(salvation)

1. The nineteenth, last, and best king of Israel. He succeeded Pekah, whom he slew in a successful conspiracy, thereby fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:16). In the third year of his reign Shalmaneser cruelly stormed the strong caves of Beth-arbel (Hosea 8:14) and made cruel tributary (2 Kings 17:3) for three years. At the end of this period Hoshea entered into a secret alliance with So, king of Egypt, to throw off the Assyrian yoke. The alliance did him no good; it was revealed to the court of Nineveh by the Assyrian party in Ephraim, and Hoshea was immediately seized as a rebellious vasal, shut up in prison, and apparently treated with the utmost indignity (Micah 5:1). Of the subsequent fortunes of Hoshea nothing is known.
2. The son of Nun, i.e. Joshua (Deuteronomy 32:44). Also in Numbers 13:8, though there the Authorized Version has Oshea.
3. Son of Azaziah (1 Chronicles 27:20), like his great namesake, a man of Ephraim, ruler of his tribe in the time of King David
4. One of the heads of the people who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (Nehemiah 10:23)