The word of Yahweh that came to 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.
In the days of Uzziah ... - Hosea, although a prophet of Israel, marks his prophecy by the names of the kings of Judah, because the kingdom of Judah was the kingdom of the theocracy, the line of David to which the promises of God were made. As Elisha, to whose office he succeeded, turned away from Jehoram 2 Kings 3:13-14, saying, “get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother,” and owned Jehoshaphat king of Judah only, so, in the title of his prophecy, Hosea at once expresses that the kingdom of Judah alone was legitimate. He adds the name of Jeroboam, partly as the last king of Israel whom, by virtue of His promise to Jehu, God helped; partly to show that God never left Israel unwarned. Jeroboam I was warned first by the prophet 1 Kings 13:0, who by his own untimely death, as well as in his prophecy, was a witness to the strictness of God’s judgments, and then by Ahijah 1 Kings 14:0; Baasha by Jehu, son of Hanani 1 Kings 16:0; Ahab, by Elijah and Micaiah son of Imla; Ahaziah by Elijah 2 Kings 1:0; Jehoram by Elisha who exercised his office until the days of Joash 2 Kings 13:14.