Hoshea

Hoshea
King of Israel
Hoshea from "Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum
Predecessor	Pekah
Successor	Sargon II

See also Hosea, who has the same name in Biblical Hebrew.

Hoshea (Hebrew: הושע, Modern Hoshea, Tiberian Hôšēăʻ; "salvation"; Latin: Osee) was the last king of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel and son of Elah (not the Israelite king Elah). William F. Albright dated his reign to 732–721 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 732–723 BC.

Assyrian records basically confirm the Biblical account of how he became king. Under Ahaz, Judah had rendered allegiance to Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria, when the Northern Kingdom under Pekah, in league with Rezin of Damascus, had attempted to coerce the Judean king into joint action against Assyria. 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. An undated inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III boasts of making Hoshea king after his predecessor had been overthrown:

Israel (lit. : "Omri-house" Bit-Humria)...overthrew their king Pekah (Pa-qa-ha) and I placed Hoshea (A-ú -si') as king over them. I received from them 10 talents of gold, 1,000(?) talents of silver as their [tri]bute and brought them to Assyria.

The amount of tribute exacted from Hoshea is not stated in Scripture, but Menahem, about ten years previously (743 or 742 BC) was required to pay 1,000 talents of silver to Tiglath-Pileser in order to "strengthen his hold on the kingdom" (2 Kings 15:19), apparently against Menahem's rival Pekah.

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