Hoshea

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HOSHEA. 1. See   Joshua 2:1-24 . An Ephraimite (  1 Chronicles 27:20 ). 3. One of those who sealed the covenant (  Nehemiah 10:23 ). 4. The last king of Israel. The chronological data of our text are not entirely accordant (  2 Kings 15:30;   2 Kings 17:1 ), but we know that he came to the throne not far from b.c. 732. Taking into view the Assyrian annals along with the Biblical accounts, we gather that there were two parties in Samaria, one advocating submission to Assyria, the other hoping for independence. Pekah was placed on the throne by the latter; Hoshea was the candidate of the Assyrians, and was perhaps actively supported by them in his revolt against Pekah, whom he supplanted. This was when Tiglath-pileser punished Pekah and Rezin for interfering in the affairs of Judah (see Ahaz). At the death of Tiglath-pileser, however, Hoshea was enticed by the Egyptian king or sub-king, and went over to the party which was ready for revolt. It is probable that he had convinced himself that the land could not longer pay the heavy tribute laid upon it. The new king of Assyria (Shalmaneser iv.) moved promptly, captured and imprisoned the king, and laid siege to the capital. It speaks well for the strength of Samaria and for the courage of its people that the place held out for more than two years; but the result can hardly have been doubtful from the first. The surrender was followed by the deportation of a considerable part of the people, and the planting of foreign colonies in the country (  2 Kings 17:6;   2 Kings 17:24 ). Sargon, who came to the throne just before the surrender, had no desire to experiment with more vassal kings, and set an Assyrian governor over the wasted province. Thus ended the kingdom of Israel.

H. P. Smith.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hoshe'a. (Salvation).

1. The nineteenth, last and best king of Israel. He succeeded Pekah, whom he slew in a successful conspiracy, thereby fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah.  Isaiah 7:16. In the third year of his reign, (B.C. 726), Shalmaneser cruelly stormed the strong caves of Beth-arbel,  Hosea 8:14, and made cruel tributary,  2 Kings 17:3, for three years.

At the end of this period, Hoshea entered into a secret alliance with So, king of Egypt, to throw off the Assyrian yoke. The alliance did him no good; it was revealed, to the court of Nineveh by the Assyrian party in Ephraim, and Hoshea was immediately seized as a rebellious vasal, shut up in prison, and apparently treated with the utmost indignity.  Micah 5:1 Of the subsequent fortunes of Hoshea, nothing is known.

2. The son of Nun, that is, Joshua ,  Deuteronomy 32:44, and also in  Numbers 13:8, though there, the Authorized Version has Oshea .

3. Son of Azaziah,  1 Chronicles 27:20, like his great namesake, a man of Ephraim, ruler of his tribe in the time of King David. (B.C. 1019).

4. One of the heads of the people who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah.  Nehemiah 10:23. (B.C. 410).

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Hoshea ( Ho-Shç'Ah ), Salvation. 1. The 19th, last and best king of Israel. He succeeded Pekah, whom he slew in a successful conspiracy, thereby fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah.  Isaiah 7:16. In the third year of his reign (b.c. 726) Shalmaneser cruelly stormed the strong caves of Beth-arbel,  Hosea 10:14, and made Israel tributary,  2 Kings 17:3, for three years. At the end of this period Hoshea entered into a secret alliance with So, king of Egypt, to throw off the Assyrian yoke. The alliance did him no good; it was revealed to the court of Nineveh by the Assyrian party in Ephraim, and Hoshea was immediately seized as a rebellious vassal, shut up in prison, and apparently treated with the utmost Indignity.  Micah 5:1. Nothing is known of Hoshea after this event. 2. The son of Nun, I.E., Joshua,  Deuteronomy 32:44; and also in  Numbers 13:8, R. V., though there the A.V. has Oshea. 3. Son of Azaziah,  1 Chronicles 27:20; like his great namesake, a man of Ephraim, ruler of his tribe in the time of king David. (b.c. 1019.) 4. One of the heads of the people who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah.  Nehemiah 10:23. (b.c. 410.)

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The last king of Israel. He conspired against and slew his predecessor, Pekah ( Isaiah 7:16 ), but did not ascend the throne till after an interregnum of warfare of eight years ( 2 Kings 17:1,2 ). Soon after this he submitted to Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king, who a second time invaded the land to punish Hoshea, because of his withholding tribute which he had promised to pay. A second revolt brought back the Assyrian king Sargon, who besieged Samaria, and carried the ten tribes away beyond the Euphrates, B.C. 720 ( 2 Kings 17:5,6;  18:9-12 ). No more is heard of Hoshea. He disappeared like "foam upon the water" ( Hosea 10:7;  13:11 ).

