Hosea

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 13:16 Deuteronomy 32:44 2 Kings 17:1 1 Chronicles 27:20 Nehemiah 10:23

The prophet's name “Hosea” appears in the Bible only at  Hosea 1:1-2;  Romans 9:25 . Assyria's rise to power posed a constant threat to Israel's national existence. Hosea's name symbolized the pressing need for national deliverance. His message pointed the nation to the deliverer ( Hosea 13:4 ).

The Book The two broad divisions of the Book of Hosea are: (1) Hosea's Marriage,  Hosea 1-3; and (2) Hosea's Messages,  Hosea 4-14 . A pattern of judgment followed by hope recurs in each of the first three chapters. A similar pattern is discernible in the oracles of Hosea ( Hosea 4-14 ), though the pattern is not balanced as neatly nor revealed as clearly. Certainly the book ends on a hopeful note ( Hosea 14:1 ), but most of the oracles in  Hosea 4-13 are judgmental in nature. The dominant theme of the book is love (covenant fidelity), God's unrelenting love for His wayward people and Israel's unreliable love for God.

The Prophet Hosea is identified in the title verse ( Hosea 1:1 ) as a genuine prophet to whom “the word of the Lord” came. That phrase designates the source of his authority and describes his credentials. Not only are Hosea's oracles ( Hosea 4-14 ) the word of the Lord to Israel, but so also are the materials dealing with his domestic problems ( Hosea 1-3 ). Based on information gleaned from his book, Hosea was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His familiarity with place names, religious practices, and political conditions in Israel suggests that he was a native. In contrast, Amos, who ministered as a prophet in Israel shortly before Hosea's ministry there, was from Tekoa in Judah. Both prophets preached judgment, Amos with a lion's roar and Hosea with a broken heart.

Placement of Hosea's ministry in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah indicates that he was a contemporary of Isaiah. The title verse of Isaiah contains the same list of Judean kings. Jeroboam II is the only Israelite king named in the title to Hosea's book, in spite of the fact that internal evidence suggests that Hosea's ministry continued from the last days of Jeroboam II to near the end of the Northern Kingdom (approximately 750-725 B.C.).

Hosea's prophetic ministry included the period of Near Eastern history when Assyria emerged as a new world empire under the capable leadership of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 B.C.). Hosea rebuked efforts at alliance with Assyria and Egypt as the means to national security. He witnessed the political chaos in Israel following the death of Jeroboam II. Four of the last six kings to sit on Israel's throne were assassinated. Hosea had the unenviable task of presiding over the death of his beloved nation, but he held out hope of national revival based on radical repentance ( Hosea 14:1 ).

The Marriage Hosea's marriage and family life dominate  Hosea 1-3 and surface from time to time in the remainder of the book. References to Hosea's family serve as prophetic symbolism of God and His family Israel. God ordered Hosea to take a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry “for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord” (  Hosea 1:2 ). Primary interest is not in Hosea and his family, but in God and His family. How to interpret the prophet's marriage is not a settled issue. A few take the marriage to be an allegory. Some accept it as a literal marriage to a woman who became promiscuous after marriage. Most handle it as an actual marriage to a cult prostitute. Every interpreter must keep in mind the obvious intent of the material to serve as prophetic symbolism of God's relationship to Israel.

The Theology At the heart of Hosea's theology was the relationship between God and Israel. Yahweh alone was Israel's God. Israel was Yahweh's elect people. Hosea presented Yahweh as a faithful husband and Israel as an unfaithful wife. Hosea's stress is not upon righteousness and justice, as was the case with Amos, but the knowledge of God and loyal love. God's love for Israel would not permit Him to give up on them in spite of their lack of knowledge and infidelity. Hope for Israel's future lay in their repentance and God's forgiveness and love that made Him willing to restore their relationship.

Outline

I. God Loves His Unfaithful People ( Hosea 1:1-3:5 ).

A. God's forgiveness has its limits ( Hosea 1:1-9 ).

B. God promises a future reversal of His judgment upon His people ( Hosea 1:10-2:1 ).

1. The promise is based on God's earlier word to Abraham ( Hosea 1:10 ).

2. The promise will result in a united people ( Hosea 2:1 ).

3. The promise is a prediction of restored relationships ( Hosea 2:1 ).

C. God works with His people to bring about reconciliation ( Hosea 2:2-15 ).

1. God's legal actions call for His people's reform ( Hosea 2:2-5 ).

2. God places obstacles in the path of His people to turn them back to God ( Hosea 2:6-8 ).

3. God removes the bounty of His people to remind them that God is the Giver ( Hosea 2:9-13 ).

4. God lures His people into the wilderness to open a door of hope ( Hosea 2:14-15 ).

D. God initiates a new covenant with His people ( Hosea 2:16-23 ).

1. God will remove the pagan elements of their worship ( Hosea 2:16-17 ).

2. God will restore His people to a right relationship with the animal kingdom ( Hosea 2:18 ).

3. God will abolish war and grant peace and security to His people ( Hosea 2:18 ).

4. God will establish a new and permanent relationship with His people based on His character ( Hosea 2:19-20 ).

5. God will bless His restored covenant people ( Hosea 2:21-23 ).

E. God's love is the basis of future hope for His people ( Hosea 3:1-5 ).

1. God's love is strong enough to overcome the unfaithfulness of His people ( Hosea 3:1 ).

2. God's love is deep enough to redeem His people ( Hosea 3:2 ).

3. God's love is courageous enough to discipline His people ( Hosea 3:3-4 ).

4. God's love will ultimately win the return of His people ( Hosea 3:5 ).

II. Unfaithfulness Is the Basis of God's Controversy with His People ( Hosea 4:1-9:9 ).

A. Unfaithful people break covenant commitments ( Hosea 4:1-3 ).

B. Unfaithful ministers bring judgment on the people and on themselves ( Hosea 4:4-12 ).

C. An alien spirit dominates unfaithful people ( Hosea 4:12-19 ).

D. God chastises His unfaithful people ( Hosea 5:1-15 ).

1. God disciplines unfaithful leaders ( Hosea 5:1-2 ).

2. God disciplines because He knows His people fully ( Hosea 5:3 ).

3. Pride prevents repentance and promotes stumbling ( Hosea 5:4-5 ).

4. Extravagant giving is no substitute for lapses in living ( Hosea 5:6-7 ).

5. God is the agent of punishment for His people ( Hosea 5:8-14 ).

6. God seeks the return of His people through discipline ( Hosea 5:15 ).

E. Surface repentance does not satisfy the sovereign God ( Hosea 6:1-3 ).

F. Sharp judgment comes upon fleeting loyalty ( Hosea 6:4-5 ).

G. Loyal love and personal knowledge of God meet His requirements ( Hosea 6:6 ).

H. Covenant-breaking hinders restoration of God's people ( Hosea 6:7-7:2 ).

I. Making leaders by power politics shuts God out of the process ( Hosea 7:3-7 ).

J. Compromise leads to loss of strength and alienation from God ( Hosea 7:8-10 ).

K. Diplomatic duplicity interferes with God's redemptive activity ( Hosea 7:11-13 ).

L. Religious perversion ends in apostasy and bondage ( Hosea 7:14-16 ).

M. God's unfaithful people reap more than they sow ( Hosea 8:1-9:9 ).

1. The unfaithful disregard divine law ( Hosea 8:1-2 ).

2. The unfaithful reject God's goodness ( Hosea 8:3 ).

3. The unfaithful practice idolatory ( Hosea 8:4-6 ).

4. The unfaithful will reap foreign domination ( Hosea 8:7-10 ).

5. The unfaithful will reap religious and moral corruption ( Hosea 8:11-13 ).

6. The unfaithful will reap national destruction ( Hosea 8:13-14 ).

7. The unfaithful will reap exile in a foreign land ( Hosea 9:1-4 ).

8. The unfaithful will reap punishment for their sins ( Hosea 9:5-9 ).

III. God's Loyal Love Is the Only Basis for a Lasting Relationship with His People ( Hosea 9:10-14:9 ).

A. Without God's love His people perish ( Hosea 9:10-17 ).

B. Without reverence for God, His people have no future ( Hosea 10:1-8 ).

1. Ornate altars cannot hide deceitful hearts ( Hosea 10:1-2 ).

2. Bad leaders produce bad times ( Hosea 10:3-8 ).

C. Without righteousness God's people cannot experience God's unfailing love ( Hosea 10:9-15 ).

D. God's love for His people will not allow Him to give them up ( Hosea 11:1-11 ).

E. Covenant-making with alien powers is infidelity to God ( Hosea 11:12-12:1 ).

F. Judgment according to deeds is a universal principle ( Hosea 12:2-6 ).

G. Deception is repaid by destruction ( Hosea 12:7-14 ).

H. Rebellion against God leads to death ( Hosea 13:1-16 ).

I. Repentance results in restoration and life for God's people ( Hosea 14:1-9 ).

Billy K. Smith

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Placed first of the minor prophets in the canon (one collective whole "the book of the prophets,"  Acts 7:42), probably because of the length, vivid earnestness, and patriotism of his prophecies, as well as their resemblance to those of the greater prophets, Chronologically Jonah was before him, 862 B.C., Joel about 810 B.C., Amos 790 B.C., Hosea 784 to 722 B.C., more or less contemporary with Isaiah and Amos. Began prophesying in the last years of Jeroboam II, contemporary with Uzziah; ended at the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. The prophecies of his extant are only those portions of his public teachings which the Holy Spirit preserved, as designed for the benefit of the uuiversal church. His name means salvation. Son of Beeri, of Issachar; born in Bethshemesh.

