gentiles as well

And the LORD said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God." (Hosea 1:9).

Marvin Vincent commenting on "that my people which was not My people" notes that...

The Greek is much more condensed.

“I will call the not-My-people My-people.” See Hos 1:6-9.

The reference is to the symbolical names given by the prophet to a son and daughter: Lo Ammi not my people, and Lo Ruhamah not having obtained mercy. The new people whom God will call My people will be made up from both Jews and Gentiles. Hosea, it is true, is speaking of the scattered Israelites only, and not of the Gentiles; but the ten tribes, by their lapse into idolatry had put themselves upon the same footing with the Gentiles, so that the words could be applied to both.

A principle of the divine government is enunciated

“which comes into play everywhere when circumstances reappear similar to those to which the statement was originally applied. The exiled Israelites being mingled with the Gentiles, and forming one homogeneous mass with them, cannot be brought to God separately from them. Isa. 49:22 represents the Gentiles as carrying the sons of Israel in their arms, and their daughters on their shoulders, and consequently as being restored to grace along with them” (Godet). (Word Studies in the NT)

AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED: kai ten ouk egaphemenen (RPPFSA) egaphemenen (RPPFSA): (Ro 1:7; Ezekiel 16:8; John 16:27)

Beloved (25) (agapao) means to love  unconditionally, sacrificially which describe the love that God Himself is. It is not sentimental or emotional but represents the act of one's will with the intended goal of the recipient's highest good irrespective of whether it is received or returned! Clearly agape love flows out of God's grace or unmerited favor. Both uses of "beloved" in this verse are in the perfect tense which speaks of an enduring effect, once toward the "negative" ("not beloved") but eventually in the "positive" direction.

Leon Morris in explaining the phrase "not beloved, beloved" (or "I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one.") writes that...

Hosea has this before the “not my people” clause and his verb here seems to mean “my pitied one”; Paul has reversed the order of the clauses and has “love” rather than “pity”. He is saying that in Scripture it is the call of God and the love of God that makes the people of God, and this quite irrespective of Jewish or Gentile origin. There is, of course, a sense in which all the people of the world are the objects of God’s love (John 3:16). God loves because it is his nature to love. But there is also a sense in which those who are his people are specially beloved, and this is the theme of the present passage (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)

Paul continues the sentence quoting directly from the Septuagint of Hosea 1:10 (highlighted Scripture corresponds to his quote)...

Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And it will come about that, in the place Where it is said to them, "You are not My people," It will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God."

This addition from  Hosea 1:10 further emphasizes the divine call that makes the "not my people" into "sons of the living God".

Once again, in its Old Testament context Hosea was not speaking of the Gentiles but describing Israel’s future restoration to God’s favor. Yet under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul applies it to God’s acknowledgment of the Gentiles as His sons. This is another illustration of the fact that when the Holy Spirit quotes verses from the OT in the NT, He can rightfully apply them as He wishes.

THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD: ekei klethesontai (3PFPI) huioi theou zontos (PAPMSG):

They - refers to the Gentiles and is a promise even found in the original promise to Abraham, Moses recording God's promise...

Genesis 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Comment: The phrase "all the families of the earth" would include the Gentiles).

Inherent in God's promise to bless all the families is the promise of the coming of Abraham's Seed, the Messiah, for it was only through Him that the blessing to Abraham would pass. Paul explains this in the NT in Galatians writing...

Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE BLESSED IN YOU." 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer...16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his Seed (this is how all the nations, which would include the Gentiles, would be blessed "in" Abraham - in his seed was the line of the Messiah, the Christ, through which the blessings could flow to all who would believe like Abraham!). He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to One, "And to your Seed," that is, Christ. (Comment: In Genesis 22:17 God reaffirms His promise of Genesis 12:1-3 but even more specifically states "indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed [masculine, singular in the Hebrew = prophesying of the Messiah] as the stars of the heavens")

Called (kaleo) means to speak to another in order to bring them nearer, either physically or in a personal relationship. A number of the NT uses convey the nuance of an invitation. (See related study on "the called")

Again there is the thought of God’s effectual call, this time directed to people in the situation of Gentiles. It is not the situation that prevails, but the divine call. And the call is to membership in the heavenly family. The substantives have no articles, which puts the stress on the quality. The people who were not God’s people will be called nothing less than sons (with all the rights and privileges that that implies) of One who is none less than God, and living God at that  (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press) (Comment: Regarding Gentiles as God's sons, see related discussion on "adoption as sons" in Ephesians 1:5)

Dr. Harry Ironside writes that in our day...

when grace is going out to the Gentiles, Israel would be set to one side nationally. By-and-by the same grace that is now being shown to the Gentile nations will be manifested again to the Israelites, and they will once more be called the children of the living God. Isaiah prophesied that although the number of the children of Israel would be as the sands of the sea, yet of this vast throng only a remnant would be saved. And that salvation would come in the day of the Lord's indignation, when He would be executing His judgment on the earth (see Isaiah 10:22-23). (Ironside, H. Romans).

Commenting on Romans 9:25-26 Thomas Constable writes that...

In quoting this Old Testament passage Paul is shifting his emphasis form the inclusion of Gentiles in the people of God  to explain the truth of remnant (which permeates the entire OT - see