"Hoshea"

Hoshea (r. 733-724 B.C.E.) – The son of Elah, who for unspecified reasons was accounted less wicked than his predecessors. Hoshea ascended to the throne with the aid of Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria and remained loyal to that ruler. Upon the latter’s death, however, Hoshea sought to regain Israel’s independence and conspired with Pharaoh So (Osorkon IV) of Egypt against the Assyrians, whose new ruler Shalmanesser V (son of Tiglath-Pileser III) did not take kindly to the Kingdom of Israel’s discontinuation of tribute and who soon imprisoned Hoshea (and perhaps blinded him) and besieged Samaria for 3 years.

In 722 B.C.E., Israel’s capital was finally conquered by Shalmanesser’s successor (and possible brother), Sargon II, and thereafter 27, 290 of the kingdom’s residents were exiled variously to Halach, Havor by the Gozan River, and to the Median cities ruled by Assyria. Thus was the Kingdom of Israel officially reduced to a province of the Assyrian Empire. An Assyrian governor was appointed over the province’s remaining inhabitants who were allowed to retain their property. The House of Hoshea ended with its eponymous sovereign. He does not appear in the Chronicles.