His pictures of Israelite life, the rival factions calling in Egypt and Assyria, mostly apply to the interreign after Jeroboam's death and to the succeeding reigns, rather than to his able government. In  Hosea 2:8 he makes no allusion to Jehovah's restoration of Israel's coasts under Jeroboam among Jehovah's mercies to Israel. He mentions in the inscription, besides the reign of Jeroboam in Israel, the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, though his prophecies are addressed primarily to Israel and only incidentally to Judah; for all the prophets whether in Judah or Israel regarded Israel's separation from Judah, civil as well as religious, as an apostasy from God who promised the kingship of the theocracy to the line of David. Hence Elijah in Israel took twelve stones to represent Judah as well as Israel ( 1 Kings 18:31). Eichhorn sees a Samaritanism in the masculine suffix of the second person ( -Ak ).

'''Style And Subject''' Abrupt, sententious, and unperiodic, he is the more weighty and impressive. Brevity causes obscurity, the obscurity being designed by the Spirit to call forth prayerful study. Connecting particles are few. Changes of person, and anomalies of gender, number, and construction, abound. Horsley points out the excessively local and individual tone of his prophecies. He specifies Ephraim, Mizpah, Tabor, Gilgal, Bethel or Bethaven, Jezreel, Gibeah, Ramah, Gilead, Shechem, Lebanon, Arbela. Israel's sin, chastisement, and restoration are his theme. His first prophecy announces the coming overthrow of Jehu's house, fulfilled after Jeroboam's death, which the prophecy precedes, in Zachariah, Jeroboam's son, who was the fourth and last in descent from Jehu, and conspired against by Shallum after a six months' reign ( 2 Kings 15:12).

The allusion to Shalmaneser's expedition against Israel as past, i.e. the first inroad against Hoshea whose reign began only four years before Hezekiah's, accords with the inscription which extends his prophesying to the reign of Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 17:1;  2 Kings 17:3;  2 Kings 18:9). He declares throughout that a return to Jehovah is the only remedy for the evils existing and impending: the calf worship at Bethel, established by Jeroboam, must be given up ( Hosea 8:5-6;  Hosea 10:5;  Hosea 13:2); unrighteousness toward men, the necessary consequence of impiety towards God, must cease, or sacrifices are worthless ( Hosea 4:2;  Hosea 6:6, based on Samuel's original maxim,  1 Samuel 15:22). The Pentateuch is the foundation of his prophecies.

Here as there God's past favors to Israel are made the incentive to loving obedience ( Hosea 2:8;  Hosea 11:1;  Hosea 12:9;  Hosea 13:4, compare  Exodus 20:2). Literal fornication and adultery follow close upon spiritual ( Hosea 4:12-14). Assyria, the great northern power, which Israel foolishly regards as her friend to save her from her acknowledged calamities, Hosea foresees will be her destroyer ( Hosea 5:13;  Hosea 7:11;  Hosea 8:9;  Hosea 12:1;  Hosea 14:3;  Hosea 3:4;  Hosea 10:6;  Hosea 11:11). Political makeshifts to remedy moral corruption only hasten the disaster which they seek to avert; when the church leans on the world in her distress, instead of turning to God, the world the instrument of her sin is made the instrument of her punishment.

Hosea is driven by the nation's evils, present and in prospect, to cling the more closely to God. Amidst his rugged abruptness soft and exquisite touches occur, where God's lovingkindness, balmy as the morning sun and genial as the rain, stands in contrast to Israel's goodness, evanescent as the cloud and the early dew ( Hosea 6:3-4; compare also  Hosea 13:3;  Hosea 14:5-7).

DIVISIONS. There are two leading ones: Hosea 1-3; Hosea 4-14. Hosea 1; Hosea 2; and Hosea 3 form three separate cantos or parts, for Hosea 1-3 are more prose than poetry. Probably Hosea himself under the Spirit combined his scattered prophecies into one collection. Hosea 4-14, are an expansion of Hosea 3. On his marriage to Gomer, Henderson thinks that there is no hint of its being in vision, and that she fell into lewdness after her union with Hosea, thus fitly symbolizing Israel who lapsed into spiritual whoredom after the marriage contract with God on Sinai. (See Gomer .) But an act revolting to a pure mind would hardly be ordained by God save in vision, which serves all the purposes of a vivid and as it were acted prophecy. So the command to Ezekiel ( Hosea 4:4-15).

Moreover it would require years for the birth of three children, which would weaken the force of the symbol. In order effectively to teach others Hosea must experimentally realize it himself ( Hosea 12:10). Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, was probably one associated with the lascivious rites of the prevalent idolatries. Hosea's union in vision with such an one in spite of his natural repugnance would vividly impress the people with God's amazing love in uniting Himself to so polluted a nation. Hosea's taking her back after adultery (Hosea 3), at the price of a slave, marks Israel's extreme degradation and Jehovah's unchangeable love yet about to restore her. The truth expressed by prophetic act in vision was Israel's idolatry (spiritual impurity, "a wife of whoredoms") before her call in Egypt and in Ur of the Chaldees ( Joshua 24:14) as well as after it.

So also the Saviour took out of an unholy world the church, that He might unite her in holiness to Himself. No more remarkable prophecy exists of Israel's anomalous and extraordinary state for thousands of years, and of her future restoration, than  Hosea 3:4-5; "Israel shall abide many days without a king (which they so craved for originally), without a sacrifice (which their law requires as essential to their religion), without an image ... ephod ... teraphim (which they were in Hosea's days so mad after). Afterward shall Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king ... in the latter days." But first must come her spiritual probation in the wilderness of trial ( Hosea 2:14) and her return to the Egypt of affliction ( Hosea 8:13;  Hosea 9:3), not literal "Egypt" ( Hosea 11:5).

New Testament references:  Hosea 11:1 =  Matthew 2:15;  Hosea 6:6 =  Matthew 9:13;  Matthew 12:7;  Hosea 1:10;  Hosea 2:1-23 =  Romans 9:25-26;  Hosea 13:14 =  1 Corinthians 15:55;  Hosea 1:9-10;  Hosea 2:23 =  1 Peter 2:10;  Hosea 10:8 =  Luke 23:30;  Revelation 6:16;  Hosea 6:2 =  1 Corinthians 15:4;  Hosea 14:2 =  Hebrews 13:15. The later prophets also stamp with their inspired sanction Hosea's prophecies, which they quote. Compare  Hosea 1:11 with  Isaiah 11:12-13;  Hosea 4:3 with  Zephaniah 1:3;  Hosea 4:6 with  Isaiah 5:13;  Hosea 7:10 with  Isaiah 9:12-13;  Hosea 10:12 with  Jeremiah 4:3. (See Oshea .)

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Hosea . The name of the prophet Hosea, though distinguished by the English translators, is identical with that of the last king of Israel and with the original name of Joshua; in these cases it appears in the EV [Note: English Version.] as Hoshea. Hosea, the son of Beeri, is the only prophet, among those whose writings have survived, who was himself a native of the Northern Kingdom. The main subject of the prophecy of Amos is the Northern Kingdom, but Amos himself was a native of the South; so also were Isaiah and Micah, and these two prophets, though they included the Northern Kingdom in their denunciations, devoted themselves mainly to Judah.

Hosea’s prophetic career extended from shortly before the fall of the house of Jerohoam ii. ( c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 746) to shortly before the outbreak of the Syro-Ephraimitish war in b.c. 735 a period of rapidly advancing decay following on the success and prosperity of the reign of Jeroboam ii. He began to prophesy within some 10 or 15 years of the prophetic activity of Amos at Bethel, and continued to do so till some years after Isaiah had made his voice heard and his influence felt in the Southern Kingdom. Influenced himself probably by Amos, he seems to have exercised some influence over Isaiah; but these conclusions must rest on a comparison of the writings of the three prophets. Our direct knowledge of Hosea is derived entirely from the book which bears his name; be is mentioned nowhere else in the OT.

If the account given in the 1 J James 3:1-18 rd chapters of Hosea were allegory, as many ancient and some modern interpreters have held, our knowledge of Hosea would be slight indeed. But since these chapters are clearly not allegorical, there are few prophets whose spiritual experience is better known to us. In favour of an allegorical interpretation the clearly symbolical character of the names of Hosea’s children has been urged; but the names of Isaiah’s children Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz are also symbolical (cf.   Isaiah 8:18 ). Moreover, if the narrative were allegorical, there would be just as much reason for the names of Hosea’s wife and her father as for the names of the children being symbolical; on the other hand, in real life it was within the power of the prophet to give symbolical names to the children, but not to his wife or her father. The names of Hosea’s wife, Gomer, and her father, Diblaim are not symbolical. Further, the reference to the weaning of Lo-ruhamah in   Isaiah 1:8 is purposeless in allegory, but natural enough in real life, since it serves to fix the interval between the birth of the two children.

