Misinterpretations frequently include viewing the event as divine endorsement of assassination or coup as a legitimate means to power, whereas the text neutrally chronicles historical fact amid a pattern of unrighteous kings; confusing the synchronism with Jotham's reign to distort biblical chronology; or idealizing Hoshea as a righteous reformer, overlooking his brief wicked rule that ended in rebellion against Assyria and national exile.
II Kings 15:30
King James Version (1769)
30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
This passage records Hoshea's conspiracy and assassination of Pekah, allowing him to usurp the throne of Israel in the twentieth year of Judah's King Jotham, underscoring the chronic instability, treachery, and violent power struggles that characterized the northern kingdom's final decades of monarchy, hastening its vulnerability to Assyrian conquest as part of God's judgment on persistent idolatry and disobedience.