The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. By dating his prophecies by the reign of the kings of Judah, Hosea marks that God recognizes the kingdom of Judah as alone legitimate (see Introduction).
Jeroboam - the second; who died in the 15th year of Uzziah's 41 years' reign. From his time forth all Israel's kings worshipped false gods: Zachariah (2 Kings 15:9), Menahem (2 Kings 15:18), Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:24), Pekah (2 Kings 15:28), Hoshea (2 Kings 17:2). Since Israel was most flourishing externally under Jeroboam II, who recovered the possessions seized on by Syria under Hazael, Hosea's prophecy of its downfall at that time was the more striking, the less it could have been foreseen by mere human sagacity. God alone could utter such a voice of thunder out of the midst of such a cloudless sky (Pusey). Jonah the prophet had promised success to Jeroboam II from God, not for the king's merit, but from God's mercy to Israel, when "He saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter:" so the coast of Israel was restored by Jeroboam II from the entering of Hamath (i:e., from the northern extremity near Mount Hermon, bordering on Syria, where there was the pass of Hamath into the Holy Land) to the sea of the plain, or the Dead Sea (2 Kings 14:23-27). The word of the Lord came to Hosea, not from his own mind, but from God. So Paul begins, "Paul, an apostle (not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father)." (Galatians 1:1). The word was existing in God's mind as God's, first; then it came to the prophet, and became his. So "the word of God came unto John" (Luke 3:2).
Hosea - meaning salvation.
Son of Beeri - meaning my well. The prophet in his very name typified the Saviour, of whom he prophecies, the Son of the Father, from whose love, as the well-spring, salvation in Christ hath flowed. Compare Isaiah 12:3, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."