The command in  Isaiah 1:2 has seemed to some, and may well seem, if prophetic methods of expression are forgotten, impossible except in allegory. It is as well, therefore, to approach the important narrative of Hosea with a recollection of such a method of describing experience as is illustrated by   Jeremiah 18:1-4 . This describes a perfectly familiar scene. The incident, translated out of prophetic language, is as follows. On an impulse Jeremiah one day went down to watch, as he must often have watched before, a potter at his work; but on this particular day the potter’s work taught him a new lesson. Then he recognized (1) that the impulse that had led him that day was from Jahweh, and (2) that the new suggestion of the potter’s wheel was a word from Jahweh. So again,   Jeremiah 32:6 f. describes what we should term a presentiment; after it was realized, it was recognized to have been a word from Jahweh (  Jeremiah 32:8 ). Interpreted in the light of these illustrations of prophetic methods of speech, the narrative of   Hosea 1:1-11 gives us an account of the experience of Hosea, as follows. Driven by true love in which, probably enough, Hosea at the time felt the approval, not to say the direct impulse of Jahweh, Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. After marriage she proved unfaithful, and Hosea heard that the woman whom he had been led by Jahweh to marry had had within her all along the tendency to unfaithfulness. She was not at the time of marriage an actual harlot, but, had Hosea only fully understood, he would have known when he married her, as these years afterwards he has come to know, that when Jahweh said, ‘Go, marry Gomer,’ He was really saying ‘Go, marry a woman who will bestow her love on others.’ His new, sad knowledge does not make him feel less but more that his marriage had been ordered of God. Not only through the love of youth, but even more through the conflict and the treachery and the ill-return which his love has received, Jahweh is speaking. Had Hosea spoken just like Jeremiah, he might have continued: ‘Then I discovered that my wife had played the harlot, and that my children were not mine. Then I knew that this was the word of Jahweh, and Jahweh said unto me: Even as the bride of thy youth has played the harlot, even so has My bride, Israel, played the harlot: even as thy children are children of harlotry, even so are the children of Israel children of harlotry, sons of the Baals whom they worship.’

Apparently Hosea reached the conclusion that none of the children were his; he calls them without exception ‘children of harlotry’ ( Hosea 1:2 ). But the name Jezreel (  Hosea 1:4 ) certainly does not suggest that at the birth of his firstborn he was already aware of his wife’s unfaithfulness, the name of the second, Lo-ruhamah (‘Not pitied,’   Hosea 1:6 ), does not prove it, and even that of the third child, Lo-ammi (‘Not my kinsman,’   Hosea 1:9 ), may merely carry further the judgment on the nation expressed unquestionably in the first and probably in the second. In any case we may somewhat safely infer that Hosea became a prophet before he had learned his wife’s unfaithfulness, and that in his earnest preaching he, like Amos, denounced inhumanity as offensive to God; for this is the purpose of the name Jezreel  ; the house of Jehu, established by means of bloodshed and inhumanity (  Hosea 1:4 ), is about to be punished. ‘Kindness not sacrifice’ (  Hosea 6:6 ) must have been the ideal of religion which from the first Hosea held up before his people.

It has generally been inferred that Hosea’s wife subsequently left him (or that he put her away), but that at last in his love for her, which could not be quenched, he rescued her from the life of shame into which she had sunk (ch 3). And this perhaps remains most probable, though Marti has lately argued with much ability (1) that ch. 3 does not refer to Gomer, (2) that, unlike ch. 1, ch. 3 is allegorical, and (3) that ch. 3 formed no part of the original Book of Hosea. Be this as it may, it is clear that although the circumstances of Hosea’s married life were not the cause of his becoming a prophet, they do explain certain peculiar characteristics of his message and personality: his insistence on the love of God for Israel, and on Israel’s sin as consisting in the want of love and of loyalty towards God; and the greater emotional element that marks him as compared with Amos. At the same time, it is important not to exaggerate the difference between Amos and Hosea, of to lose sight of the fact that Hosea not less than Amos or Isaiah or Micah insisted on the worthlessness of religion or of devotion to Jahweh which was not ethical ( Jezreel ,   Hosea 1:4;   Hosea 6:6 ). In considering the greater sympathy of Hosea with the people whom he has to condemn, it must he remembered that he was of them, whereas Amos, a native of the South, was not.

G. B. Gray.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Nothing is related of the ancestors of the prophet Hosea. (whose name is identical with Hoshea) except that he was the son of Beeri. He prophesied in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam king of Israel. He is especially occupied with the moral condition of the people, principally of Israel, and the judgements that would follow. Israel is treated as in rebellion from the commencement. The prophecy divides itself thus:  Hosea 1 -  Hosea 3 give God's purposes respecting Israel; and in   Hosea 4 —   Hosea 14 the people are addressed: there are minor sub-divisions.

Hosea was to act a parable, by taking a 'wife of whoredoms,' which may mean that the woman that he was to take would be unfaithful to him; but grace abounds over sin. Hosea's wife was symbolical of Israel who had been unfaithful to Jehovah. He took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who bore him a son, who, by the Lord's direction, was called Jezreel. (a place that had witnessed the judgements of God.  2 Kings 9:30-37 ). The prophet's wife then bare a daughter, and her name was called Lo-ruhamah, 'not having obtained mercy:' no more mercy was to be shown to Israel. Again Gomer bare a son, and called his name Lo-ammi, 'not my people:' God would not acknowledge them as His. But a future blessing is at once announced to them, and those who had no claim to be God's people should be called 'sons of the living God.' Paul applies this to the Gentiles in   Romans 9:26 , as he does in  Romans 9:25 to the Jews (where Hosea, is called OSEE).

 Hosea 2 . This introduces a remnant, the 'brethren' and 'sisters' of the prophet, those acted upon by the Spirit, to whom God's message was Ammi, 'my people;' and Ruhamah, 'received in mercy.' They will plead with their mother — Israel in the mass — and tell her that she was not the wife of Jehovah. She must be dealt with in judgement, but the valley of Achor (where God's anger was turned away,   Joshua 7:26 ) should be a door of hope. She will be able to call Jehovah Ishi , 'husband,' and not Baali , 'master.' Those that had not obtained mercy will obtain mercy; and those that had been declared 'not God's people' would be able to say, 'Thou art my God.' Cf.  1 Peter 2:10 .

 Hosea 3 . This deals with the past, the present, and the future. Other details are given of their unfaithfulness and rejection. They should be many days without a king, or a sacrifice, or even an idol (as is the state of Israel in the present day); but they will afterwards return, and seek Jehovah and their king, that is Christ.

 Hosea 4 . This commences the appeal to their consciences. The sins of the people are pointed out. Their prophets had failed, and the people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. The priests also had failed and it became 'like people, like priest.' In  Hosea 4:15 Judah is warned not to follow the evil example of Israel. In   Hosea 4:17 , as elsewhere, Israel is called Ephraim, that being the chief of the ten tribes.

 Hosea 5 . The priests, the people, and the king are addressed. They had all sinned, and had been rebuked, but had not returned to Jehovah. Ephraim, instead of turning to Jehovah in his sickness, had sought the Assyrian — a king who could not cure them.

 Hosea 6 ,  Hosea 7 . The prophet touchingly appeals to the people to return to Jehovah: it must be in reality, and not merely in outward forms. They had, like Adam ( Hosea 6:7 , instead of 'men'), transgressed the covenant: cf.  Romans 5:14 . The people encouraged the king and princes in their wickedness: their weakness was manifest, for strangers had devoured them. They would not turn to the Most High.

 Hosea 8 . They are still threatened for their impiety. Israel had 'made many altars to sin,' and had leaned upon Assyria, an arm of flesh. Judah had trusted to her fenced cities: judgement should fall upon both.

 Hosea 9 . This reveals a touching mixture of the prophet's affection for the people, and the judgements he is compelled to utter against them. Various illustrations are used to enforce his words.

 Hosea 10 . Israel was an empty vine. They are reproached for their altars and the golden calves: they had sinned from the days of Gibeah. Cf.  Judges 19:15-25 .

 Hosea 11 . Israel had been called out of Egypt, but the fulfilment of this call was verified in the history of the Lord.  Matthew 2:15 . For their sin they should be as Admah and Zeboim: cf.  Deuteronomy 29:23 . Assyria should be the place of their captivity. Jehovah yearned over them and would not destroy them, for He is God, not man.

 Hosea 12 . The prophet enters into the detail of God's moral relationship with Israel, in order that the force of their being rejected by Him may convict them of their sin. They were to study how God had dealt with Jacob. The prophet in this chapter, as also in  Hosea 10:9 , refers to the beginning of evil in the history of the people. Jacob's character was reproduced in his descendants.

 Hosea 13 . Here again is found the conflict between the prophet's affection for the people, and the punishment God was compelled to inflict. And here again, almost as soon as the punishment is pronounced, God's thoughts of grace are uttered.

 Hosea 14 . This speaks of restoration. Iniquity is acknowledged and forgiveness asked. Assyria shall no more be appealed to, nor the work of their hands be called their God. Abundant blessing is then foretold. Ephraim will say, "What have I to do any more with idols?" God's answer, "I have heard him and observed him." Again Ephraim says, "I am like a green fir tree;" and the answer is, "From me is thy fruit found." The prophecy ends with the declaration that the wise and the prudent will grasp the things revealed; "for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein."

