Hoshea

Hoshea ("salvation") was the last king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 732-721 B.C.E., while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 732-722 B.C.E.

Coming to the throne during the ascendancy of the Assyrian Empire, Hoshea was forced to offer substantial tribute to Shalmaneser V. He later decided to rebel and withhold payment, hoping for aid from Egypt, which itself was engaged in a struggle with the Assyria. Shalmaneser the had Hoshea arrested and laid siege to Israel's capital of Samaria. After three years, the Assyrian army withdrew to secure the succession Sargon II to the Assyrian throne. Sargon completed the pacification of the area around 720 B.C.E., deporting a reported 27,000 of its citizens beyond the Eurphates and bringing in various foreign people to colonize the land under Assyrian administration. The author of the Books of Kings states this destruction occurred "because the children of Israel sinned against the Lord" (2 Kings 17:7-24), not because of a political miscalculation on Hoshea's part.

The deportees were scattered throughout the East. Today, they are popularly known as the Lost ten tribes of Israel. The Assyrians brought various eastern peoples to colonize lands vacated by the deportees. These and later arrivals at times intermarried with the remaining Israelites to form the mixed-blood people later known as Samaritans.

Background

The Kingdom of Israel had reached the height of its power during the reign of Jeroboam II (c. 783), who succeeded in achieving independence from Syrian dominance and bring the nation to a high degree of economic prosperity. However, this affluence gave rise to moral corruption, to which the prophets Amos and Hosea formed a nucleus of opposition. A period of instability followed when Jeroboam's son Zachariah was assassinated by Shallum, who in turn was put to death by the military commander Menahem.

The rising Assyrian Empire, meanwhile, now posed a major threat. Menahem staved off invasion by paying a tribute Tiglathpileser III, buyhid son, Pekahiah, ruled only briefly, being assassinated by the usurper Pekah, around 735 B.C.E. Pekah formed an alliance with Syria against the combined forces Assyria and Judah. Dyring this time, the Assyrians succeeded in annexing the Israelite terriritory of the Galilee, leaving Israel with only a small terroity surrounding its capital of Samaria. Pekah's disastrous reign was put to an end when he was assassinated by Hoshea.

Biography

The son of an otherwise unknown man named Elah, Hoshea came to throne around 732 B.C.E. The biblical version of his taking the throne and a parallel reference to his ascendancy in the Assyrian records are not entirely in accord with one another. The 2 Kings states that Hoshea conspired against and slew his predecessor, Pekah (2 Kings 15:30). However, an undated inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III (reigned ruled 745–727 B.C.E.) boasts of making Hoshea king after his predecessor had been overthrown. Scholars therefore speculate that Hoshea's conspiracy against Pekah, who had rebelled against Assyrian supremacy, may thus have had the active support of Assyria.

The Bible, however, indicates that Hoshea came to act as Assyria's vassal only after Shalmaneser V (reigned 727 to 722 B.C.E.) campaigned against him, and forced him to submit (17:3). It gives the amount of tribute at 10 talents of gold and 10,000 talents of silver. To reconcile the accounts, it has been proposed that both Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser invaded Israel, and both extracted tribute. Assyrian records show that Shalmaneser campaigned in Phoenicia in the years 727 B.C.E. and 725 B.C.E.

Like all the northern kings, Hoshea is said to have done "evil in the eyes of [[Yawheh|the Lord," but it specifies that this evil was "not like the kings of Israel who preceded him." Based on the biblical description of the other kings of Israel, this probably means that he was personally a devotee of the Hebrew deity Yahweh and did not encourage Baal worship, but did support the Israelite shrines at Bethel and Dan, of which the pro-Jerusalem biblical writers strongly disapproved. (Hoshea's name in Hebrew, it should be noted, is the same as both the prophet Hosea and the Israelite commander Joshua, not to mention the Christian Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.)

Hoshea eventually withheld tribute promised to Shalmaneser, expecting the support of "So, the king of Egypt." There is some mystery as to the identity of this king: some argue that "So" refers to the Egyptian city Sais, and actually means king Tefnakht or Bakenranef (Bocchoris) of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, which tends to match the time period in question. However, others identifying "So" with Osorkon IV or another king of the Twenty-second Dynasty, preferring to admit that the writer of the Book of Kings did not provide an accurate chronological match.

In any case, the hoped-for Egyptian aid was not forthcoming. Shalmaneser seems to have easily apprhended Hoshea, then laid siege to Samaria. Some scholars explain that Shalmaneser must have summoned Hoshea to his court to explain the missing tribute, which resulted in the imprisonment of Hoshea and the Assyrian army sent into his land. Regardless of the sequence of events, the Assyrians captured Samaria after a siege of three years. However, Shalmaneser died shortly after the city fell, and the Assyrian army was recalled to secure the succession of Sargon II.

The land of Israel, which had resisted the Assyrians for years without a king, again revolted. Sargon returned with the Assyrian army in 720 B.C.E. and pacified the province, deporting the citizens of Israel beyond the Euphrates (some 27,290 people, according to the inscription of Sargon II), and settling people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim in their place (2 Kings 17:6, 24). The author of the Books of Kings states this destruction occurred "because the children of Israel sinned against the Lord" (2 Kings 17:7-24), rather than because of any political miscalculation on Hoshea's or his advisers part.

What happened to Hoshea following the end of the kingdom of Israel, and when or where he died, is unknown.

