The prophet Hosea lived in the north kingdom of Israel at the time of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC) and after. He probably began prophesying around 760 BC. His oracles predicted the destruction and exile of his nation. At the time, Israel was prosperous and, since things seemed to be going well, people were little inclined to listen to him when he predicted coming disaster. Hosea did a type of prophecy called “enactment prophecy”. He criticized the sins of Israel by acting them out. Israel had worshiped foreign gods and so, in a sense, had prostituted itself. God therefore told Hosea to marry an actual prostitute – in fact, a sacred prostitute who allowed men to worship pagan gods through sex.
All of this occurred just a few years before the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III (745-728 BC) began to cause Israel serious problems. Indeed, Jeroboam II would be the last king of is dynasty, the Jehu dynasty. After him, Israel descended into chaos with no real dynasty emerging. Kings changed too frequently, often through assassination. The Jewish specialist of the prophets, Abraham Heschel, wrote “The Northern Kingdom was in those days a hotbed of plots and intrigues, with constant military revolts and usurpations. King Zechariah, Jeroboam’s son, had been slain by Shallum ben Jabesh; but the usurper had fallen a month later to Menahem, who only after much bloodshed had been able to establish his position.” It is safe to say that Hosea considered none of these kings to be legitimate.
Hosea, therefore, prophesied through the reigns of more kings than did any other prophet: during all six kings who governed Israel during the 30 from Jeroboam’s death to the fall of the nation. None of them were either good administrators or diplomats. As a result, the country declined progressively, becoming weaker and dissatisfaction among the populace grew. We can see this happening in the book and can follow the movement from complacency to despair. In the early days of his prophesying, Israel was larger and more powerful than its southern neighbor, Judah. It was stronger both economically and militarily. For this reason, it had much more contact with the outside world and was more cosmopolitan.
Polytheism appears to have become very strong there. As a result, the law of Sinai had fallen into disuse by most of the population. Most people probably knew the Ten Commandments and knew that a wider law existed but remembered few details about what it contained. They would have known that the law forbade worshiping other gods and that the one God should be worshiped in only one place. They also would have known that they were supposed to live a morally upright life and that this kind of life would lead to blessings while the opposite would lead to curses. The prophets would use this basic knowledge in their preaching, presenting the people’s their bad behavior (polytheism, economic injustice and oppression, dishonesty, etc). Such behavior meant that Israel had broken the covenant and so would lead to judgment .
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