Hoshea
The name Hoshea ("salvation") is borne in the UPDV by four distinct figures: the son of Nun before Moses renamed him Joshua; an Ephraimite chief under David; the last king of the northern kingdom; and a sealer of the post-exilic covenant under Nehemiah. The richest material clusters around the king, whose nine-year reign ends with the fall of Samaria and the Assyrian deportation of Israel.
Hoshea Son of Nun, Renamed Joshua
In the spy list of the tribes, the Ephraimite representative is named "Hoshea the son of Nun" (Num 13:8). At the moment the spies are commissioned, the renaming is recorded directly: "These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua" (Num 13:16). The older name persists alongside the new one in Moses's final song: "And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun" (Deut 32:44).
Hoshea, Chief of Ephraim Under David
Among the tribal officers David sets over Israel, "of the sons of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Azaziah" is named alongside Joel son of Pedaiah, the officer for half-Manasseh (1Ch 27:20). This Hoshea — son of Azaziah, not of Nun and not of Elah — is a separate figure from the spy and from the later king.
Hoshea, Last King of Israel
Conspiracy and Accession
Hoshea's path to the throne begins as a coup. "And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah" (2Ki 15:30). The formal regnal notice synchronizes him with Judah: "In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, [and reigned] nine years" (2Ki 17:1).
A Qualified Verdict on the Reign
The evaluation is condemnatory but qualified: "And he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him" (2Ki 17:2). The judgment locates Hoshea's reign within the long pattern of evil northern kingship while noting that he was not its worst exemplar.
Vassalage to Assyria
Within Hoshea's reign Assyria moves directly against Samaria. "Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his slave, and brought him tribute" (2Ki 17:3). The new vassal status is annual: tribute is owed year by year.
The Egyptian Conspiracy and Imprisonment
Hoshea then attempts to break free by appealing to Egypt. "And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison" (2Ki 17:4). The withheld tribute and the messengers to So are treated as a single act of revolt; the response is imprisonment of the king himself.
The Fall of Samaria
The closing notice of Hoshea's reign is the fall of his capital. "In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (2Ki 17:6).
The parallel account in Kings synchronizes the siege and fall with Hezekiah's reign in Judah and gives the theological reason for the deportation: "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. And at the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they didn't obey [the Speech of] Yahweh their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the slave of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it" (2Ki 18:9-12).
Hosea's Comment on a Kingless People
The prophet Hosea, contemporary to these events, frames the collapse in the people's own voice: "Surely now they will say, We have no king; for we don't fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?" (Hos 10:3). The image of the king's end is concrete: "Samaria is cut off, her king as a twig on the water" (Hos 10:7). The northern monarchy's last representative is carried away as easily as a snapped twig drifting downstream.
Hoshea Among the Sealers of the Covenant
Generations later, in the post-exilic restoration, the name appears again among those who set their seal to Nehemiah's covenant: "Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub" (Neh 10:23). Whatever the line of descent, the name "salvation" survives the deportation and resurfaces among those who bind themselves to Yahweh's covenant in a re-gathered Jerusalem.