Thus the dealings of God with Israel and Judah are dealt with in Hosea more fully perhaps than in any other of the minor prophets. The learned look upon Hosea as the most difficult of the prophets to translate, its abrupt transitions being numerous and hard to understand, because of its dealing strictly with Jewish circumstances.

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

At the time of the prophet Hosea’s ministry (the eighth century BC) the ancient Israelite nation was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Hosea began his ministry late in the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah, and continued it through the reigns of succeeding kings ( Hosea 1:1).

Unfaithful religion

Hosea’s work was concerned with the north more than the south. Israel’s religion had been corrupted through Baal worship, with the result that the nation was heading for judgment and would be taken captive to a foreign land.

Because the covenant between Israel and Yahweh was likened to a marriage covenant, Israel’s association with other gods was really spiritual adultery ( Hosea 4:17;  Hosea 5:4;  Hosea 6:10;  Hosea 7:16;  Hosea 8:5-6; see Baal ). Hosea saw a fitting illustration of this when his own wife Gomer left him for other lovers. She became a prostitute ( Hosea 1:2;  Hosea 2:2).

Gomer’s pleasures did not last and she was sold as a slave. Hosea, who still loved his erring wife, had remained faithful to his marriage covenant, and when he found Gomer a slave, he bought her back ( Hosea 3:1-3). Hosea’s covenant love for Gomer pictured Yahweh’s covenant love for his people. They too would go into captivity but, after being cleansed of their adulterous association with the Canaanite gods, would be brought back to live in their land again ( Hosea 2:17-20;  Hosea 3:4-5;  Hosea 14:4-7).

Corrupt society

During the reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah, Israel and Judah enjoyed political stability, economic prosperity and territorial expansion greater than at any time since the days of David and Solomon ( 2 Kings 14:23-27;  2 Kings 15:1-2;  2 Chronicles 26:1-15). This development, however, brought with it greed and corruption on a scale that neither Israel nor Judah had experienced previously. The two prophets who began to attack the social injustice and religious corruption of the age were Amos and Hosea. They came from different parts of the country, but both were concerned more with the northern kingdom than with the southern.

The particular social evils that the prophets attacked were connected with the exploitation of the poor by those of the upper classes. The people who benefited from the prosperity of the age were not the farmers (who made up the majority of the population) but the officials and merchants. They could cheat and oppress the poor as they wished, knowing that because of the corruption of the courts, the poor had no way of defending themselves ( Hosea 4:1-2;  Hosea 6:8-9;  Hosea 12:7-8). Again, the judgment announced upon the nation was that of conquest and captivity ( Hosea 5:14;  Hosea 9:6;  Hosea 10:3-8;  Hosea 10:13-15; see also Amos ).

Outline of Hosea’s prophecy

Hosea recounts his unhappy family experiences and shows how those experiences reflect the state of affairs in Israel (1:1-2:1). Like Gomer, Israel has been unfaithful to her husband God (Yahweh) (2:2-23), but as Hosea redeemed Gomer from slavery, so God will redeem Israel from the coming captivity (3:1-5).

The central section of the book is a collection of various short messages that Hosea preached over the years. The messages are not in chronological order, but all are connected with Israel’s moral corruption. Corrupt religion produces a corrupt nation, whether in its everyday life (4:1-5:7), its foreign policy (5:8-14), its loyalty to God (5:15-6:6) or its concern for justice (6:7-7:7). The nation has rebelled against God by making alliances with foreign nations (7:8-16) and by giving itself to Baal worship (8:1-14).

Israel’s punishment is therefore certain (9:1-17). The nation will reap what it has sown (10:1-15). The people have despised God’s love (11:1-11) and exploited each other (11:12-12:14), and thereby have guaranteed captivity for their nation (13:1-16). But when the people repent, God will forgive them and bring them back to their land (14:1-9).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

—the Prophet. His name is the same as that of Joshua, and signifies a Saviour. He was the son of Beevi. He is placed the first of what is called the minor prophets; not so called as if the writings of those holy men of old were considered less important than others—not so—but the reason of their being called minor prophets, was on account of the bulk of their prophetical writings being less. Very highly indebted hath the church been, in all ages, for their ministry; and believers in the present hour, find daily cause to bless God the Holy Ghost, for the instrumentality of those men. Hosea began to prophecy very early in the church, prehaps, as some think, the first of all the prophets whose writings have been preserved in the canon of Scripture; and he continued through several reigns, as the preface in his first chapter shews. On the subject of his marriage with Gomer,

(See Gomer)

some have thought, that this was a parable, and only intended by the Lord in a figurative way, to shew the Lord's grace to his adulterous Israel and Judah. But certainly the thing itself is real. And wherefore should it be more improbable, in the case of Hosea's marrying an adulteress, than in Jeremiah's instance, and in the case of Ezekiel also, being continued types of the doctrines they were directed to deliver to the people.

I cannot take leave of the history of Hosea without first desiring the reader to remark with me, what numberless things we discover in this man's writings, pointing to the person, offices, relation, and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. What grace, mercy, love, and condescension in the Lord marrying our adulterous nature! What blessedness is set forth in that betrothing nature, for ever! What sweet views of Jesus doth this man's writings give concerning his recoveries of his people under all their backslidings, and departures, and rebellions, and ingratitude! Surely, it is impossible for any enlightened eye to read the records of the prophet, and not perceive the Saviour in almost every chapter and verse, from beginning to end, And how blessed was it and gracious in God the Holy Ghost, in those distant ages from Christ, when the prophecy of Hosed was delivered; and how blessed and gracious now in our day, upon whom "the ends of the world are come;" that this man's ministry should be made instrumental to comfort and refresh both, concerning the glorious person, love, grace, and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a sweet proof of the constant and unceasing love watching over and blessing the church of Jesus, by God the Holy Ghost, (See  Isaiah 27:3)

There was another Hosea in the church, who was last king of Israel. (See  2 Kings 17:1)

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

son of Beeri, the first of the minor prophets. He is generally considered as a native and inhabitant of the kingdom of Israel, and is supposed to have begun to prophesy about B.C. 800. He exercised his office sixty years; but it is not known at what periods his different prophecies now remaining were delivered. Most of them are directed against the people of Israel, whom he reproves and threatens for their idolatry and wickedness, and exhorts to repentance, with the greatest earnestness, as the only means of averting the evils impending over their country. The principal predictions contained in this book, are the captivity and dispersion of the kingdom of Israel; the deliverance of Judah from Sennacherib; the present state of the Jews; their future restoration, and union with the Gentiles in the kingdom of the Messiah; the call of our Saviour out of Egypt, and his resurrection on the third day. The style of Hosea is peculiarly obscure; it is sententious, concise, and abrupt; the transitions of persons are sudden; and the connexive and adversative particles are frequently omitted. The prophecies are in one continued series, without any distinction as to the times when they were delivered, or the different subjects to which they relate. They are not so clear and detailed, as the predictions of those prophets who lived in succeeding ages. When, however, we have surmounted these difficulties, we shall see abundant reason to admire the force and energy with which this prophet writes, and the boldness of the figures and similitudes which he uses.

2. HOSEA, or HOSHEA, son of Elah, was the last king of Israel. Having conspired against Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, he killed him, A.M. 3265; B.C. 739. However, the elders of the land seem to have taken the government into their hands; for Hoshea was not in possession of the kingdom till nine years after,   2 Kings 15:30;  2 Kings 17:1 . Hoshea did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not equal to the kings of Israel who preceded him; that is, say the Jewish doctors, he did not restrain his subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship, if they would; whereas, the kings of Israel, his predecessors, had forbidden it, and had placed guards on the road to prevent it. Salmaneser, king of Assyria, being informed that Hoshea meditated a revolt, and had concerted measures with So, king of Egypt, to shake off the Assyrian yoke, marched against him, and besieged Samaria. After a siege of three years, in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, the city was taken, and was reduced to a heap of ruins, A.M. 3282. The king of Assyria removed the Israelites of the ten tribes to countries beyond the Euphrates, and thus terminated the kingdom of the ten tribes.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The first of the twelve Minor Prophets, as arranged in our Bibles. He prophesied for a long time, from Uzziah to Hezekiah, about 785-725 B. C.

The Book Of Hosea contains properly two parts.  Hosea 1:1-3:5 contains a series of symbolical actions directed against the idolatries of Israel. It is disputed whether the marriage of the prophet was a real transaction, or an allegorical vision; in all probability the latter is the correct view; but in either case it illustrates the relations of the idolatrous Israel to her covenant God.   Hosea 4:1-14:9 is chiefly occupied with denunciations against Israel, and especially Samaria, for the worship of idols, which prevailed there. Hosea's warnings are mingled with tender and pathetic expostulations. His style is obscure, and it is difficult to fix the periods or the divisions of his various predictions. He shows a joyful faith in the coming Redeemer, and is several times quoted in the New Testament,   Matthew 9:13   Romans 9:25,26   1 Peter 2:10 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Ὠσηέ)

This prophet’s gracious words in 2:23, containing a Divine promise that faithless Israel will be restored to God’s favour and be for ever His faithful people, receive in St. Paul’s revolutionary exegesis ( Romans 9:25 f.) a new application to the Gentiles, who had not, till the Christian era, been the people or the beloved of God, but who at length become the objects of His love and are called the sons of the living God. Before the coming of the Messiah there was probably no more Christ-like teacher than the prophet of Mount Ephraim, who provided our Lord with His favourite quotation, ‘I will have mercy [= ḥesed , love] and not sacrifice’; and it is evident that his prevision of a new covenant, linking Divine and human love in everlasting bonds, was scarcely less precious to the Apostle of the Gentiles than to the Saviour of the world.

