Hoshea HaNavi
c. 780 BCE–c. 710 BCE · Biblical era · Northern Kingdom (Samaria)
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Hoshea son of Be'eri (Hosea) is the first book in the scroll of the Twelve Prophets. His superscription places him in the days of Jeroboam II of Israel and of the Judean kings Uzziah through Hezekiah (Hosea 1:1), the generation before the Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria. He spoke chiefly to the Northern Kingdom, attacking the calf-worship of Samaria (Hosea 8:5-6). His central image is drawn from his own household: told to marry Gomer daughter of Diblaim (Hosea 1:2-3), he turned a troubled marriage into a picture of Israel's faithlessness to God and of God's refusal to let go, ending in a renewed betrothal 'with righteousness and justice, with goodness and mercy' (Hosea 2:21-22). The book closes with the call 'Return, O Israel' (Hosea 14:2). The Talmud counts him first of four prophets of one era, with Isaiah, Amos and Micah (Pesachim 87a; Bava Batra 14b), and explains that his short book was joined to the other eleven so it would not be lost (Bava Batra 14b).
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Northern Kingdom (Samaria)Israelite kingdoms
What they did here
Hosea dates his prophecy partly by Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel (Hosea 1:1), and directs much of it at the Northern Kingdom and its capital, condemning 'your calf, Samaria' (Hosea 8:5-6). His hometown is not named in the text.
About Northern Kingdom (Samaria)
Samaria (Shomron) was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, established by King Omri in the ninth century BCE; its site lies in the hill country north of Shechem (in the northern West Bank). In the biblical narrative it was the setting for the activity of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who confronted the kings of Israel.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Hoshea HaNavi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
Graeco-Roman world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.