HOSEA

(Ho·seʹa) [literally, Ho·sheʹa (Masoretic text), meaning “salvation; deliverance”].

Hebrew prophet and writer of the Bible book of Hosea; identified merely as the son of Beeri. Hosea served as Jehovah’s prophet during the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah and Jeroboam II (son of Joash) of Israel, in the late ninth century and the first part of the eighth century B.C.E. (Hos. 1:1) Prophets of the same general period included Amos, Isaiah and Micah.—Amos 1:1; Isa. 1:1; Mic. 1:1.

Hosea may be identified as a prophet (and probably a subject) of the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel. That kingdom was the principal object of the declarations in the book of Hosea. Whereas Judah was named therein only fifteen times, and its capital city, Jerusalem, not even once, the book contains more than forty references to Israel, thirty-seven to Ephraim (Israel’s dominant tribe), and six to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Most of the other locations mentioned in the book were either a part of the northern kingdom or were on its borders.—1:4, 5; 5:1, 8; 6:8, 9; 10:5, 8, 15; 12:11; 14:6, 7.

Hosea, nevertheless, apparently attached primary importance to the kings of Judah, mentioning all four who reigned there during his ministry, while listing only the one ruling in Israel when he began his work. (Hos. 1:1) But, rather than indicating that the prophet came from, or was born in, Judah, this factor may show that Hosea, like other prophets of God, regarded only the Judean kings of David’s family as rightful rulers over God’s people, viewing the northern kingdom of Israel as a general religious and civil apostasy from Jehovah. Of course, this listing of rulers in both kingdoms facilitates more accurate dating of Hosea’s prophetic activity.—See HOSEA, BOOK OF.