We read today, "so Hoshea was forced to pay heavy tribute" after he was attacked by King Shalmaneser from Assyria. This happens a few times in the OT and was a common old-world practice. An empire would invade another area and usually at minimum demand a tribute and perhaps people for military service. If they refused, they would go to war.
As a spiritual analogy, we actually sometimes pay tribute to things we shouldn't. In other words, we reap the consequences of a lack of victory against our foes. These might be things we suffer from (like abuse) or they might be things we have actively done (like made a girl pregnant who we didn't then marry). The tribute we pay is often emotional and psychological but could also be practical or financial and can continue for the rest of our lives. There are two lessons then that we need to learn. Firstly to avoid making the mistakes that lead to tribute, i.e. keeping our character and not sinning and then secondly, we need to learn how to get victory over things that we suffer from (and which it is possible to get victory over) such as the emotional suffering we might endure from certain situations. God is a protector but He is also a saviour!
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