2 Kings 17:1-6. Reign of Hoshea king of Israel. Shalmaneser invades Israel, imprisons Hoshea and carries the people captive (Not in Chronicles) 1. _In the twelfth year of Ahaz …_began _Hoshea … to reign_ This is one more evidence that there is error in the chronological statements. In 2 Kings 15:30... [ Continue Reading ]
_but not as the kings of Israel that were before him_ We have no record of the doings of Hoshea, so as to specify in what points he was better than his predecessors. A long persistence in evil doing had however corrupted the whole nation, and the cutting short which had begun under the house of Jehu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shalmaneser king of Assyria_ This king according to the Assyrian monuments succeeded Tiglath-pileser, and was succeeded by Sargon. His reign lasted from b.c. 727 722. _and Hoshea became his servant_ Probably it was in this way that Hoshea made himself strong enough to attack Pekah, and to mount th... [ Continue Reading ]
_found conspiracy in Hoshea_ No doubt the tributary princes were watched by Assyrian residents in their courts, and the news of negotiations with a foreign power would soon be sent from Samaria to Shalmaneser. _to So king of Egypt_ The LXX. writes the king's name Σηγώρ. The identification of this mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_throughout all the land_ It seems to have been the usual plan of invaders to overrun the places more easily conquerable before they assailed the chief stronghold. _besieged it three years_ Samaria from its position on a hill and from the pains bestowed on its building must have been a city of consi... [ Continue Reading ]
_in Halah_ Most likely this is the district which Ptolemy calls Χαλκιτις. It lies directly north from Thapsacus between Anthemusia and Gauzonitis. _and in Habor_ Habor is the river still known as the _Khabour_, which flows through Gauzonitis, and empties itself into the Euphrates at Circesium. Henc... [ Continue Reading ]
The sins for which Israel was carried into captivity (Not in Chronicles) 7. _For_so _it was that_ R.V. AND IT WAS SO BECAUSE. A better form of introduction to this account of the causes of the captivity. These are recited under three heads. First, on entering Canaan Israel adopted the idol worship... [ Continue Reading ]
_and walked in the statutes of the heathen_ The book of Judges is full of instances of the way in which the people again and again fell away to the practices of the Canaanites (cf. Judges 2:11-13). _and of the kings of Israel, which they had_[R.V. omits _had made_ i.e. In the statutes of the kings... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the children of Israel did secretly_ The verb here used occurs nowhere else in the Bible, though one apparently cognate, and differing only by a single letter, is found several times. This latter is used of covering the head, and also of covering walls with gold to look more beautiful than the... [ Continue Reading ]
_images and groves_ R.V. PILLARS AND ASHERIM UPON. On the -pillars" see note on 2 Kings 3:2, and on the Asherim, which were probably wooden images of a goddess Asherah, see on 2 Kings 13:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_as_did _the heathen_ R.V. THE NATIONS. And so again in verse 15. When a distinction is to be marked between God's people and idolaters, -heathen" is a fair rendering for _goyim_. But here when there is no such marked severance -nations" is the better translation.... [ Continue Reading ]
_idols, whereof the Lord had said_ The prohibition is given in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:4) and repeated in many parts of the Law (cf. Deuteronomy 4:16; Deuteronomy 5:8; Deuteronomy 27:15). _Ye shall not do this thing_ The LXX. adds -unto the Lord" τῷ κυρίῳ. This addition, though unsupported b... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord testified against_[R.V. UNTO] _Israel and against_[R.V. UNTO] _Judah_ The preposition is that which is usually rendered -in". And God's witness by His prophets was at first a witness of warning and exhortation, and his anger was long restrained and not at first grievously kindled against t... [ Continue Reading ]
_hardened their necks_ R.V. NECK. The original has the singular, the people being regarded as one body. Israel throughout the Scripture is constantly reproached as a -stiffnecked" people. Cf. Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3; Deuteronomy 10:16; Acts 7:51 and parallel passages. _that did not believe_ R.V. W... [ Continue Reading ]
_he testified against_[R.V. UNTO] _them_ See above on verse 13. _they followed vanity_ -Vanity" is constantly employed in Scripture of false gods. They are nothing and can do nothing. Therefore to have regard unto them is of no avail, and their worshippers in consequence use prayer in vain to them.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they left_[R.V. FORSOOK] _all the commandments_ The R.V. adopts the most usual rendering of the verb, which is stronger in such a combination than -left". It is noteworthy that the sin of the calves is connected with the casting away of all the divine law. As soon as any other object is set up... [ Continue Reading ]
_to pass through the fire_ Of the character of this Moloch-worship, see above 2 Kings 16:3, note. _used divination and enchantments_ The former word probably refers to some way of seeking out guidance by lots, or by arrows with different marks on them, and the words on the selected one were taken a... [ Continue Reading ]
_removed them out of his sight_ The language is accommodated to human ideas. God's eye was regarded as specially directed to the land of Canaan, where He had chosen to place His Name. So to be taken away from that land is a removal from His special oversight. By the -tribe of Judah" is meant the kin... [ Continue Reading ]
