Prophet Hosea (Samaria) (jan 1, 804 BC – jan 1, 745 BC)

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Hosea began serving as a prophet at a time when Judean King Uzziah (829-778 B.C.E.) and King Jeroboam II of Israel (c. 844-804 B.C.E.) were contemporaries, and thus no later than 804 B.C.E., the apparent end of Jeroboam’s reign. (Ho 1:1) Hosea’s prophetic ministry continued into the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah, whose kingship began about 745 B.C.E.

The book of Hosea is concerned primarily with the northern ten-tribe kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim after its dominant tribe, the names being used interchangeably in the book). When Hosea began to prophesy during King Jeroboam’s reign, Israel enjoyed material prosperity. But the people had rejected knowledge of God. (Ho 4:6) Their wicked practices included acts of bloodshed, stealing, fornication, adultery, and the veneration of Baal and calf idols. (2:8, 13; 4:2, 13, 14; 10:5) After King Jeroboam died, prosperity ceased, and frightful conditions, marked by unrest and political assassination, came into existence. (2Ki 14:29–15:30) Faithful Hosea also prophesied amid these circumstances. Finally, in 740 B.C.E., Samaria fell to the Assyrians, bringing the ten-tribe kingdom to its end.—2Ki 17:6.

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