The Book of Hosea and the History of Eighth-Century BCE Israel

Abstract Based on biblical and extrabiblical texts, and archaeological data, the first part of this essay sketches the history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the late ninth and eighth centuries BCE. The superscription of the book of Hosea dates Hosea’s activities to the reign of Jeroboam II, who ruled in the early eighth century BCE. The kingdom saw a period of prosperity in the early eighth century BCE, but it suffered from repeated coups and Assyrian invasions in the latter part of the same century, and it was finally conquered and annexed by Assyria in 720 BCE. The second part of this essay examines the relationship between relevant passages from Hosea and the historical circumstances during the eighth century BCE. While those passages may reflect the historical situation of the Northern Kingdom at that time, some of them do not necessarily do so, especially when such historical association is made based only on biblical accounts. Figurative language in the passages makes it difficult to associate them with precise historical circumstances, of which we know little. The current texts are the results of Fortschreibung, which hinders identification of their historical settings.