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Hoshea'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/h/hoshea.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. The original name of JOSHUA the son of Nun.  Deuteronomy 32:44 .

2. Son of Azaziah and a chief of the tribe of Ephraim.  1 Chronicles 27:20 .

3. Son of Elah and the last king of Israel. He conspired against Pekah and slew him, and reigned in his stead, 'in the twentieth year of Jotham.' (But Jotham reigned only 16 years, and the above probably means that Pekah was slain in the twentieth year after Jotham became king.) There was then anarchy for about 9 years, thought to be noticed in  Hosea 10; and Hoshea began to reign B.C. 730, the twelfth year of Ahaz, which agrees with  2 Kings 17:1 . He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but was not so bad as the kings that had preceded him. He sought an alliance with the king of Egypt against the king of Assyria, who imprisoned him in bonds. Three years later Samaria was attacked, and after three years it was taken, and the people carried away; but the fate of Hoshea is not revealed.  2 Kings 15:30;  2 Kings 17:1-6;  2 Kings 18:1,9,10 .

4. A chief of the people who sealed the covenant.  Nehemiah 10:23 .

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

The closing years of the northern kingdom of Israel were dominated by Assyria. When the Israelite king Pekah tried to oppose Assyria, the result was a disaster for Israel. Hoshea, a sympathizer with Assyria, assassinated Pekah and became king himself ( 2 Kings 15:29-30).

Hoshea survived as Israel’s king only by buying protection from Assyria. When, with Egypt’s help, he rebelled against Assyria by refusing to pay any further money, Assyria attacked Samaria (Israel’s capital) and imprisoned Hoshea. After a three-year siege, Assyria crushed Samaria and took the people into captivity ( 2 Kings 17:1-6). This was the end of the northern kingdom (722 BC).

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The last king of Israel, the successor of Pekah, whom he slew,  2 Kings 15:30 , B. C. 730. He reigned nine years, and was then carried away captive by Shalmaneser,  2 Kings 17:1-6;  18:9-12 , B.C. 721.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Hosea

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hō̇ - shē´a ( הושׁע , hōshēa‛ , "salvation"; Ὡσῆε , Hosḗe ,   2 Kings 17:1-9 ):

1. A S atrap of Assyria

Son of Elah, the 19th and last king of Israel. The time was one of social revolution and dynastic change. Of the last five kings of Israel, four had met their deaths by violence. Hoshea himself was one of these assassins ( 2 Kings 15:30 ), and the nominee of Tiglath-pileser III, whose annals read, "Pekah I slew, Hoshea I appointed over them." Though called king, Hoshea was thus really a satrap of Assyria and held his appointment only during good behavior. The realm which he administered was but the shadow of its former self. Tiglath-pileser had already carried into captivity the northern tribes of Zebulun, Naphtali, Asher and Dan; as also the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan ( 2 Kings 15:29 ). Apart from those forming the kingdom of Judah, there remained only Ephraim, Issachar, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

2. The Reduced Kingdom of Israel

Isaiah refers to the fall of Syria in the words, "Damascus is taken away from being a city" ( Isaiah 17:1 ), and to the foreign occupations of Northern Israel in the words, "He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali ... by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations" ( Isaiah 9:1 ).

3. Hosea and Ephraim

But Hosea is the prophet in whose writings we see most clearly the reflection of the politics of the day, and the altered condition of things in Israel. In the 2nd division of his and book, chapters 4 through 14, Hosea deals with a state of things which can only be subsequent to the first great deportation of Israelites, and therefore belongs to the reigns of Pekah and Hoshea. The larger part of the nation being removed, he addresses his utterances no longer to all Israel, but to Ephraim, the chief of the remaining tribes. This name he uses no less than 35 t, though not to the total exclusion of the term "Israel," as in  Hosea 11:1 , "When Israel was a child, then I loved him," the whole nation in such cases being meant. Of the 35 uses of "Ephraim," the first is, "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone" ( Hosea 4:17 ), and the last, "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?" ( Hosea 14:8 ), showing that, in the prophet's estimation, the idolatrous worship of Yahweh, as associated with the golden calves of Dan and Bethel, lay at the root of the nation's calamities.