_walked in the statutes of Israel_ Which were not of God's ordinance but of Israel's own devising. This was specially the case when the son of Jehoshaphat intermarried with a daughter of Ahab, and so brought in Baal-worship and its attendant abominations. The calf-worship however seems never to have... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel_ The LXX. has -And they rejected the Lord, and the Lord was angry with all the seed of Israel". _the hand of spoilers_ The first of whom, mentioned below, is Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who led them astray, and the next is the king of Assyria, who carrie... [ Continue Reading ]
_and Jeroboam drave_ The verb is found only here, but its sense is well established from a cognate verb with slightly different orthography. The commencement of the calf-worship was through Jeroboam, and no doubt he used every means in his power to constrain his subjects to follow in his ways. The f... [ Continue Reading ]
_they departed not from them_ For among all the nineteen kings of Israel not one has a good character.... [ Continue Reading ]
_as he had said by all his servants the prophets_ R.V. AS HE SPAKE BY THE HAND OF ALL HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS. These were probably more numerous, in connexion with the northern kingdom than with the kingdom of Judah, and conspicuous among them were the great figures of Elijah and Elisha. The other... [ Continue Reading ]
Of those nations which were brought to inhabit Samaria, how they were plagued with lions. The mixed character of their religion (Not in Chronicles) 24. _the king of Assyria brought_men _from Babylon_ These would most likely be the leaders of the colony as coming from the capital of the empire. _an... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord sent lions among them, which slew_[R.V. KILLED] some _of them_ The word rendered -slew" is not the same here as that in the next verse. This statement must be considered as the thought of the people themselves. How far it might also be shared by the writer of Kings we cannot know. These he... [ Continue Reading ]
_they spake to the king of Assyria_ Whose thoughts on such a matter would be in accord with their own, and who would therefore take steps that the colonists should be instructed in the worship of the local deity, as he and they would consider Jehovah to be. _thou hast removed_ R.V. CARRIED AWAY. Fo... [ Continue Reading ]
_one of the priests whom ye brought from thence_ The Assyrian king takes what he would believe to be the best step towards remedying the mischief. A priest of the Israelitish worship was clearly the right person to be sent. No doubt all the priests were among the population that had been carried awa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then_[R.V. SO] _one of the priests whom they had carried away_ We can see from this that the events here spoken of took place within a very limited time. The priest who had been taken away from Samaria was still alive, and in vigour enough to be selected to go back again and to undertake the office... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit every nation made gods of their own_ When they beheld the calves of Dan and Bethel, they would see nothing higher in them than in their own objects of worship. So the adoption of the new form of worship would not draw them from the attachment to their earlier divinities. _the high places w... [ Continue Reading ]
_Succoth-benoth_ This name of the deity of the Babylonians is probably (according to Rawlinson _Herod_. bk. i. p. 630) meant to represent the Chaldæan goddess _Zir-banit_, the wife of Merodach (_i.e._Bel) who was specially worshipped in Babylon. _Nergal_ The Assyrian or Babylonian god who answers t... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Avites_[R.V. AVVITES] _made Nibhaz_ Of Nibhaz (for which the LXX. gives a very different word, Ἐβλαζὲρ) nothing is known with certainty. The Jewish commentators explain the word as connected with a root signifying -to bark", and say that the idol was a human figure with a dog's head. The do... [ Continue Reading ]
_So they feared the Lord_ i.e. In the way in which their ideas of the worship of the local divinity demanded. This they did, says Bp Hall, -not for devotion, but for impunity. Vain politicians to think to satisfy God by patching up religions … What a prodigious mixture was here, true with false, Jew... [ Continue Reading ]
_They feared the Lord_ It seems almost as if the writer had repeated this phrase here and in the previous verse, and afterwards in verse 41, in mockery of this spurious reverence on which Jehovah could set no value. _after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence_ R.V. FROM AMON... [ Continue Reading ]
_they fear not the Lord_ i.e. This worship of Jehovah, merely because they regard Him as the local deity of the land, is no worship at all. God will not be served from policy. There need be no difficulty in understanding the words here in contrast to -they feared the Lord" in verses 32, 33, 41. Thes... [ Continue Reading ]
_with great power and a stretched out arm_ R.V. inserts WITH after _and_, as there is the preposition in the original text. _and him shall ye worship_ R.V. AND ONTO HIM SHALL YE HOW YOURSELVES. The verb is the same which is so rendered in the verse before. _shall ye do sacrifice_ R.V. omits _do_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_which he wrote for you_ The compiler of Kings considered, as we can gather from this expression, that -the statutes and ordinances", even the whole Law, was written down for the Israelites, and was of divine origin. The quotations made above are found in Deuteronomy Chapter s 4, 5. and 6 If the com... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit they did not hearken_ From the recital of God's covenant and testimony unto Israel, the writer now turns to the new colonists of Samaria. They had heard, from the priest sent to them, an account of the Lord the God of Israel, and of what He had done for His people. For though the priest was... [ Continue Reading ]
_both their children_ R.V. THEIR CHILDREN LIKEWISE. A change which makes a semicolon necessary at the end of the previous clause. It would seem from this statement that the mixed population in Samaria adhered to their several forms of idolatry through several generations, though we know that on the... [ Continue Reading ]