Romans 9:26

And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) And it shall come to pass.—This, too, was originally spoken of the restoration of the northern exiles to the land of Palestine. As applied to the conversion of the Gentiles, it would mean that the lands which had previously been heathen should become Christian. There is some doubt whether the Hebrew of Hosea should not rather be translated, “instead of calling them,” for “in her place where it was said unto them.” Instead of calling them “Ye are not my people,” they will be called “Sons of the living God.” So Ewald and Hitzig.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:25-29 The rejecting of the Jews, and the taking in the Gentiles, were foretold in the Old Testament. It tends very much to the clearing of a truth, to observe how the Scripture is fulfilled in it. It is a wonder of Divine power and mercy that there are any saved: for even those left to be a seed, if God had dealt with them according to their sins, had perished with the rest. This great truth this Scripture teaches us. Even among the vast number of professing Christians it is to be feared that only a remnant will be saved.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And it shall come to pass - It shall happen, or take place. This is a continuation of the quotation from the prophet Hosea Hos 1:10, designed to confirm the doctrine which he was establishing. Both these quotations have the same design, and are introduced for the same end. In Hosea they did not refer to the calling of the Gentiles, but to the recalling the rejected Jews. God says, after the Jews had been rejected and scattered for their idolatry; after they had forfeited his favor, and been cast off as if they were not his people; he would recall them, and bestow on them again the appellation of sons. The apostle does not quote this as having original reference to the Gentiles, but for the following purposes:

(1) If God formerly purposed to recall to himself a people whom he had rejected; if he bestowed favors on his own people after they had forfeited his favor, and ceased to be entitled to the name of "his people:" then the same thing was not to be regarded as absurd if he dealt in a similar manner with the Gentiles - also a part of his original great family, the family of man, but long since rejected and deemed strangers.

(2) the dealings of God toward the Jews in the time of Hosea settled "a general principle of government." His treatment of them in this manner was a part of his great plan of governing the world. On the same plan he now admitted the Gentiles to favor. And as this "general principle" was established; as the history of the Jews themselves was a precedent in the case, it ought not to be objected in the time of Paul that the "same principle" should be carried out to meet the case also of the Gentiles.

In the place - The place where they may be scattered, or where they may dwell. Or rather, perhaps, in those nations which were not regarded as the people of God, there shall be a people to whom this shall apply.

Where it was said unto them - Where the proper appellation of the people was, that they were not the people of God; where they were idolatrous, sinful, aliens, strangers; so that they had none of the marks of the children of God.

Ye are not my people - People in covenant with God; under his protection, as their Sovereign, and keeping his laws.

There shall they be called - That is, there they "shall be." The verb to call in the Hebrew writings means often the same as "to be." It denotes that this shall be the appellation which properly expresses their character. It is a figure perhaps almost unique to the Hebrews; and it gives additional interest to the case. Instead of saying coldly and abstractedly, "they are such," it introduces also the idea that such is the "favorable judgment" of God in the case; see Matthew 5:9, "Peace-makers ...shall be called the children of God;" see the note on that place; also Romans 9:19; Matthew 21:13, "My house shall "be called" the house of prayer;" Mark 11:17; Luke 1:32, Luke 1:35, Luke 1:76; Isaiah 56:7.

The children of ... - Greek, Sons; see the note at Matthew 1:1.

Living God - Called living God in opposition to dead idols; see the Matthew 16:16 note; also Matthew 26:63 note; John 6:69 note; Acts 14:15 note; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 is a most honorable and distinguished appellation. No higher favor can be conferred on mortals than "to be" the sons of the living God; members of his family; entitled to his protection; and secure of his watch and care. This was an object of the highest desire with the saints of old; see Psalm 42:2; Psalm 84:2," My soul thirsteth for God, the living God;" "My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. And—another quotation from Ho 1:10.

