2 Kings 17 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

2 Kings 17

Hoshea Reigns in Israel

17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute 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. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.

The Fall of Israel

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

Exile Because of Idolatry

7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, 12 and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this.” 13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings¹ and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.

19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

21 When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, 23 until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him² go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

34 To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 The LORD made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.

41 So these nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

Footnotes

[1] 17:17 Or made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire
[2] 17:27 Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew them

Commentary

v1-6: The final defeat of Israel, occasioned by Hoshea's attempted conspiracy. He as not so evil as his predecessors, but the damage was done, the die was cast. The captured Israelites were dispersed through the Assyrian empire. Except God work in mighty power, the whole nation is now lost forever.

v7-23: A commentary upon the history of Israel, from Jeroboam to the captivity, 953 - 721 B.C.

v7: These events were no accident of history; they took place because they had sinned against the Lord God. We must look beyond political developments and military victories and defeats, to God's hand.

v8: Israel had persistently followed the example of the heathen. They worshipped their gods, and they followed their practices.

v9: Israel behaved secretly, trying to hide things from God. Such folly!

v10: Their idolatry was widespread, with evidence of sin everywhere.

v11: Their practises were learned from the heathen nations.

v12: They practised idolatry, something specifically forbidden by God.

v13: God's grace was such that He sent prophets to His people; in spite of their disobedience, He continued to speak to them. It is a mark of being God's people that He should speak to us; yet we dare not assume that all such messages are commendations.

v14: The people would not listen, being stubborn. They did not trust in the Lord, therefore they suffered the consequences.

v15: A summary verse, in the middle of the section;

they rejected His decrees, and His covenant;
they followed worthless idols;
they imitated heathen nations; and
they did what God had forbidden.

Through their worship of "worthless idols" they "became worthless." We do become what we worship. We set our minds on unholy things, and we become like them. We give our time to worshipping God, and we grow more like Him.

v16-17: Details of their improper practises, as if proof were needed. The practices may have come from different human sources, different nations; but all were "evil in the eyes of the Lord."

v18: The punishment upon Israel; their suffering was not some 'cosmic inevitability,' nor the result of chance, nor primarily the decision of the king of Assyria.

v19: Even Judah, who was not rejected in the same way as Israel (at this time, any way) failed to fully follow God. Judah had of course benefited from the reigns and the influence of several godly kings, and thus the evil was restrained. See 2 Chr 30.1-12, which describes Hezekiah's call to Israel to return to God, a few years before Israel was captured. Not all the people of Israel were therefore deported.

v20: They rejected the Lord God, and therefore He rejected them.

v21-23: The root of Israel's defeat lay in Jeroboam's sins, over two centuries earlier. He was by no means the worst of the kings, but no later king effectively reversed the decline that he had started.

v24-41: The king of Assyria moved into Israel, now called Samaria, people from other countries he had defeated.

v24: See 18.34; these countries had already been defeated. From 721 B.C., Israel was effectively dispersed, and only the tribes of Judah and Levi remained; a few exceptions, see Luke 2.36, Phil 3.5.

v25: The Lord God was jealous of His Land, and therefore the in-coming people suffered.

v26: "The God of that country"; see 19.12; the Gentile nations, including Assyria, believed only in local gods, whose power was seen in military victories, and safety in the land. They were ignorant of single, universal, omnipotent God.

v27-28: A priest from the northern kingdom; although this was some improvement upon blatant idolatry, it was unlikely that he would be a faithful, godly man.

v29-31: The numerous high places built by Israel, apparently to worship the Lord God, were now used for all manner of religious practices. People from several nations now lived in Samaria, bringing their own religious practices with them.

v32-34: The practice of mixed religion persisted. They maintained some of the former practices and rituals, but no real love for the true God. This mixed religion was the reason for the animosity that developed later between Jews and Samaritans.

v35: The earlier covenant between the Lord and Israel was broken by Israel. Idolatry is unfaithfulness to God; such is expected of Gentiles, but not of Israelites.

v36: God demands utter loyalty to Himself, He tolerates no rivals. Since He has saved us by His great power, can we do anything less?

v37-39: Although God had promised blessings upon obedience, the people rejected Him, and suffered the consequences.

v40-41: The writer looks back upon a new people in the land, who also persisted in disobedience, just as the people of Israel had.