Hoshea

Hoshea is the name of the last king of the northern kingdom, who reigned nine years over Israel from Samaria (2 Kings 17:1). In his ninth year the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away, and the writer says plainly why: the people “obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God.” The name has a gentler echo. Moses’ helper Oshea, son of Nun, was renamed Jehoshua, and a Hoshea also signs the covenant in Nehemiah. The story to read is 2 Kings 17, a sober chapter about a nation that had stopped listening.

8 verses

Numbers

Numbers 13:8

Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.

Numbers 13:16

These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

2 Kings

2 Kings 17:6

In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

2 Kings 18:9

And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.

2 Kings 18:10

And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

2 Kings 18:11

And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:

2 Kings 18:12

Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 10:23

Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub,

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Salvation. (1.) The original name of the son of Nun, afterwards called Joshua (Num. 13:8, 16; Deut. 32:44).

(2.) 1 Chr. 27:20. The ruler of Ephraim in David’s time.

(3.) The last king of Israel. He conspired against and slew his predecessor, Pekah (Isa. 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” (Hos. 10:7; 13:11).

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(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.

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(2.) The son of Nun, i.e. Joshua, (32:44) and also in Numb 13:8 Though to there the Authorized Version has OSHEA.

(3.) Shon 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.)