it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children—"called sons"

of the living God—The expression, "in the place where … there," seems designed only to give greater emphasis to the gracious change here announced, from divine exclusion to divine admission to the privileges of the people of God.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This testimony is taken out of Hosea 1:10; and it is as if he had said: This that I affirm concerning the conversion and calling of the Gentiles, is nothing else but what the prophet Hosea long ago did preach to our fathers. Some think, these places in Hosea do speak primarily of the Jews, and but secondarily, or by consequence, of the Gentiles. Others think, that they speak chiefly of the Gentiles; those terms (not beloved, and not a people) being in Scripture mostly used of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it shall come to pass that in the place,.... This is another citation out of Hosea, and is to be seen in Hosea 1:10, and the meaning is, that in those countries, as here in Great Britain, in the very selfsame place, or spot of ground,

where it was said unto them, ye are not my people; where were nothing but idolatry and idolatrous worshippers, and whose worship, works, and actions, declared them not to be the people of God:

there shall they be called the children of the living God; not only children of God, but of the living God; in opposition to their idol gods, their lifeless deities, and senseless statues of gold, silver, brass, wood, or stone, they fell down to and worshipped. The chosen of God among the Gentiles, were from all eternity predestinated to the adoption of children; this blessing was provided, laid up, and secured for them, in the covenant of grace; in this relation of children were they given to Christ, and under this consideration of them did he partake of the same flesh and blood with them, and died, to gather them together, who were scattered abroad in the several parts of the world; and because they were antecedently sons by adopting grace, therefore the Spirit of God in effectual calling is sent down into their hearts to bear witness to their spirits, that they are the children of the living God, and to work faith in their souls to believe it; by which grace they receive this blessing, as all others, even the right and privilege of being the children of God; by this they claim it, and enjoy the comfort of it; and so are manifestly, both to themselves and others, the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; though this will more clearly appear another day, than it does now.

Geneva Study Bible

And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 9:26. Hosea 2:1 (almost literally from the LXX., Romans 1:10) is joined to the former passage, so that both are regarded as forming one connected declaration. Often so in Rabbinical usage, even when the passages belong to different writers. See Surenhusius, καταλλ., p. 464. 45.

καὶ ἔσται] וְהָיָה, and it (the following) will come to pass. Comp. Acts 2:21. These words are included in those of the prophecy (see also the LXX.), and therefore a colon is not to be placed after καί, as though they were the apostle’s (Hofmann and others).

These words also treat, in Hosea himself, of the theocratic restoration of the exiled people of the kingdom of Ephraim, so that ἐν τῷ τόπῳ οὗ denotes Palestine, whither the outcasts were to return (not the place of exile, as Hengstenberg, I. p. 248, and others think). But Paul recognises the antitypic fulfilment, as before at Romans 9:25, in the calling of the Gentiles, who, previously designated by God as not His people, become now, in consequence of the divine calling, sons of the living (true) God. See on Romans 9:25. But in this sense of Messianic fulfilment, according to Paul, the τόπος οὗ ἐῤῥέθη αὐτοῖς κ.τ.λ. cannot be Palestine, as it is in the historical sense of the prophet; nor yet is it “the communion of saints” (de Wette, comp. Baumgarten-Crusius: “the ideal state, the divine kingdom”), nor the “coetus Christianorum, ubi diu dubitatum est, an recte gentiles reciperentur” (Fritzsche); but simply—and this is also the ordinary explanation—the locality of the Gentiles, the Gentile lands. There, where they dwelt, there they, called by God to the salvation of the Messiah, were now named sons of the true God; and there, too, it had been before said to them: Ye are not my people! in so far, namely, as this utterance of rejection was the utterance of God, which, published to the Gentiles, is conceived, in the plastic spirit of poetry, as resounding in all Gentile lands. To suppose the locality without significance (Krehl), is inconsistent with its being so carefully designated. And to take ἐν τῷ τόπῳ οὗ, with Ewald, not in a local sense at all, but in that of instead that, even if it agree with the Hebrew (comp. Hitzig), cannot be made to agree with the Greek words. The LXX. understood and translated בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר locally, and rightly so.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. And it shall come to pass, &c.] A new quotation, linked in one line with the last. Nearly verbatim with LXX. of Hosea 1:10 (Romans 2:1 in the Heb.). For a first and second reference see last note but one.—“In the place where:”—this, in the first reference, may mean the Sanctuary from which the restored Israelite should no more be excluded; in the second, the Church and Family of the Promise, regarded as a locality in the figure. For the doctrine, cp. Ephesians 2:19-22.

the children] For comment, see Romans 8:14, &c.; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1.

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 9:26. καὶ—ἐκεῖ κληθήσονται—ζῶντος) Hosea 2:1, LXX. καὶ—κληθήσονται καὶ αὐτοὶ—ζῶντος.—ἐκεῖ) there: So it is not necessary for them to change their country and betake themselves to Judaea, comp. Zephaniah 2:11.

Romans 9:26