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Last of the nineteen kings of Israel

Under Ahaz, Judah had rendered allegiance to Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, while the Northern Kingdom under Pekah, in league with Rezin of Damascus, had attempted to coerce the Judean king into joint action against Assyria (II Kings xvi. 5; Isa. vii. 1-6). Tiglath-pileser, however, went to the aid of his ally (comp. II Kings xvi. 9). At this juncture Hoshea placed himself at the head of the Assyrian party in Samaria and removed Pekah by assassination; Tiglath-pileser rewarded Hoshea by making him king over Israel, or, rather, over Ephraim, then reduced to very small dimensions.

So long as Tiglath-pileser was on the throne Hoshea remained loyal; but when Shalmaneser IV. succeeded, he made an effort to regain his independence. In Egypt the Ethiopian dynasty had begun to reign, and Hoshea entered into negotiations with So (, probably more correctly vocalized as ), an underling of King Shabako (see Winckler, "Untersuchungen zur Altorientalischen Gesch." pp. 92-94; idem, in "Mittheilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft," i. 5; Rogers, "Hist. of Babylonia and Assyria," ii. 144; comp. Meyer, "Gesch. des Alten, Egyptens," pp. 343-346). Hoshea, probably misled by favorable promises on the part of the Ethiopian ruler of Egypt, discontinued paying tribute. Shalmaneser IV. soon interpreted this symptom, and directed his armies against Samaria. The details of the campaign are not known. It is likely that Hoshea, disappointed by the "broken reed" (="Egypt"; see Isa. xx., xxx. 1-5, xxxi. 1-3), endeavored to avert the calamity by resuming the payment of tribute, but that, distrusted, he was forced to fight, and was taken prisoner in battle (Hommel, "Gesch. Babyloniens und Assyriens," p. 675; Rogers, l.c.). The capital, though deprived of the ruler, made an effective defense, and Shalmaneser died before it was captured (comp. Winckler, in Schrader, "K. A. T." 3d ed., p. 268).

The chronology of Hoshea's reign is involved indifficulties. The Biblical statement in II Kings xv. 30, giving the twentieth year of Jotham as the beginning of the reign, is to be dismissed either as due to a scribal error or as dating from the beginning of Jotham's reign. The "nine years" given Hoshea extend from 733, the year of Pekah's assassination, to 724, the year of Hoshea's capture and three years before the fall of Samaria. These dates, however, are not accepted by all modern scholars (see Hommel, l.c. pp. 964 et seq.; idem, "Assyria," in Hastings, "Dict. Bible"; Tiele, "Babylonisch-Assyrische Gesch. "i. 232; Winckler, "Gesch. Babyloniens und Assyriens," p. 230). References to the events of Hoshea's reign are found in Hosea xi-xiv. and Isa. xxviii.E. G. H. I. M. P.

—Critical View (2):

This last king of Israel appears on the Assyrian monuments as "Ausi(a)." The statement of II Kings xvii. 1 that he ascended the throne in the twelfth year of Ahaz must be dismissed as unhistorical. Hoshea became king in 733 (or in 734); for when Assyria came to the rescue of Ahaz against Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel, the last-named was assassinated and Hoshea appointed or confirmed as king by Tiglath-pileser III. (Schrader, "K. A. T." 2d ed., p. 475; idem, "K. B." ii. 32). From II Kings xv. 29, 30 and xvii. 3-6 it would appear that Hoshea had rebelled twice against Assyria. This at first glance is highly improbable. He had been the leader of the pro-Assyrian party and owed his throne to Tiglath-pileser III. It is reasonable to infer that the death of this monarch brought about the change in Hoshea's relations to the Assyrian suzerain, and induced him to look for foreign allies to enable him to throw off the burden of the annual tribute, which must have been a terrible drain on the people (comp. Hosea v. 11-13).

Winckler first attempted to separate the Biblical passages quoted above into two parallel accounts of one event, in order to eliminate the assumption of two uprisings with refusal of tribute under Shalmaneser. Kittel ("Die Bücher der Könige" on II Kings xvii. 3) meets the difficulty by omitting Shalmaneser as a later gloss. Under Tiglath-pileser, Hoshea paid the annual tribute; after that ruler's death, he regarded, contrary to Hosea's warning, the political conditions as favorable for declaring himself independent.

According to II Kings xvii. 4, So, King of Egypt, was the monarch from whom Hoshea expected effective assistance. Generally this So (or Sewe = Assyrian "Sib'e") is identified with Shabako, the Ethiopian, who at the time controlled the destinies of Egypt. Winckler makes him a prince or vassal prince or even a general of the North-Arabian empire of Muṣri ("Mitt. der Vorderas. Ges." 1898, p. 5), and contends that in this anti-Assyrian movement, in which also Tyre had a share, the last effort was made on the part of the Arabic commercial states to gain control of Palestine, and thus to shut out Assyria from the Arabo-Indian commerce, for which possession of the Mediterranean ports was of vital importance (Schrader, "K. A. T." 3d ed., pp. 268 et seq.).

Hoshea's attempt, whoever were his supporters, failed. In 725 B.C.E. Shalmaneser invaded Israel. Hoshea must have surrendered to him at once. This would give nine years to his reign. He was blinded (read instead of the tautological in II Kings xvii. 4), and was led away a prisoner. The three years' siege of Samaria is not to be counted as part of his reign.

The assumption that Hoshea's wickedness was less than his predecessors' (II Kings xvii. 2) is probably an afterthought (if it is not due to a corruption of the original text; see Lucian's recension of LXX.). Possibly his earlier fidelity to Assyria, which was regarded by the prophetic party as God's predestined instrument, may underly the conception of his (by comparison) less censurable impiety (See Isaiah).E. G. H.

House of Elah Contemporary Kings of Judah: Ahaz, Hezekiah
Regnal Titles
Preceded by: Pekah	King of Israel 732 B.C.E. – 722 B.C.E.	Conquered by Shalmaneser V of Assyria

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