Hosea 2:16

"And it shall be at that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me Ish-i, and shalt no more call me Baal-i."

"At that day ..." These words, repeated again in Hosea 2:18,21, positively indicate that it is the present dispensation of the "last days" of which God was speaking here through his prophet. The literal significance of the verse is that idolatry shall be eradicated from among the people of God; and the names of so-called pagan deities shall no more forever be invoked by them. Some scholars have thought to limit these words to the "eschatological"[44] events of the very end times, which is not incorrect, provided that, the dispensation of the church of Christ is understood to be united with such events. This does not point to some far-off future event, but to what has already come to pass in the current dispensation.

"Ish-i ..." The new Israel "would address the Lord as my husband, a word of tenderness; and, although Baal-i is a synonym for the same thing, Hosea rejected it because it contained the name of the false god."[45]

Keil accurately discerned in this verse the truth, "That the church will then enter once more into the right relation to their God."[46] Apostate Israel had really gone into the "Baal" business. One of the sons of king Saul was named Esh-Baal (1 Chronicles 9:40); a son of Jonathan was named Meri-Baal (1 Chronicles 9:40), etc. There were at least ten personal proper names from that period which were made of compounds of the term Baal.[47]