James Strahan.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hose'a. (Salvation). Son of Beeri, and first of the minor prophets. Probably the life, or rather the prophetic career, of Hosea extended from B.C. 784 to 723, a period of fifty-nine years.

The prophecies of Hosea were delivered in the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam II was on the throne, and Israel was at the height of its earthly splendor. Nothing is known of the prophet's life, excepting what may be gained from his book.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Hosea ( Ho-Zç'Ah ), Salvation. Son of Beeri, and one of the minor prophets. His prophetic career extended from b.c. 784 to 725, a period of 59 years. The prophecies of Hosea were delivered in the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam II. was ruler, and Israel was at the height of its splendor. Nothing is known of the prophet's life excepting what may be gained from his book.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Hosea 1:1,2

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Hoshe'd, הוֹשֵׁע , Deliverance), or "HOSHEA" (as it is more correctly Anglicized in Dent. 32 — 44;  2 Kings 15:30;  2 Kings 17:1;  2 Kings 17:3-4;  2 Kings 17:6;  2 Kings 18:1;  2 Kings 18:9-10;  1 Chronicles 27:20;  Nehemiah 10:23; but "Oshea" in  Numbers 13:8;  Numbers 13:6), the name of several men.

1. HOSHEA or OSHEA (Sept. Αὐσή and Ι᾿Ησοῦς ,Vulg. Osee and Josue), the original name of JOSHUA (See Joshua) (q.v.) Moses's successor ( Numbers 13:8;  Numbers 13:16; Dent. 32:44).

2. HOSHEA, the son of Azariah, and viceroy of the Ephraimites under David ( 1 Chronicles 27:20).

3. HOSEA (Sept. Ο᾿Σηέ ,Vulg. Osee, N.T. ῾Ωσεή , "Osee,"  Romans 9:25), the son of Beeri ( Hosea 1:1-2), and author of the book of prophecies which bears his name. (See Prophet).

The personal history of the prophet Hosea is so closely interwoven with his book of prophecies that it will be most convenient to consider them together; indeed he principal recorded events of his life were a series of prophetical symbols themselves. The figments of Jewish writers regarding Hosea's parentage need scarcely be mentioned (see J. Fredericus, Exercit. de Hosea et vaticiniis ejus, Lips. 1715). His father has been confounded with Beerah, a prince of the Reubenites ( 1 Chronicles 5:6). So, too, Beeri has been reckoned a prophet himself, according to the rabbinical notion that the mention of a prophet's father in the introduction to his prophecies is a proof that sire as well as son was endowed with the oracular spirit.

1. Place. — Whether Hosea was a citizen of Israel or Judah has been disputed. The pseudo-Epiphanius and Dorotheus of Tyre speak of him as being born at Belemoth, in the tribe of Issachar (Epiphan. De Vitis Prophet. cap. 11; Doroth. De Proph. cap. 1). Drusius (Critici Sacri, in loc., tom. 5) prefers the reading "Beth-semes," and quotes Jerome, who says, "Osee de tribu Issachar fuit ortus in Beth-semes." But Maurer contends strenuously that he belonged to the kingdom of Judah (Comment. Theol., ed. Rosenm Ü ller, 2, 391); while Jahn supposes that he exercised his office, not, as Amos did, in Israel, but in the principality of Judah. Maurer appeals to the superscription in Amos as a proof that prophets of Jewish origin were sometimes commissioned to labor in the kingdom of Israel (against the appeal to Amos see Credner, Joel, p. 66; Hitzig, Kurzgef. exeget. Handb. zum A. T. p. 72). Bat with the exception of the case recorded in  1 Kings 13:1 (a case altogether too singular and mysterious to serve as an argument), the instance of Amos is a solitary one, and seems to have been regarded as anomalous by his contemporaries ( Amos 7:12). Neither can we assent to the other hypothesis of Maurer, that the mention of the Jewish kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, by Hosea in his superscription is a proof that the seer regarded them as his rightful sovereigns, as monarchs of that territory which gave him birth. Hengstenberg has well replied, that Maurer forgets "the relation in which the pious in Israel generally, and the prophets in particular, stood to the kingdom of Judah.

They considered the whole separation, not only the religious, but also the civil, as an apostasy from God. The dominion of the theocracy was promised to be the throne of David." The lofty Elijah, on a memorable occasion, when a direct and solemn appeal was made to the head of the theocracy, took twelve stones, one for each tribe — a proof that he regarded the nation as one in religious confederation. It was also necessary, for correct chronology, that the kings of both nations should be noted. The other argument of Maurer for Hosea's being a Jew, viz. because his own people are so severely threatened in his reproofs and denunciations, implies a predominance of national prepossession or antipathy in the inspired breast' which is inconsistent with our notions of the piety and patriotism of the prophetic commission (Knobel, Der Prophetismus der Hebraer, 1, 203). We therefore accede to the opinion of De Wette, Rosenm Ü ller, Hengstenberg, Eichhorn, Manger, Uhland, and Kuinol, that Hosea was an Israelite, a native of that kingdom with whose sins and fates his book is specially and primarily occupied. The name Ephraim occurs in his prophecies about thirty-five times, and Israel with equal frequency, while Judah is not mentioned more than fourteen times. Samaria is frequently spoken of ( Hosea 7:1;  Hosea 8:5-6;  Hosea 10:5;  Hosea 10:7;  Hosea 14:1), Jerusalem never. All the other localities introduced are connected with the northern kingdom, either as forming part of it, or lying on its borders: Mizpah, Tabor ( Hosea 5:1), Gilgal ( Hosea 4:15;  Hosea 9:15;  Hosea 12:12 [11]), Bethel, called also Bethaven ( Hosea 10:15;  Hosea 12:5 [4];  Hosea 4:15;  Hosea 5:8;  Hosea 10:5;  Hosea 10:8); Jezreel (1:4), Gibeah ( Hosea 5:8;  Hosea 9:9), Ramah ( Hosea 5:8), Gilead ( Hosea 4:8;  Hosea 12:12 [11]), Shechem ( Hosea 6:9), Lebanon ( Hosea 14:6-7), Arbela ( Hosea 10:14 [?]).

2. Time. — There is no reason, with De Wette, Maurer, and Hitzig, to doubt the genuineness of the present superscription, or, with Rosenm Ü ller and Jahn, to suppose that it may have been added by a later hand though the last two writers uphold its authenticity. These first and second verses of the prophecy are so closely connected in the structure of the language and style of the narration, that the second verse itself would become suspicious if the first were reckoned a spurious addition. This superscription states that Hosea prophesied during a long and eventful period, commencing in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, extending through the lives of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and concluding in the reign of Hezekiah. As Jeroboam died B.C. 782, and Hezekiah ascended the throne 726, we have the round term of about sixty years, B.C. cir. 784724, as the probable space of time covered by the utterance of these predictions (Maurer, in the Comment. Theol. p. 284, and more lately in his Comment. Gram. Hist. Crit. in Proph. Min. Lips. 1840). The time when they were committed to writing may probably be fixed at about B.C. 725. This long duration of office is not improbable, and the book itself furnishes strong presumptive evidence in support of this chronology. The first prophecy of Hosea foretells the overthrow of Jehu's house; and the menace was fulfilled on the death of Jeroboam, his great-grandson. This prediction must have been uttered during Jeroboam's life. Again, in  Hosea 10:14, allusion is made to an expedition of Shalmaneser against Israel; and if it was the first inroad against king Hoshea ( 2 Kings 17:4), who began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz, the event referred to by the prophet as past must have happened close upon the beginning of the government of Hezekiah. These data corroborate the limits assigned in the superscription, and they are capable of verification by reference to the contents of the prophecy.

(a.) As to the beginning, Eichhorn has clearly shown that we cannot allow Hosea much ground in the reign of Jeroboam (823-782).

The book contains descriptions which are utterly inapplicable to the condition of the kingdom of Israel during this reign ( 2 Kings 14:25 sq.). The pictures of social and political life which Hosea draws so forcibly are rather applicable to the interregnum which followed the death of Jeroboam (781-771), and to the reign of the succeeding kings. The calling in of Egypt and Assyria to the aid of rival factions ( Hosea 10:3;  Hosea 13:10) has nothing to do with the strong and able government of Jeroboam. Nor is it conceivable that a prophet who had lived long under Jeroboam should have omitted the mention of that monarch's conquests in his enumeration of Jehovah's kindnesses to Israel ( Hosea 2:8). It seems, then, almost certain that very few at least of his prophecies were written until after the death of Jeroboam (781).

(b.) As regards the end of his career, the title leaves us in still greater doubt. It merely assures us that he did not prophesy beyond the reign of Hezekiah. But here, again, the contents of the book help us to reduce the vagueness of this indication. In the sixth year of Hezekiah the prophecy of Hosea was fulfilled, and it is very improbable that he should have permitted this triumphant proof of his divine mission to pass unnoticed. He could not, therefore, have lived long into the reign of Hezekiah; and as it does not seem necessary to allow more than a year of each reign to justify his being represented as a contemporary on the one hand of Jeroboam, on the other of Hezekiah, we may suppose that the life, or, rather, the prophetic career of Hosea, extended from 782 to 725, a period of fifty-seven years.

