2 Kings 17:1-41
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gavea him presents.
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no presentb 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 came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which 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 statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
10 And they set them up imagesc and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, byd all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29 Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
30 And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.
34 Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35 With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
37 And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
39 But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
HOSHEA REIGNING IN ISRAEL
(vv.1-4)
Hoshea had conspired against and killed Pekah (ch.15:30), so that Hoshea began to reign over Israel in the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah. He reigned only nine years. In common with previous kings of Israel, he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but did not sink to the same wicked level as others had (v.2).
At this time Assyria was becoming more and more aggressive and Hoshea found it necessary to submit to the king of Assyria by paying him tribute (v.3). However, the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had sent messengers to Egypt, evidently with the desire that Egypt should back up Israel in resisting Assyria. Hoshea apparently thought that with this backing he could cease sending tribute to Assyria, but the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison (v.4). No record is given of Hoshea's death.
THE CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL BY ASSYRIA
(vv.5-23)
In Chapter 15:29 we have read of Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria taking captive the Israelites east of Jordan and all the land of Naphtali. Now we read that the king of Assyria besieged Samaria for three years, finally taking it and all Israel, moving captives to areas in Assyria, Halah and the cities of the Medes. This was a sweeping judgment of God against His people Israel, and the ten tribes have never been restored to their land since that time. It was evidently before this, during the first six years of Hezekiah's reign in Judah that Hezekiah sent messengers to Israel to invite them to come to Jerusalem for his great Passover. Compare 1 Kings 18:10; 2 Chronicles 30:1). Now that God has allowed this great dispersion of the ten tribes, only a miraculous intervention of God at the end of the Tribulation will bring His people Israel back to their land.
A RECAPITULATION OF ISRAEL'S HISTORY
(vv.7-23)
Verse 7 now reminds Israel that though God had kindly brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the bondage of Pharaoh, yet from that time they continually sinned against the Lord and had feared other gods (v.7). They had followed the statutes of the nations the Lord had expelled from the land of Canaan before the children of Israel (v.8). Though warned against this many times. Israel paid no attention to God's warnings.
Adding to their disobedience, they did secretly things they knew were not right against the Lord (v.9). Were they so dense they did not consider the Lord sets "our secret sins in the light of His countenance?" (Psalms 90:8). But unbelief does not give credit to God for being who He is. They also built for themselves (not for God) high places in all their cities. These high places were for professed worship, but God had told them their worship must be in the place that He would choose, - Jerusalem.
They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on high bills and under green trees. They would no doubt say that these things were to remind them of God, but God had forbidden such things, and using them always lowered God in their estimation, so that the things themselves eventually became the objects of their worship. They burned incense (which speaks of worship) in the high places "like the nations" who were dispossessed for such evil, and did wicked things that provoked the anger of the Lord (v.11).
They served idols in spite of the Lord's warnings not to do such things and in spite of His testifying against them when they did so, sending many prophets to command them to turn from their wicked ways and keep God's commandments (vv.12-13).
Over and over again they refused every appeal of the Lord and stiffened their necks in stubborn rebellion against His authority (v.14). Thus, having given up any respect for God Himself, they were quite free to reject His statutes and His covenant that He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thus, they wanted freedom to do their own will, following the folly of other nations, not realising that that kind of freedom was only painful bondage to sin (v.15).
Leaving the commandments of God, what else could they find as a substitute? Only the worship of idols. Thus, verse 16 refers back to the great sin of Jereboam in making two golden calves, one put in Bethel, the other in Dan, and making these the centres of Israel's worship. But when once a thing like this is done, the evil does not stop there. They then began to worship all the host of heaven, having "many gods and many lords" (1 Corinthians 8:5), and Baal became a favourite idol.
This evil worship led to other abuses, such as causing their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, offering them as sacrifices, thinking that such horrible evil would gain favour with God or with their gods (v.17). Witchcraft and soothsaying accompanied such abuses. Witchcraft was used in invoking curses on people. Soothsaying is predicting the future with the object of soothing people. This is the way evil spirits claim to predict the future, to make people feel good, as the false prophets did in trying to make Ahab comfortable in going to fight for Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22:12). Only Michaiah prophesied the truth, that Ahab would die in his attempt to gain Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22:17). Israel "sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord," that is, they virtually sold themselves as slaves to satanic power.
