Only one other canonical prophet is associated with the northern kingdom after Amos, and that is Hosea. We do not know if Hosea heard the prophecies of Amos, although it is possible that he did.

Hosea 1: 1 refers to the message which the Lord gave the prophet during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were the kings of Judah and Jeroboam was king of Israel. Uzziah was king of Judah from 783-742 B.C., his son Jotham ruled from 742-735 B.C. and was followed by Ahaz who ruled from 735-715 B.C. Hezekiah began to rule in 715 B.C. As Jeroboam II's reign ended in 746 B.C. it is clear that we are not given a complete list of the kings who ruled in Israel during the period of these four kings of Judah. Jeroboam's son Zedekiah was murdered in a coup d'etat only a few months after he succeeded his father, and from then onwards until 721 B.C., when the Assyrians finally conquered and devastated Israel, there was increasing weakness and confusion in Israel as the threat from Assyria increased.

Because of the incomplete information about the kings of Israel in 1: 1 it is difficult to be exact in the dating of Hosea's prophetic ministry, but it is likely that he began to prophesy in about 747 B.C. while Jeroboam was still ruling (Hosea 1: 3 indicates that the dynasty of Jehu, of whom Jeroboam and his son Zedekiah were the last kings, was still in power) and continued as a prophet until the time of the final attack of Assyria on Israel. We do not know anything about his background before he became a prophet, neither do we know how his life ended. It is assumed that his prophecies were preserved by being taken to Judah before the final destruction of the northern kingdom. In his book his personal family life is of the greatest importance in the presentation of his message. It was through his personal relationship with his wife that he came to understand God's relationship with Israel.