The Second Book of the Kings, commonly called the Fourth Book of the Kings
2 Kings 17
Chapter XVII · Vol. II, pp. 790–793
1 Hoshea's wicked reign. 3 Being subdued by Shalmaneser, he conspireth against him with So king of Egypt. 5 Samaria for their sins is carried captive. 24 The strange nations, which were transplanted in Samaria, being plagued with lions, make a mixture of religions.
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began aHoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
B.C. 730.
a After an interregnum of nine years, ch.15.30; 18.9. Ho.10.5,7,15; 8.4; 13.10,11.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, bbut not as the kings of Israel that were before him.1
A.M. 3283. B.C. 721.
b ch.3.2, with 10.31; 13.2,11;15.9,18,24.
1 He did not proceed to the same extent in idolatry and wickedness.—C.
3 Against him came up 2Shalmaneser cking of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave3 him presents.4
2 Some conceive him to be Tiglath-pileser, 1 Ch. 5. 26, others take him to be his son. The ancient Hebrew writers think him the same as Sennacherib. But we are mainly concerned with the act of judgment inflicted on an idolatrous people, rather than with the man who inflicted it.—C.
c ch. 15. 19, 29; 16. 7; 18.13; 19. 36. Ho. 5. 13; 12.1.
3 Heb. rendered.
4 Or, tribute.
4 And the king of Assyria found dconspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So5 king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bounde him in prison.
d ch.24. 20. Eze. 17. 13-15. Ho.12.1.
5 The Sua, Sabachon, or Sabachus of heathen historians.—C.
e 2 Ch.33.11. Ps.149. 8.
5 Then fthe king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 Ing the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel6 away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the hMedes.
g ch.18. 10, 11. 1 Ch. 5.26. Le.26.32. Ho.1.6, 9. De.4.27,28;28.25,36, 41, 64, 65. Am. 3.11,12; 5.27.
6 Not only the people of Samaria, but all the ten tribes, Jos. Ant. l.ix.sec.1. Thus ended the idolatrous kingdom of Israel, after 254 years of warnings, judgments, and neglected mercies.—C.
h ch.16. 9. Ge. 10. 2. Is.13.17; 21.2; 22.6. Je. 51.27,28.
7 For so it was, ithat the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which hadk 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 lwalked 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.7
l Le.18. 3, 26, 30; 20. 23. ch.16.3. 1 Ki.12.28-33; 16. 25, 30-33. Mi. 6. 16.
7 Statutes which the idolatrous kings of Israel, and not God, had made.—C.
9 And the children of Israel did msecretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, nfrom the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.8
10 And they oset them up images and groves9 in every high hill, and under every green tree:
o Ex.34.13. Le.26.1; 18.27,28. Ju.2.11-19;iii.-xix. De.29.25-28. Ho. iv.-xiii. Am.4.4,5; 5.5, 26. Mi.1.5-7. 1 Ki. xi.-xxii. ch.i.-xv.
9 Asserah, when the context requires it, is translated grove; but frequently it is applied to the emblems of the Phœnician Venus. So it must be taken here, as a 'grove' under 'every green tree' is unintelligible.—C.
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:
13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, qby all1 the prophets, and by all the seers,2 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.
A.M. 3283. B.C. 721.
q Je.18.11;25.5;26.4, 5;44.4;35.15. Ho.14.1;i.-xiv. Eze.18.21. 1 Sa.ii. iii. vii. xii. Jos. 23. 7. 1 Ki.11.9-11,31-38; 13.1, 2; 14.7-15; 16.1-4; xvii.-xxi. Mi. i.-vii. Am. ii.-ix. Joel i.-iii. Is. i.-xxxii.xxxiv.
1 Heb. by the hand of all.
2 All the prophets of those days, Hosea, Amos, Micah, whose prophecies remain; and, no doubt, many of their contemporaries, whose words, like those of many of our Lord's apostles, were not committed to writing.—C.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but rhardened 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 stestified against them; and tthey followed vanity, and became vain,3 and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
s Ne.9.26, 29. Je. 44. 4. 2 Ch.36.15.
t 1 Ki. 16. 13. Ro. 1. 21. Jonah 2.8. Je. 2.13. ver.7,10,12.