Though the Lord bore patiently with Israel for years, yet the day finally came when He removed them from their land, leaving only the tribe of Judah at that time (v.18). Yet Judah is mentioned also as having failed to keep the commandments of the Lord, following too in the way of Israel. So the writing was on the wall for Judah also, but the godliness of some of their kings delayed the captivity of Judah for some years.
Verse 20 goes back to Israel, however, to speak of God's rejection of these 10 tribes, afflicting them and delivering them into the hand of plunderers, culminating in their captivity by Assyria. It was God who tore Israel from the house of David after Solomon's death, when Jereboam was made king and drove Israel from following the Lord, causing them to commit a great sin. Their bad condition was exposed by their willingness to follow a wicked leader and accept all his sinful decrees and actions (v.22). Thus the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as the prophets had foretold, and gave them up to the captivity of Assyria.
STRANGERS SETTLED IN SAMARIA
(vv.24-41)
The king of Assyria was purposed to see that the Israelites could not again take possession of their land, so that he brought people from other areas east of Canaan to replace the Israelites (v.24). But God was jealous for His land, and because the new settlers had no fear of God, He sent lions among them, killing some of them (v.25). This awakened some fear in their minds that it was the God of the land they had to deal with, and the people had no knowledge of His ways.
When foreigners replaced Israel in their land, the Lord allowed Lions to attack and kill some of them. They supposed this was because they did know the character of "the god of the land." Their fears were not moved by conscience toward God, but by superstition. All they needed, they considered, was to know the rituals of the religion of Israel (v.26). The king of Assyria knew no better, so he commanded that a priest from Israel should go back to the land to teach the people the rituals of the god of the land (v.27). How could this be when they had no centre such as God had decreed? - the centre being symbolical of Christ, the only way of approach to God. But unbelief is impervious to Him, and the priest himself had little knowledge of God, for he had been linked with the idolatry of Jereboam and all Israel had long ago left God's centre - Jerusalem - to establish a religion that had 2 golden calves as its symbol. This priest taught the people how they should fear the Lord (v.28), but his instruction would be painfully lacking.
Thus the people from these other nations who settled in the land brought their own religion with them and made idols, placing them in shrines in high places which the Samaritans had before established, so that Samaria became something like the United States at that time, a residence for every kind of contradictory religion. The Babylonians had their idol, the men of Cuth another idol, the men of Hamath another, the Avvites two more, while the Sepharvites burned their children as sacrifices to two gods of Sepharvaim (vv.29-31).
Outwardly they feared the Lord (v.32), but contradicted that fear by appointing "for themselves" priests of the high places. They liked to copy the fact of God appointing priests, but God's appointment was only of the sons of Aaron, and they were priests of God in connection with God's temple, not the high places. Today the same evil is seen all around us. People claim to respect God, but their works are in flat contradiction to His Word, often adopting the rituals of foreign nations.
Verse 34 puts the whole matter in a true perspective. Though verse 33 says, "they feared the Lord," yet verse 34 says they continued following their former rituals, "they do not fear the Lord." Their claim of verse 33 was false and empty. Thy did not really fear the Lord, nor did they follow the statutes and ordinances of the Lord, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, otherwise named Israel. With them God had made a covenant, charging them, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them" (v.35). But now Samaria had become totally corrupted by this false worship of various descriptions.
We are reminded that the land really belonged to the nation God had brought up from the land of Egypt with manifest power, and Israel was to fear Him (v.36). His statutes, laws and ordinances they were told to be careful to observe and to refuse to fear other gods. They were not to forget the covenant the Lord had made with them, but fear the Lord, who would honour their subjection and preserve them from the bondage of their enemies (vv.37-39).
But now the land was given over to those who paid absolutely no attention to the commands of God. These nations who entered the land therefore showed an appearance of fearing the Lord, but actually served their carved images. Their children and their children's children followed the same course of evil. Samaria continued to have a sprinkling of Israelites among them, but they did not relieve the picture of guilty despising of God's law. It only added to the mixture of many elements of evil.