Hosea 7:12

Yahweh promised to bring Israel under His control and to subdue it, as when a hunter throws a net over birds. He would chasten His people in harmony with what He had earlier proclaimed to them when He gave them the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Leviticus 26:28).

"Vv 8-12 would appear to refer to Hoshea’s desperate, inconsistent attempts at foreign alliances. He came to power submitting to Assyrian hegemony, paying tribute, and thus preserving the central-southern portions of the nation not yet controlled by Assyria. Within a few years (i.e., sometime in the mid-720s) he stopped tribute payments to Assyria and appealed for support to a temporarily resurgent Egypt (1 [sic 2] Kgs 2 Kings 17:2-4). This was the ’mixed up’ foreign policy ’among the nations’ (Hosea 7:8) of a dying people (Hosea 7:9)." [Note: Ibid., p. 117.]