gned only one month, was slain by Menahem, ver. 14.
Menahem reigned ten years at Samaria. Under him, the catastrophe was
already preparing which brought the kingdom to utter destruction. He
became tributary to the Assyrian king Pul, vers. 19-21. He was
succeeded by his son Pekahiah, in the fiftieth year of Uzziah. After a
reign of two months, he was slain by Pekah, the son of Remaliah, who
held the government for twenty years (ver. 27), and, by his alliance
with the kings of Syria against his brethren the people of Judah (comp.
Is. vii.), hastened on the destruction of Israel. The Assyrians, under
Tiglathpileser, called to his assistance by Ahaz, even at that time
carried away into captivity part of its citizens,--the tribes who lived
on the other side of the Jordan. In the fourth year of Ahaz, Pekah was
slain by Hoshea, who, after an interregnum of eight years, began to
reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz, xvii. 1. He became tributary to
Shalmaneser; and the end of his government of nine years was also the
end of the kingdom of the ten tribes. His having sought for an alliance
with Egypt drew down, upon himself and his people, the vengeance of the
king of Assyria.

We have already proved that the historical references in the prophecies
of Hosea extend to the time when the last king of Israel attempted to
secure himself against Asshur, by the alliance with Egypt. It is very
probable that the book was written at [Pg 181] that time. At the time
when the sword of the Lord was just being raised to inflict upon Israel
the death-blow, Hosea wrote down the sum and substance of what he had
prophesied during a long series of years, beginning in the last times
of Jeroboam, when, to a superficial view, the people were in the
enjoyment of the fullest prosperity. When at the threshold of their
final fulfilment, he condensed and wrote down his prophecies, just as,
in the _annus fatalis_, the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah,
according to chap. xxv., gave a survey of what he had prophesied over
Judah during twenty-three years.

In the prophecies of Hosea, as in those of Amos, the _threatening_
character prevails. The number of the elect in Israel was small, and
the judgment was at hand. In Jeremiah and Ezekiel, too, the prophecies,
previous to the destruction, are mainly minatory. It was only after the
wrath of God had been manifested in deeds, that the stream of promise
brake forth without hindrance. Hosea, nevertheless, does not be