A common misinterpretation views Hoshea's actions as a noble quest for independence from foreign tyranny, portraying him as a heroic patriot, but this overlooks the biblical context of Israel's long history of covenant unfaithfulness and idolatry that provoked God's judgment through Assyria as His instrument; another error assumes 'So king of Egypt' refers to a minor figure rather than a Pharaoh like Sib'e, and ignores that such diplomacy without repentance was futile rebellion doomed to fail, emphasizing human scheming over reliance on God.
II Kings 17:4
King James Version (1769)
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
This verse recounts the political downfall of Hoshea, the final king of the northern kingdom of Israel, who rebelled against Assyrian overlordship by secretly allying with Egypt's Pharaoh So and withholding annual tribute payments, prompting the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V to arrest and imprison him, which accelerated the Assyrian invasion and exile of Israel as divine judgment on the nation's persistent idolatry and disobedience to God as detailed in the surrounding chapter.