3. Order In The Prophetic Series. — Hosea is the first in order of the twelve minor prophets in the common editions of the Scriptures (Heb., Sept., and Vulg.), an arrangement, however, supposed to have arisen from a misinterpretation of chap. 1:2, which rather denotes that what follows were the first divine communications enjoyed by this particular prophet (see Jerome, Prefiat. In 12 Prophetas; Hengstenberg, Christol. Keith's translated, 2:23; De Wette, Einleitung, § 225; Rosenm Ü ller, Scholia In Min. Proph. p. 7; Newcome, Pref. To Min. Prophets, p. 45). The probable causes of this location of Hosea may be the thoroughly national character of his oracles, their length, their earnest tone, and vivid representations. The contour of the book has a closer resemblance to the greater prophets than any of the eleven productions by which it is succeeded. (See below.) There is much doubt as to the relative order of the first four or five of the minor prophets: as far as titles go, Amos is Hosea's only rival; but  2 Kings 14:25 goes far to show that they must both yield in priority to Jonah. It is perhaps more important to know that Hosea must have been more or less contemporary with Isaiah, Amos, Jonah, Joel, and Nahum.

4. Circumstance, Scope, And Contents Of The Book. — The years of Hosea's public life were dark and melancholy (see Pusey, Minor Prophets, ad loc.). The nation suffered under the evils of that schism which was effected by "Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin." The obligations of law had been relaxed, and the claims of religion disregarded; Baal became the rival of Jehovah, and in the dark recesses of the groves were practiced the impure and murderous rites of heathen deities; peace and prosperity fled the land, which was harassed by foreign invasion and domestic broils; might and murder became the twin sentinels of the throne; alliances were formed with other nations, which brought with them seductions to paganism; captivity and insult were heaped upon Israel by the uncircumcised; the nation was thoroughly debased, and but a fraction of its population maintained its spiritual allegiance ( 2 Kings 19:18). The death of Jeroboam II was followed by an interregnum of eleven years (B.C. 781- 770), at the end of which his son Zachariah assumed the sovereignty, and was slain by Shallum, after the short space of six months ( 2 Kings 15:10). In four weeks Shallum was assassinated by Menahem. The assassin, during a disturbed reign of ten years (B.C. 769759), became tributary to the Assyrian Pul. His successor, Pekahiah, wore the crown but two years, when he was murdered by Pekah. Pekah, after swaying his bloody scepter for twenty years (B.C. 757-737), met a similar fate in the conspiracy of Hoshea; Hoshea, the last of the usurpers, after another interregnum of eight years, ascended the throne (B.C. 729), and his administration of nine years ended in the overthrow of his kingdom and the expatriation of his people ( 2 Kings 17:18;  2 Kings 17:23).

The prophecies of Hosea were directed especially against the country of Israel or Ephraim, whose sin had brought upon it such disasters — prolonged anarchy and final captivity. Their homicides and fornications, their perjury and theft, their idolatry and impiety, are censured and satirized with a faithful severity. Judah is sometimes, indeed, introduced, warned, and admonished. Bishop Horsley (Works, 3, 236) reckons it a mistake to suppose, "that Hosea's prophecies are almost wholly directed against the kingdom of Israel." The bishop describes what he thinks the correct extent of Hosea's commission, but has adduced no proof of his assertion. Any one reading Hosea will at once discover that the oracles having relation to Israel are primary, while the references to Judah are only incidental. In  Hosea 1:7, Judah is mentioned in contrast with Israel, to whose condition the symbolic name of the prophet's son is especially applicable. In  Hosea 1:11 the future union of the two nations is predicted. The long oracle in chap. 2 has no relation to Judah, nor the symbolic representation in chap. 3. Chap. 4 is severe upon Ephraim, and ends with a very brief exhortation to Judah not to follow his example. In the succeeding chapters allusions to Judah do indeed occasionally occur, when similar sins can be predicated of both branches of the nation. The prophet's mind was intensely interested in the destinies of his own people. The nations around him are unheeded; his prophetic eye beholds the crisis approaching his country, and sees its cantons ravaged, its tribes murdered or enslaved. No wonder that his rebukes were so terrible, his menaces so alarming, that his soul poured forth its strength in an ecstasy of grief and affection. Invitations replete with tenderness and pathos are interspersed with his warnings and expostulations. Now we are startled with a vision of the throne, at first shrouded in darkness, and sending forth lightning, thunders, and voices; but while we gaze, it becomes encircled with a rainbow, which gradually expands till it is lost in that universal brilliancy which itself had originated (chaps. 11 and 14).

5. — The Prophet'S Family Relations. — The peculiar mode of instruction which the prophet details in the first and third chapters of his oracles has given rise to many disputed theories. We refer to the command expressed in  Hosea 1:2 — "And the Lord said unto Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms," etc.;  Hosea 3:1, "Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress," etc. Were these real events, the result of divine injunctions literally understood, and as literally fulfilled? Or were these intimations to the prophet only intended to be pictorial illustrations of the apostasy and spiritual folly and unfaithfulness of Israel? The former view, viz. that the prophet actually and literally entered into this impure connubial alliance, was advocated in ancient times by Cyril, Theodoret, Basil, and Augustine; and more recently has been maintained by Mercer, Grotils, Houbigant, Manger, Horsley, Eichhor, Stuck, and others. Fanciful theories are also rife on this subject. Luther supposed the prophet to perform a kind of drama in view of the people, giving his lawful wife and children these mystical appellations. Newcome (Minor Prophets) thinks that a wife of fornication means merely an Israelite, a woman of apostate and adulterous Israel. So Jac. Capellus (In loseam; Opera, p. 683). Hengstenberg supposes the prophet to relate actions which happened, indeed, actually, but not outwardly. Some, with Maimonides (Joreh Nevochim, pt. 2), imagine it to be a nocturnal vision; while others make it wholly an allegory, as the Chaldee Paraphrast Jerome, Drusius, Bauer, Rosenm Ü ller, Kuino; and Lowth. The view of Hengstenberg (Christology, 2, 11-22), and such as have held his theory (Marki Diatribe de uxore fornicationum accipienda, etc., Lugdun. Batav. 1696), is not materially different from the last to which we have referred (see Libkerk in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1835, p. 647 sq.). Besides other arguments resting on the impurity and loathsomeness of the supposed nuptial contract, it may be argued against the external reality of the event that it must have required several years for its completion, and that the impressiveness of the symbol would therefore be weakened and obliterated.

But this would almost equally apply to the repeated case of Isaiah ( Isaiah 8:3;  Isaiah 20:3). Other prophetic transactions of a similar nature might be referred to. Jerome (Comment. ad loc.) has referred to  Ezekiel 4:4. On the other hand, the total absence of any figurative or symbolical phraseology seems to require the command to be taken in a literal sense, and the immediate addition of the declaration that the order was obeyed serves to confirm this view. It is not to be supposed, as has sometimes been argued, that the prophet was commanded to commit fornication. The divine injunction was to Marry — "Scortum aliquis ducere potest sine peccato, scortari non item" (Drusius, Comm. ad loc. in Critici Sacri, tom. 5.). Moreover, if, as the narrative implies, and as the analogy of the restored nation requires, the formerly unchaste woman became a faithful and reformed wife, the entire ground of the objection in a moral point of view vanishes (see Cowles, Minor Prophets, ad loc.). In fact, there were two marriages by the prophet: the first, in  Hosea 1:2 of a woman (probably of lewd inclinations already) who became the mother of three children, and was afterwards repudiated for her adultery; and the second, in chap. 3 of a woman at least attached formerly to another, but evidently reformed to a virtuous wife. Both these women represented the Israelitish nation, especially the northern kingdom, which, although unfaithful to Jehovah, should first be punished and then reclaimed by him. Keil, after combating at length (Minor Prophets, introduct. to Hosea) against Kurtz's arguments for the literal view, is obliged to assign the moral objection as the only tenable one. This, however, is a very unsatisfactory mode of disposing of the question, for we are not at liberty thus to explain away the reality of the occurrence simply to evade its difficulties. Moreover, if it be a symbol, what becomes of its force unless based upon a fact? Nor do the prophets receive visions respecting their own personal acts. Finally, the internal suggestion of a wrong act to the prophet's mind as one to be not merely tolerated, but committed, would be equivalent, in point of moral obliquity, to the actual deed itself; at least according to our Savior's rule of guilt in such a matter ( Matthew 5:28). This last remark leads us to the true solution of the whole difficulty, which has simply arisen from judging O.T. morals by a Gospel standard, in neglect of the important principle enunciated by Christ himself on the very question of the relations of the sexes ( Matthew 19:8). The Mosaic precept ( Leviticus 21:14) has no pertinence here, for Hosea was not a priest.

