II. HOSEA, the son of Beeri, is the first Epiphan. de vita Prophet.of the small Prophets. Epiphanius says, that he was of the town of Belemoth, in the Tribe of Issachar, which is no other in all probability than Beelmeon, towards Esdraelon, in this Tribe. The Rabbins say, Beerah was his father, who is mentioned in 1 Chr. v. 6.the Chronicles, and was Prince of the Tribe of Reuben at the time when Tiglath-pilesér carried some of the Tribes of Israel into In the year of the World 3245, before J. C. 755, before the Vulgar Æra 759. See 2 Kings xv. 29.captivity. But if it be so, Hosea must be said to be of the Tribe of Reuben, and a native of Beelmeon beyond Jordan. This Prophet lived in the kingdom of Samaria, and his prophecies for the most part have a view to this state; though there are likewise some particular things which concern the Kingdom of Judah.
We read in the introduction to his Prophecy, that he prophesied under the Kings of Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; and under Jeroboam II. King of Israel. If he prophesied in the reigns of all these Princes, he must have lived a very long time; for there are an hundred and twelve years from the beginning Uzziah’s began in 3194, and Hezekiah’s ended in 3306.of Uzziah’s to the end of Hezekiah’s reign. Add, if you please, twenty or five and twenty years which might be the age of Hosea, when he began to prophesy, and this will make an hundred and thirty two, or an hundred and thirty seven years. And if we were to take ten years from Uzziah, and as many from Hezekiah, during which Hosea might not have prophesied, there will still remain an hundred and twelve or fifteen years. In the whole collection of Hosea’s prophecies, we find nothing which proves that he prophesied so long; and besides, why should his prophecies be dated in the title by the reigns of the Kings of Judah, when he did not live under their dominion? It is therefore very probable, that this title is not Hosea’s, but some ancient Vide nov. Edit. Hieron. t. 1. p. 727.transcriber’s; and that the true beginning of this Prophet’s work, is at these words: The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. It is our opinion, that he began about the end of Jeroboam’s reign, who was the second King of Israel of this name.
Hieron. in Osee, initio. Basil. in Isai. i. Rufin. Riber. Sanct. alii. b Hos. iv. 15. ix. 15. xii. 11. c Hos. v. 1. d Hos. vi. 8. f Hos. v. 1. vi. 8.St. Jerom, and many others, believe Hosea to be the oldest Prophet, whose writings are in our possession. He was witness to the first captivity of the four Tribes, carried away by Tiglath-pilesér, and the extinction of the kingdom of Samaria by Salmanesar. St. Jerom will have it, that he prophesied even afterwards. The first verses of chap. i. have a view to the death of Zechariah King of Israel, and son of Jeroboam II. From the sixth verse of the first chapter to the third chapter, is a prediction of the captivity of Israel: but after he has foretold this captivity, he declares the return and end of it. He inveighs strongly against the disorders, which prevailed in the kingdom of the ten Tribes. It appears, that in his time there were Idols, not only at Dan, Bethel, and Samaria, but likewise at Gilgal1, upon Tabor c, at Sichem d, Beer-sheba e, and upon the Mountains of Gilead f. He speaks of the Israelites, as of a people intirely corrupted, and the measure of whose sins was filled up. He foretels that their golden calves should be pulled down, cast upon the ground, and carried into Hos. viii. 5. x. 5, 6. Hos. iv. 15. Hos. viii. 14. Hos. i. 7.Assyria.
He reflects with the same severity upon the irregularities which reigned in Judah. He stands up against those who went to worship the false Gods at Gilgal. He speaks of Sennacherib’s invading the territories of Judah. He foretels that the people of Judah should still continue some time in their country after the captivity of the ten Tribes; but that after this, they likewise themselves should be carried captives beyond the Euphrates, from whence the Lord would bring them back after a certain number of years. The style of Hosea is obscure, and his expressions often dubious and perplexed. The things whereof he speaks contribute farther to his obscurity, by reason of their distance, and our ignorance of the history of those times.
In the beginning of Hosea’s Prophecy we read, that the Lord directed him, To take unto him a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms; that is to say, to marry a woman, who before her marriage had lived a debauched life, but who after her marriage should retire from all bad conversation, and whose children should be legitimate, notwithstanding that by reason of the blemish which their mother had contracted by her former life, they were called the children of whoredoms. This prostitute woman, and the children to be born of her, were a figure, and a kind of real prophecy, which described the idolatry and infidelity of Samaria and the ten Tribes, formerly the Lord’s spouse, but afterwards become adulterous and corrupt. The children of this faithless woman are children of prostitution, since they imitate the idolatry of their mother. God gives these children the names of Jezreel, Lo-rechamah, or without mercy, and Lo-ammi, thou art no longer my people; to shew, 1. That God was going to revenge upon the house of Jehu King of Israel, the sins which he had committed at Jezreel, when he usurped the Kingdom of the ten Tribes. 2. That the Lord would treat his idolatrous and sinful people without mercy. 3. Lastly, that he would reject them, and no more look upon them as his people.
Many interpreters2 shocked at the irregularity of Hosea’s marriage with a woman of a bad life, have thought this to be only a parable; that the Prophet called the wife whom he married, a prostitute, with a design only of awakening the attention of the Israelites; or that all this passed only in a vision, without the Prophet’s coming to the execution of it. But the whole sequel of Hosea’s narration shews sufficiently, that this marriage was very real, though figurative as to the things which it described, and were to be afterwards performed; and this is the opinion of St. Basil, Theodoret, St. Austin, and many good Interpreters.
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