SO . The king of Egypt (Mizraim), Hoshea’s correspondence with whom led shortly to the captivity of Israel ( 2 Kings 17:4 ). In b.c. 725 the kingdom of Egypt was probably in confusion (end of Dyn. 23), the land being divided among petty princes, and threatened or held by the Ethiopians. It is difficult to find an Egyptian name of this period that would be spelt So in Hebrew. Assyrian annals, however, inform us that in 722, shortly after the fall of Samaria, a certain Sib’i , ‘tartan’ (commander-in-chief) of Musri, was sent by Pir’u, king of Musri ( i.e. probably Pharaob, king of Egypt), to the help of Gaza against Sargon. This Sib’i may be our So (or Seve), not king, but commander-in-chief. It has been thought that the Heb. So, Seve, and the Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] Sib’i might stand for the name of the Ethiopian Shabako of the 25th Dyn., as crown prince and then king, but they would be singularly imperfect renderings of that name. Shabako gained the throne of Egypt about b.c. 713.
F. Ll. Griffith.