Hoshea King of Israel

2022-11-26

“And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah” (2 Kings 15:30). Like Zimri, Shallum, and Pekah, Hoshea overthrew the king and became king himself. He was the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Hoshea “did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him” (2 Kings 17:2). Despite his treachery, he did not do as wickedly as his predecessors. As we saw when discussing Pekah, the king of Assyria may have had a hand in this establishing of Hoshea as king. We can only know with certainty what the Scriptures tell us about him.

Israel under Hoshea became a vassal state to Shalmaneser king of Assyria. Hoshea then plotted to rebel against Shalmaneser, giving no annual gift. Hoshea was imprisoned, and the king of Assyria besieged Samaria three years. The Assyrians took Samaria and exiled all the people to Halah, Habor, and in the cities of Media.

The kingdom of Israel had long tested the patience of God, walking in idolatry. The LORD finally had enough, and the kingdom came to an end. As was the Assyrians’ practice, they exiled the people of the land, and then they took exiles of other lands and settled them in the land of Israel. Perhaps this was to break the people’s national allegiance and identity, making them less of a threat to Assyrian rule. Little of the northern tribes is mentioned again throughout Scripture.

This is a part of the Kings of Israel series. To go back to the table of contents, proceed here.