Hoshea (Hoh-shee´uh; Heb., “salvation”)

1 The original name of Joshua (Num 13:8; Deut 32:44). 2 The last king of Israel (ca. 732–724 BCE), the son of Elah (2Kgs 15:30), and a contemporary of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Hoshea usurped the throne by murdering Pekah and served as a vassal ruler to Tiglath-pileser III and, after his death (727), to Shalmaneser V of Assyria. Shalmaneser “found treachery” in Hoshea, however, when he withheld tribute and instead turned for aid to the Egyptian king “So” (probably Tefnakhte I of Sais, 2Kgs 17:4). Egyptian aid never materialized, and Samaria was taken by Sargon II after a siege of three years. The ultimate fate of Hoshea is not known. 3 The prophet whose Hebrew name has been commonly spelled in English as Hosea. 4 An Ephraimite chief in David’s bureaucracy (1Chr 27:20). 5 A Levite who with others set his seal to the covenant in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 10:23).