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.
The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea. Shalmaneser had not been long re-established in his capital when he learned that Hoshea, notwithstanding his assurances of devoted allegiance, was meditating defection, and had actually made overtures to a neighbouring power, which might be called the rival and hereditary enemy of Assyria. This was in the sixth year of Hoshea's reign. Sent messengers to So king of Egypt, х Cow' (H5471); Septuagint, Seegoor], the Sabaco of the classic historians, the Shebek of the monuments, of the 25th dynasty, and the Sevechus of Manetho (Kenrick's 'Egypt,' 2:, p. 369). The figure and name of this monarch, Sebek I (see 'Introduction'), have been discovered on the ancient monuments, and they are accurately represented between the colonnade of Philae and the temple of Abou-Simbel, in the Egyptian court of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. This famous Ethiopian, having conquered or slain Bocchoris, king of Egypt, of the twenty-fourth dynasty, who was blind, added Upper Egypt to his kingdom of Ethiopia, precisely about that time, as is admitted by all historians. Being a person distinguished for wisdom as well as energy, he for fifty years occupied the Egyptian throne in Memphis; and regarding him as the natural rival and opponent of Assyria, Hoshea cherished the hope that through his aid he might succeed in resisting the threatened attempts of the Assyrian conqueror. To this new sovereign of Egypt Hoshea "sent messengers," with proposals for a friendly alliance between the kingdoms, chiefly with a view to defensive purposes against the grasping despot of the north; and those overtures made to So seem to have been favourably received, since Hoshea raised once more the standard of revolt, and withheld the remittance of his yearly tribute. But Shalmaneser, marching against him in a second expedition, scoured the whole country, and having "shut him up," took the king himself, and imprisoned him for life.
A concurrence of many circumstances at this time had led to frequent and easy communication with Egypt. The relaxation of the laws relating to the admission of foreigners into that country, the sailing of trading vessels from Palestine, which could anchor opposite Zoan and Memphis, and the caravans, by the Gaza route across the desert, kept up a continual contact with Egypt. From these sources Hoshea could obtain accurate intelligence of the temper and views of the Egyptian court; and its rulers, on their part, did not fail to urge upon him the importance, or rather the absolute necessity, of making a vigorous resistance to the grasping policy of Assyria, together with the superior advantages he could derive from a closer connection with his southern neighbour (see this well brought out by Drew, 'Scripture Lands,' p. 197.)