As a matter of convenience, we follow our English Bible in calling the prophet by the name Ho_sea_, and the nineteenth, last, and best king of Israel Ho_shea_. The names, however, are identical (הֹושֵׁצַ), and mean "Salvation"--the name borne by Joshua also in his earlier days. In the irony of history the name of the last king of Ephraim was thus identical with that of her earliest and greatest hero, just as the last of Roman emperors bore the double name of the Founder of Rome and the Founder of the Empire--Romulus Augustulus. By a yet deeper irony of events the king in whose reign came the final precipitation of ruin wore the name which signified deliverance from it. And more and more, as time went on, the prophet Hosea felt that he had no word of present hope or comfort for the king his namesake. It was the more brilliant lot of Isaiah, in the Southern Kingdom, to kindle the ardour of a generous courage. Like Tyrtæus, who roused the Spartans to feel their own greatness--like Demosthenes, who hurled the might of Athens against Philip of Macedon--like Chatham, "bidding England be of good cheer, and hurl defiance at her foes"--like Pitt, pouring forth, in the days of the Napoleonic terror, "the indomitable language of courage and of hope,"--Isaiah was missioned to encourage Judah to despise first the mighty Syrian, and then the mightier Assyrian. Far different was the lot of Hosea, who could only be the denouncer of an inevitable doom. His sad function was like that of Phocion after Chæroneia, of Hannibal after Zama, of Thiers after Sedan: he had to utter the Cassandra-voices of prophecy, which his besotted and demented contemporaries--among whom the priests were the worst of all[389]--despised and flouted until the time for repentance had gone by for ever. True it is that Hosea could not be content--what true heart could?--to breathe nothing but the language of reprobation and despair. Israel had been "yoked to his two transgressions,"[390] but Jehovah could not give up His love for His chosen people:-- "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I surrender thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I treat thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me; I am wholly filled with compassion! I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim: For I am God, and not man. The Holy One in the midst of thee! I will not come to exterminate! They shall come after Jehovah as after a lion that roars! For he shall roar, and his sons shall come hurrying from the west, They shall come hurrying as a bird out of Egypt, And as a dove out of the land of Assyria; And I will cause them to dwell in their houses, Saith Jehovah."[391]