And Hoshea son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah son of Remaliah, and struck him down, and killed him, and reigned in place of him, in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah — Hoshea's (הוֹשֵׁעַ, *Hoshea*) assassination of Pekah completes the pattern of conspiracy and violent succession yet again. The detail that this occurred "in the twentieth year of Jotham" (Azariah's alternate name, Uzziah) synchronizes Israel's final chaotic successions with Judah's orderly Davidic succession. Hoshea's coup, occurring during Assyrian conquest, reveals the desperation of northern politics: even as the kingdom falls to Assyria, internal factions murder one another for the throne. Hoshea emerges as Israel's final king.

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