But in whichever way this question may be solved whether these occurrences be regarded as a real and external transaction, or as a piece of spiritual scenery, or only (Witsi Miscell. Sac. p. 90) as an allegorical description it is agreed on all hands that the actions are typical; that they are, as Jerome calls them, sacramenta futurorum. One question which sprang out of the literal view was whether the connection between Hosea and Gomer was marriage or fornication. Another question which followed immediately upon the preceding was "an Dens possit dispensare ut fornicatio sit licita." This latter question was much discussed by the schoolmen, and by the Thomists it was avowed in the affirmative.

Expositors are not at all agreed as to the meaning of the phrase "wife of whoredoms," אֵשֶׁת זְנוּנַים ; whether the phrase refers to harlotry before marriage, or unfaithfulness after it. It may afford an easy solution of the difficulty if we look at the antitype in its history and character. Adultery is the appellation of idolatrous apostasy. The Jewish nation were espoused to God. The contract was formed in Sinai; but the Jewish people had prior to this period gone a-whoring.  Joshua 24:2-14, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, and they served other gods." Comp.  Leviticus 17:7, in which it is implied that idolatrous propensities had also developed themselves during the abode in Egypt so that the phrase here employed may signify one devoted to lasciviousness prior to her marriage. Yet this propensity of the Israelites to idolatry had been measurably covert prior to the Exode. On the other hand, none but a female of previously lewd inclinations would be likely to violate her conjugal obligations; and Eichhorn shows that marrying an avowed harlot is not necessarily implied by אֵשֶׁת זְנוּנַים which may very well imply a wife who after marriage becomes an adulteress, even though chaste before. In any case the marriage must be supposed to have been a real contract, or its significance would be lost.  Jeremiah 2:2, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." The facts in the case of the Israelitish nation correspond with this symbol of a woman who had been of bad repute before marriage, and who proved a notorious profligate afterwards. יִלְדֵי זְנוּנַים , Children Of Whoredoms, refer most naturally to the two sons and daughter afterwards to be born. They were not the prophet's own, but a spurious offspring palmed upon him by his faithless spouse, as is intimated in the allegory, and they followed the pernicious example of the mother. Spiritual adultery was the debasing sin of Israel. "Non dicitur," observes Manger, "cognovit uxorem, sed simpliciter concepit et peperit." The children are not his. It is said, indeed, in  Jeremiah 2:3, "She bare him a son." The word לוֹ is wanting in some MSS. and in some copies of the Sept. If genuine, it only shows the effrontery of the adulteress, and the patience of the husband in receiving and educating as his own a spurious brood. The Israelites who had been received into covenant very soon fell from their first love, and were characterized by insatiable spiritual wantonness yet their Maker, their husband, did not at once divorce them, but exhibited a marvelous long-suffering.

The names of the children being symbolical, the name of the mother has been thought to have a similar signification. Gomer Bath-Diblair may have the symbolic sense of one thoroughly abandoned to sensual delights; גֹּמֶר signifies Completion (Ewald, Grannmat. § 228); דַּבְלִיַם בִּתאּ , "Daughter Of Grape-Cakes," the dual form being expressive of the mode in which these dainties were baked in double layers. The names of the children are Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, and Lo-ammi. The prophet explains the meaning of the appellations. It is generally supposed that the names refer to three successive generations of the Israelitish people. Hengstenberg, on the other hand, argues that "wife and children both are the people of Israel: the three names must not be considered separately, but taken together." But as the marriage is first mentioned, and the births of the children are detailed in order, some time elapsing between the events, we rather adhere to the ordinary exposition. Nor is it without reason that the second child is described as a female. The first child, Jezreel, may refer to the first dynasty of Jeroboam I and his successors, which was terminated in the blood of Ahab's house shed by Jehu at Jezreel. The name suggests also the cruel and fraudulent possession of the vineyard of Naboth, "which was in Jezreel," where, too, the woman Jezebel was slain so ignominiously ( 1 Kings 16:1;  2 Kings 9:21). But since Jehu and his family had become as corrupt as their predecessors, the scenes of Jezreel were again to be enacted; and Jehu's race must perish. Jezreel, the spot referred to by the prophet, is also, according to Jerome, the place where the Assyrian army routed the Israelites. The name of this child associates the past and future, symbolizes past sins, intermediate punishments, and final overthrow. The name of the second child, Lo-ruhamah, "not-pitied," the appellation of a degraded Daughter, may refer to the Feeble, Effeminate period which followed the overthrow of the first dynasty, when Israel became weak and helpless as well as sunk and abandoned. The favor of God was not exhibited to the nation: they were as abject as impious. But the reign of Jeroboam II was prosperous; new energy was infused into the kingdom; gleams of its former prosperity shone upon it. This revival of strength in that generation may be typified by the birth of a third child, a Son, Lo- ammi, "not-my-people" ( 2 Kings 14:25). Yet prosperity did not bring with it a revival of piety; still, although their vigor was recruited, they were not God's people (Lectures On The Jewish Antiquities And Scriptures, by J. G. Palfrey, 2, 422, Boston, 1841). See each name in its place.

6. Division Of The Book. — Recent writers, such as Bertholdt, Eichhorn, De Wette, Stuck, Maurer, and Hitzig, have labored much, but in vain, to divide the book of Hosea into separate portions, assigning to each the period at which it was written; but from the want of sufficient data the attempt must rest principally on taste and fancy. A sufficient proof of the correctness of this opinion may be found in the contradictory sections and allotments of the various writers who have engaged in the task. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 evidently form one division: it is next to impossible to separate and distinguish the other chapters. The form and style are very similar throughout all the second portion.

The subdivision of these several parts is a work of greater difficulty: that of Eichhorn will be found to be based upon a highly subtle, though by no means precarious criticism.

(1.) According to him, the first division should be subdivided into three separate poems, each originating in a distinct aim, and each after its own fashion attempting to express the idolatry of Israel by imagery borrowed from the matrimonial relation. The first, and therefore the least elaborate of these, is contained in chap. 3; the second in  Hosea 1:2-11; the third in  Hosea 1:2-9, and  Hosea 2:1-23. These three are progressively elaborate developments of the same reiterated idea.  Hosea 1:2-9 is common to the second and third poems, but not repeated with each severally (4, 273 sq.).

(2.) Attempts have been made by Wells, Eichhorn, etc., to subdivide the second part of the book. These divisions are made either according to reigns of contemporary kings, or according to the subject matter of the poem. The former course has been adopted by Wells, who Gets Five, the latter by Eichhorn, who gets Sixteen poems out of this part of the book.

These prophecies — so scattered, so unconnected that bishop Lowth has compared them with the leaves of the Sibyl — were probably collected by Hosea himself towards the end of his career.

8. Style. — The peculiarities of Hosea's style have often been remarked. Jerome says of him, "Commaticus est, et quasi per sententias loquens" (Praef Ad Xii. Proph.). Augustine thus criticises him: "Osea quanto profundius loquitur, tanto operosius penetratur." His style, says De Wette, "is abrupt, unrounded, and ebullient; his rhythm hard, leaping, and violent. The language is peculiar and difficult" (Einleitung, § 228). Lowth (Prelect. 21) speaks of him as the most difficult and perplexed of the prophets. Bishop Horsley has remarked his peculiar idioms his change of person, anomalies of gender and number, and use of the nominative absolute (Works, vol. 3). Eichhorn's description of his style was probably at the same time meant as an imitation of it (Einleitung, § 555). His discourse is like a garland woven of a multiplicity of flowers: images are woven upon images, comparison wound upon comparison, metaphor strung upon metaphor. He plucks one flower and throws it down that he may directly break off another. Like a bee, he flies from one flowerbed to another, that he may suck his honey from the most varied pieces. It is a natural consequence that his figures sometimes form strings of pearls. Often he is prone to approach to allegory often he sinks down in obscurity" (compare 5:9; 6:3; 7:8; 13:3, 7, 8, 16). Obscure brevity seems to be the characteristic quality of Hosea; and all commentators agree that, "of all the prophets, he is, in point of language, the most obscure and hard to be understood" (Henderson, Minor Prophets, p. 2). Unusual words and forms of connection sometimes occur (De Wette, § 228; see also Davidson, in Horne, 2:945).

9. Citation In The N.T. — Hosea, as a prophet, is expressly quoted by Matthew ( Matthew 2:15). The citation is from the first verse of chap. 11  Hosea 6:6 is quoted twice by the same evangelist ( Matthew 9:13;  Matthew 12:7). Other quotations and references are the following:  Luke 23:30;  Revelation 6:16;  Hosea 10:8;  Romans 9:25-26;  1 Peter 2:10; Hosea 1, 10;  Hosea 2:23;  1 Corinthians 15:4;  Hosea 6:2;  Hebrews 13:15;  Hosea 14:2. Messianic references are not clearly and prominently developed (Gramberg, Religionsid. 2, 298). This book, however, is not without them, but they lie more in the spirit of its allusions than in the letter. Hosea's Christology appears written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, on the fleshly tables of his heart. The future conversion of his people to the Lord their God, and David their king, their glorious privilege in becoming sons of the living God, the faithfulness of the original promise to Abraham, that the number of his spiritual seed should be as the sand of the sea, are among the oracles whose fulfillment will take place only under the new dispensation.

