Hoshea (; A'úsiʾ [a-ú-si-ʾ]; ) was the nineteenth and last king of the northern Kingdom of Israel (or a puppet king) and son of Elah (not the Israelite king Elah). William F. Albright dated his reign to , while Edwin R. Thiele offered the dates 732–723 BCE.
Hoshea, a trusted advisor and companion to King Pekah of Israel, seized power during a time of great turmoil. As the Assyrian Empire invaded Israel's eastern territories, Pekah's grip on the throne began to slip. Sensing an opportunity, Hoshea conspired against his master. In the 20th year of Pekah's reign, Hoshea struck, assassinating the king during a battle against the Assyrians and the children of the east. The Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser III, took advantage of Israel's weakened state and installed Hoshea as the new king. However, Hoshea's reign was short-lived, and he soon found himself at the mercy of the Assyrians.
Despite paying tribute to the Assyrian Empire, Hoshea eventually stopped making payments, hoping to assert his independence. This decision proved disastrous. The Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V, laid siege to Samaria, the capital of Israel, and after a three-year siege, the city fell in 722 BCE. The Assyrians then deported many of the Israelites to other parts of their empire, marking the end of the Kingdom of Israel. Hoshea's rebellion had ultimately led to the downfall of his kingdom.
Reign
Accession
Assyrian records 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 Aram-Damascus, had attempted to coerce the Judean king into joint action against Assyria. Hoshea, a captain in Pekah's own army, placed himself at the head of the Assyrian party in Samaria; he then removed Pekah by assassination; Tiglath-pileser rewarded Hoshea by making him king over the Tribe of Ephraim (a name used here for the entire northern kingdom), which had been reduced to smaller dimensions. An undated inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III boasts of making Hoshea king after his predecessor had been overthrown:
The amount of tribute exacted from Hoshea is not stated in the text, but Menahem, about ten years previously (743 or 742 BCE), 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.
So long as Tiglath-pileser was on the throne, Hoshea remained loyal; but when Shalmaneser V succeeded, Hoshea made an effort to regain his independence and entered into negotiations with So, King of Egypt. Probably misled by Egypt's favorable promises, Hoshea discontinued paying tribute. Winckler contends that in this anti-Assyrian movement, in which Tyre also had a share, a last effort was made on the part of the Arabic commercial states to shut out Assyria from the Arabo-Indian commerce, for which possession of the Mediterranean ports was of vital importance. The Babylonian Chronicle states that Shalmaneser ravaged the city of Sha-ma-ra-in (Samaria). Therefore, 722 is the last possible date for the fall of Samaria, after a siege of 3 years, the Bible gives (), and 724 is the earliest date.
End of reign
It is likely that Hoshea, disappointed by the lack of Egyptian support, endeavored to avert the calamity by resuming the payment of tribute, but, distrusted, he was forced to fight and was taken prisoner in battle. Although deprived of its ruler, the capital mounted an effective defense.
Seal of Hoshea's servant
In the mid-1990s, an unprovenanced bulla appeared on the antiquities market. The seal has been dated by André Lemaire to the second half of the 8th century BCE on paleographic grounds, and its inscription reads "Belonging to Abdi, servant of Hoshea". If authentic, it is perhaps the only archaeological attestation of Hoshea in an Israelite inscription found to date.
See also
- List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources
- So, possibly Osorkon IV