4. Hosea's Dependent Position

Over this shrunken and weakened kingdom - corresponding generally with the Samaritan district of the New Testament - H oshea was placed as the viceroy of a foreign power. The first official year of his governorship was 729, though he may have been appointed a few months earlier. Tiglath-pileser 3 died in 727, so that three years' tribute was probably paid to Nineveh. There was, however, a political party in Samaria, which, ground down by cruel exactions, was for making an alliance with Egypt, hoping that, in the jealousy and antipathies of the two world-powers, it might find some relief or even a measure of independence. Hosea, himself a prophet of the north, allows us to see beneath the surface of court life in Samaria. "They call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria" ( Hosea 7:11 ), and again, "They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt" ( Hosea 12:1 ). This political duplicity from which it was the king's prime duty to save his people, probably took its origin about the time of Tiglath-pileser's death in 727.

5. His Treasonable Action

That event either caused or promoted the treasonable action, and the passage of large quantities of oil on the southward road was an object-lesson to be read of all men. On the accession of Shalmaneser 4 - who is the Shalmaneser of the Bible ( 2 Kings 17:3;  2 Kings 18:9 ) - H oshea would seem to have carried, or sent, the annual tribute for 726 to the treasury at Nineveh ( 2 Kings 17:3 ). The text is not clear as to who was the bearer of this tribute, but from the statement that Shalmaneser came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant, it may be presumed that the tribute for the first year after Tiglath-pileser's death was at first refused, then, when a military demonstration took place, was paid, and obedience promised. In such a case Hoshea would be required to attend at his suzerain's court and do homage to the sovereign.

6. His Final Arrest

This is what probably took place, not without inquiry into the past. Grave suspicions were thus aroused as to the loyalty of Hoshea, and on these being confirmed by the confession or discovery that messengers had passed to "So king of Egypt," and the further withholding of the tribute ( 2 Kings 17:4 ), Hoshea was arrested and shut up in prison. Here he disappears from history. Such was the ignominious end of a line of kings, not one of whom had, in all the vicissitudes of two and a quarter centuries, been in harmony with theocratic spirit, or realized that the true welfare and dignity of the state lay in the unalloyed worship of Yahweh.

7. Battle of Beth-Arbel

With Hoshea in his hands, Shalmaneser's troops marched, in the spring or summer of 725, to the completion of Assyria's work in Palestine. Isaiah has much to say in his 10th and 11th chapters on the divinely sanctioned mission of "the Assyrian" and of the ultimate fate that should befall him for his pride and cruelty in carrying out his mission. The campaign was not a bloodless one. At Beth-arbel - at present unidentified - the hostile forces met, with the result that might have been expected. "Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle" ( Hosea 10:14 ). The defeated army took refuge behind the walls of Samaria, and the siege began. The city was well placed for purposes of defense, being built on the summit of a lonely hill, which was Omri's reason for moving the capital from Tirzah ( 1 Kings 16:24 ). It was probably during the continuance of the siege that Isaiah wrote his prophecy, "Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim," etc. (Isa 28), in which the hill of Samaria with its coronet of walls is compared to a diadem of flowers worn in a scene of revelry, which should fade and die. Micah's elegy on the fall of Samaria (chapter 1) has the same topographical note, "I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof" ( Micah 1:6 ).

8. Fall of Samaria in 721

Shalmaneser's reign was one of exactly five years, December, 727 to December, 722, and the city fell in the 1st month of his successor's reign. The history of its fall is summarized in Sargon's great Khorsabad inscription in these words, "Samaria I besieged, I captured. 27,290 of her inhabitants I carried away. 50 chariots I collected from their midst. The rest of their property I caused to be taken."

9. Hoshea's Character

Hoshea's character is summed up in the qualified phrase, "He did evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel that were before him." The meaning may be that, while not a high-principled man or ofirreproachable life, he did not give to the idolatry of Bethel the official sanction and prominence which each of his 18 predecessors had done. According to  Hosea 10:6 the golden calf of Samaria was to be taken to Assyria, to the shame of its erstwhile worshippers.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. the same name as "Hosea," q.v.), the name of several persons.

1. The original name ( Deuteronomy 32:44, Sept. Ι᾿Ησοῦς , Vulg. Josue; A.V. in  Numbers 13:8;  Numbers 13:16, "Oshea," Sept. Αὐσὴ ,Vulg. Osee) of the son of Nun, afterwards called JOSHUA (See Joshua) (q.v.), by the more distinct recognition of the divine name Jah. 2. (Sept. ᾿Ωσή ; Vulg. Osee). A son of Azariah in the time of David; also an Ephraimite and prince of his people ( 1 Chronicles 27:20). B.C. 1014.