10. Commentaries. — The following are the exegetical helps on the w-hole book of Hosea separately, and the most important are designated by an asterisk (*) prefixed: Origen, Selecta (in Opp. 3, 438); Ephraem Syrus, Explanatio (in Opp. 5, 234); Remigius Antissod., Commentarius [fragment] (in Mai, Script. Fet. VI, 2:103); Jarchi, Aben-Ezra, and Kimchi, Scholia (ed. with Notes, by Coddaeus, L. B. 1623, 4to; by De Dieu, ib. 1631, 4to; also extracts, with additions, by Von der Hardt, Helmst. 1702, 4to [with a historical Introduction ib. eod.]; and by Mercer. Genesis 1574, 1578; L. B. 1621, 4to; and [including several other minor prophets] Genesis 15, fol.; Giess. 1595, 4to; G Ö tting. 1755, 4to); Abrabanei, Comment. (in Lat. with notes, by F. al-Husen, L. B. 1687, 4to); Luther, Enarratio (Vitemb. 1526, 1545; Frcft. 1546, 8vo; also in 0pp. 4, 598; also Senterntie, ib. 684); Capito, Commentarius (Argent. 1528, 8vo); Quinquarboreus, Notae [including Amos, Ruth, and Lam.] (Par. 1556, 4to); Brentz, Commentarius (Hag. 1560, 4to; Tub. 1580, fol.; also in Opp. 4); Box, Commentaria (Coesaraug. 1581, fol.; Ven. 1585, 4to; Lugd. 1587, 8vo; improved edition bv Gyrel, Brix. 1604, 4to), De Castro, Commentaria (Samant. 1586, fol.); Vavassor, Commentarius (in Opp. Vitemb. 4, 348; Jen. 4, 764); Mcatthoeus, Pralectiones (Basil. 1590, 4to); Polansdorf, Analysis (Basil. 1599, 4to; 1601, 8vo); Zanchius, Commentarius (Neost. 1600, 4to; also in Opp. 5); Gesner, Illustratio (Vitemb. 1601, 1614, 8vo); Pareus, Commentarius (Heidelberg, 1605, 1609, 4to); Downame, Lectures [on. ch. 1-4] (London 1608, 4to); Cocceius, Illustratio (in Opp. 11, 591); Krackewitz, Commentarius (Francof. 1619, 4to); Beisner, Commentarius (Vitemb. 1620, 8vo); Rivetus, Commentarius (L. B. 1625, 4to; also in Opp. 2:488); *Burroughs, Lectures [chapter 14 by Sibbs and Reynolds] (London 1643 52, 4 vols. 4to; London 1843, 8vo); Lightfoot, Expositio (in Works, 2, 423); Ursinus, Commentarius (Norib. 1677, 8vo); *Pocock, Commentary (Oxon. 1685, fol.; also in Works, 2, 1); *Seb. Schmid, Commentarius (F. ad MI. 1687, 4to); Biermann, Ontleding (Utrecht, 1702, 4to); Wacke, Expositio (Ratisb. 1711, 8vo); Graff, Predigten (Dresd. 1716, 4to); Kromayer, Specimen, etc. [including Joel and Amos] (Amst. 1730, 8vo); Terne, Erklarung (part 1, Jen. 1740: 2, Eisenb. 1748, 8vo); Klemmius, Note (T Ü bing. 1744, 4to) Dathe, Dissertatio [on Aquila's vers. of Ho] (Lips. 1757; also in Opusc. Lips. 1796); Happach, Expositio [on certain passages] (Cobl. 1766 sq., 8vo); Struensee, Uebers. (Frankf. and Lpz. 1769, 8vo); Neale, Commentary (London 1771, 8vo); Michaelis, Chaldea [Jonathan's Targum] (G Ö tt. 1775, 4to); Staudlin, Erlaut. (in his Beitr. 1 sq.); Euren, Exanen [of var. readings] (1, Upsal. 1782; 2, ib. 1786; also in Aurivellii, Dissert. p. 594); Schrier, Erlaut. (Dessau, 1782, 8vo); Manger, Commentarius (Campis, 1782, 4to); Pfeiffer. Uebers. (Erlangen, 1785, 8vo); Uhland, Annotationes (in 12 pts. T Ü bing. 1785-97, 4to); Volborth, Erklarung (part 1, Gott. 1787, 8vo); Kuinol, Erlauterung (Leips. 1789, 8vo; also in Latin, ibid. 1792, 8vo); Roos, Observationes [on difficult passages] (Erlang. 1780, 4to); Vaupel, Erklar. (Dresden, 1793, 8vo); *Horsley, Notes (London 1801, 1804, 4to; also in Bib. Crit. 2, 134); Philippson, Commentirung [includ. Joel] (Dessau, 1805, 8vo; also in his Israelitische Bibel); Bickel, Erlaut. (Konigsb. 1807, 8vo); Gaab, Dijudicatio [on the vers. of H. in the London Polyglot] (in 2 pts. T Ü b. 1812, 4to); Rosenm Ü ller, Scholia (part 7, vol. 1, 1827, 8vo); Goldwitzer, Anmerk. (Landsh. 1828, 8vo); *Stuck, Commentarius (Lips. 1828, 8vo); Schroder, Erlaut. [vol. 1 of min. proph.. includ. Hosea, Joel, and Amos] (Lpz. 1829, 8vo); De Wette, Ueber d. geschl. Beziehung, etc. (in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1831, p. 807); Mrs. Best, Dialogues (London 1831, 12mo); Redslob, Die Integritat, etc. [of 7, 4-10] (Hamb. 1842, 8vo); *Simson, Erklar. (Hamb. 1851 8So); Drake, Notes [includ. Jonah] (London 1853, 8vo; also Sermons [includ. also Amos], ib. ed. 8vo); Kurtz. Ehe d. H. (Dorpat. 1859, 8vo); Kara, פֵּרוּשׁ (Breslau, 1861, 4to); Winsche, Auslegung [Rabbinical] (Lpz. 1868 sq. 8vo); Bassett, Translation (London, 1869, 8vo). (See Minor Prophets). 4, 5. HOSHEA (See Hoshea) (q.v.).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

We do not expect to find in a prophetic writing the same frequency of reference to the law as to the history; for it is of the essence of prophecy to appeal to history and to interpret it. Of course, the moral and social aspects of the law are as much the province of the prophet as of the priest; but the ceremonial part of the law, which was under the care of the priests, though it was designed to be the expression of the same ideas that lay at the foundation of prophecy, is mainly touched upon by the prophets when, as was too frequently the case, it ceased to express those ideas and became an offense. The words of the prophets on this subject, when fairly interpreted, are not opposed to law in any of its authorized forms, but only to its abuses; and there are expressions and allusions in Hosea, although he spoke to the Northern Kingdom, where from the time of the schism there had been a wide departure from the authorized law, which recognize its ancient existence and its Divine sanction. The much-debated passage in Hos ( Hosea 8:12 ), "Though I write for him my law in ten thousand precepts" (the Revised Version (British and American) or the Revised Version margin "I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law"), on any understanding of the words or with any reasonable emendation of the text (for which see the comm.), points to written law, and that of considerable compass, and seems hardly consistent with the supposition that in the prophet's time the whole of the written law was confined to a few chapters in Ex, the so-called Book of the Covenant. And the very next verse ( Hosea 8:13 ), "As for the sacrifices of mine offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but Yahweh accepteth them not," is at once an acknowledgment of the Divine institution of sacrifice, and an illustration of the kind of opposition the prophets entertained to sacrificial service as it was practiced. So when it is said, "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies" ( Hosea 2:11; compare  Hosea 9:5 ), the reference, as the context shows, is to a deprivation of what were national distinctive privileges; and the allusions to transgressions and trespasses against the law ( Hosea 8:1; compare  Deuteronomy 17:2 ) point in the same direction. We have a plain reference to the Feast of Tabernacles ( Hosea 12:9 ): "I will yet again make thee to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast" (compare  Leviticus 23:39-43 ); and there are phrases which are either in the express language of the law-books or evident allusions to them, as "Thy people are as they that strive with the priest" ( Hosea 4:4; compare  Deuteronomy 17:12 ); "The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark" ( Hosea 5:10; compare  Deuteronomy 19:14 ); "Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners" ( Hosea 9:4; compare  Deuteronomy 26:14 ); "They (the priests) feed on the sin of my people" ( Hosea 4:8; compare  Leviticus 6:25 f; James M.A. DD General Editor. Entry for 'Hosea'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/h/hosea.html. 1915.Copyright Statement These files are public domain and were generously provided by the folks at WordSearch Software. Bibliography Information Orr

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Hosea, son of Elah, and last king of Israel. He conspired against and slew his predecessor Pekah, and seized his dominions. 'He did evil in the sight of the Lord,' but not in the same degree as his predecessors: and this, by the Jewish commentators, is understood to mean that he did not, like former kings of Israel , restrain his subjects from going up to Jerusalem to worship. The intelligence that Hosea had entered into a confederacy with So, king of Egypt, with the view of shaking off the Assyrian yoke, caused Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, to march an army into the land of Israel; and after a three years' siege Samaria was taken and destroyed, and the ten tribes were sent into the countries beyond the Euphrates, B.C. 720 (;; ). The chronology of this reign is much perplexed [see ISRAEL].

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A Hebrew prophet, a native of the northern kingdom of Israel, and a contemporary of Isaiah, the burden of whose prophecy is, Israel has by her idolatries and immoralities forsaken the Lord, and the Lord has forsaken Israel, in whom alone her salvation is to be found.