3. The prophet Hosea (q.v.).

4. Hosea (Sept. ᾿Ωσηέ , Vulg. Osee), the son of Elah, and last king of Israel. In the twentieth (posthumous) year of Jotham ( 2 Kings 15:30), i.e. B.C. 737-6, he conspired against and slew his predecessor Pekah, thereby fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah ( Isaiah 7:16). Although Josephus calls Hoshea A Friend of Pekah ( Φίλου Τινὸς Ἐπβουλεύσαντος Αὐτῷ , Ant. 9, 13, 1), we have no ground for calling this "a treacherous murder" (Prideaux, 1, 16). But he did not become established on the throne he had thus usurped till after an interregnum of warfare for eight years, namely, in the twelfth year of Ahaz ( 2 Kings 17:1), i.e. B.C. 729-8. "He did evil in the sight of the Lord." but not in the same degree as his predecessors ( 2 Kings 17:2). According to the Rabbis, this superiority consisted in his removing from the frontier cities the guards placed there by his predecessors to prevent their subjects from worshipping at Jerusalem (Seder Olam Rabba, cap. 22, quoted by Prideaux, 1, 16), and in his not hindering the Israelites from accepting the invitation of Hezekiah ( 2 Chronicles 30:10), nor checking their zeal against idolatry ( 2 Chronicles 31:1). The compulsory cessation of the calf-worship may have removed his greatest temptation, for Tiglath Pileser had carried off the golden calf from Dan some years before (Sed. 01. Rab. 22), and that at Bethel was taken away by Shalmaneser in his first invasion ( 2 Kings 17:3;  Hosea 10:14). Shortly after his accession (B.C. 728) he submitted to the supremacy of Shalmaneser, who appears to have entered his territory with the intention of subduing it by force if resisted ( 2 Kings 17:3), and, indeed, seems to have stormed the strong caves of Beth-arbel ( Hosea 10:14), but who retired pacified with a present.

This peaceable temper, however, appears not to have continued long. The intelligence that Hosea, encouraged perhaps by the revolt of Hezekiah, had entered into a confederacy with So, king of Egypt, with the view of shaking off the Assyrian yoke, caused Shalmaneser to return and punish the rebellious king of Israel by imprisonment for withholding the tribute for several years exacted from his country ( 2 Kings 17:4), B.C. cir. 725. He appears to have been again released, probably appeasing the conqueror by a large ransom; but a second relapse into revolt soon afterwards provoked the king of Assyria to march an army into the land of Israel, B.C. 723; 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 ( 2 Kings 17:5-6;  2 Kings 18:9-12). The king no doubt perished in the sack of the city by the enraged victor, or was only spared for the torture of an Assyrian triumph. He was apparently treated with the utmost indignity ( Micah 5:1). That he disappeared very suddenly, like "foam upon the water," we may infer from  Hosea 13:11;  Hosea 10:7. His name occurs on the Assyrian monuments. The length of the siege was owing to the fact that this "glorious and beautiful" city was strongly situated, like "a crown of pride" among her hills ( Isaiah 28:1-5). During the course of the siege Shalmaneser must have died, for it is certain that Samaria was taken by his successor Sargon, who thus laconically describes the event in his annals: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men (families?) who dwelt in it I carried away, I constructed fifty chariots in their country ... I appointed a governor over them, and continued upon them the tribute of the former people" (Botta, p. 145, 11, quoted by Dr. Hincks, Journ. Of Sacr. Lit. Oct. 1858; Layard, Nin. and Bab. 1, 148). For an account of the subsequent fortunes of the unhappy Ephraimites, the places to which they were transplanted by the policy of their conqueror and his officer, "the great and noble Asnapper" ( Ezra 4:10), and the nations by which they were superseded, (See Samaria).

Hoshea came to the throne too late, and governed a kingdom torn to pieces by foreign invasion and intestine broils. Sovereign after sovereign had fallen by the dagger of the assassin; and we see from the dark and terrible delineations of the contemporary prophets, (See Hosea); (See Micah); (See Isaiah), that murder and idolatry, drunkenness and lust, had eaten like "an incurable wound" ( Micah 1:9) into the inmost heart of the national morality. Ephraim was dogged to its ruin by the apostate policy of the renegade who had asserted its independence (2 Kings 17; Joseph. Ant. 9, 14; Prideaux, 1, 15 sq.; Keil, On Kings, 2, 50 sq., English ed.; Jahn, Hebr. Corn. § 40; Ewald, Gesch. 3. 607-613; Rosenm Ü ller, Bibl. Geogr. chap. 1, English translated; Rawlinson, Herod. 1, 149). (See Kingdom Of Israel).

5. HOSHEA (Sept. ᾿Ωσηέ , Vulg. Osee), one of the chief Israelites who joined in the sacred covenant after the Captivity ( Nehemiah 10:23). B.C. cir. 410.