3 This is a statement worthy of special note:—'They went after vanity, and became vain.' Everything which man sets before him as the object of life, except God's glory, is vain. It is idolatry; it draws the mind away from God. It prevents man from preparing for his eternal home. It fills man with vain thoughts, vain aspirations, and vain hopes.—P.
16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and umade them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove,4 and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire,5 and used xdivination and enchantments, and ysold 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 zout of his 6sight: there was none left but athe tribe of Judah only.
z De.32.21-28; 29.20-28;11.12;4.25-27;8.19, 20; 28. 25, 36, 41, 48-68. Le. 26. 17, 25, 28-39. 1 Sa. 12. 25. 1 Ki. 9. 6-9; 14.15. Ho.9.3.
6 Out of the sight of his temple and sacrifices, by which their covenant God looked upon them.—C.
19 Also bJudah 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 cspoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
c ch.13.3,7; 15.19,20, 29; 18.9. 2 Ch. 28. 5; 33. 11. De.32.30.
21 For he drent 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 eIsrael walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
A.M. 3283. B.C. 721.
e Ho.5.11. Mi. 6. 16. 1 Ki. 15.26, 34; 16.7,13, 19,25,26,30-33. ch. 3.3; 10.29,31;13.2,11; 14.24; 15.9,18,24,28.
23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by fall 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 brought7 men fromg Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead ofh 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 ithey feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent klions8 among them, which slew some of them.9
i Is.29.13. Mat.15.8. Ep.2.12.
k 1 Ki.13. 24; 20. 36. ch.2.24. Je. 15. 3; 16.4. Is.15.9.
8 This influx of lions would naturally, as men speak, arise from the depopulated state of the country, which presented an inviting residence: but God, who rules over all things, declares they were sent as a judgment.—C.
9 Those parts of Syria and Palestine which are now left without inhabitants—such as the heights of Lebanon and Hermon, the jungles of the Jordan valley, the woods and marshes of Bashan and Gilead, and even the desolate ruins of Caesarea and Ascalon—are infested with bears, panthers, wolves, wild swine, jackals, and hyenas.—P.
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 lpriests 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.1
l Ju.17.13. 1 Ki.12.31. 2 Ch.11.13. Ro.16.18.
1 The heathen all believed, and still do believe, in local and tutelary gods; nay, in gods opposing one another in favour of one place, and seeking or effecting the destruction of another. Accordingly, the king of Assyria does not deny the deity of Jehovah, but sends a priest to propitiate him by sacrifice, and instruct the people in the rites of his worship, not believing him to be alone God, but admitting him as the local and tutelary God of Palestine.—C.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el,m and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29 Howbeit every nation nmade gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the oSamaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
n ver.30,31, Ro.1.23. 1 Co.8.5. Is.44.9-20. Ps. 115.4-8. Mi.4.5.
30 Andp the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth,2 and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,3
p ver.24;ch.18.34.
2 'Tents of the daughters,' for the licentious worship of the Babylonian Mylitta, to whom, according to Herodotus, prostitution was an acceptable service. Such was, such is, heathenism.—C.
3 Nergal, Ashima, Nibhaz, Tartak. Nothing certain is known but the names of these abominations; but conjoined with what is known of others, the impure nature of their worship may be certainly inferred.—C.
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech,4 the gods of Sepharvaim.
4 Molech under two names, the first signifying 'mighty, illustrious,' the second most probably the 'answerer.'—C.
32 So they qfeared the LORD,5 and made unto themselves of the rlowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
r 1 Ki.12.31;13.33.
5 Not with the filial fear which arises from the knowledge of God's mercy, Ps. 130.4; but with slavish fear, which arises from a feeling of his judgments. Thus they feared Jehovah, but served their false gods, ver. 33.—C.
33 They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.6
A.M. 3326. B.C. 678.
6 Or, who carried them away from thence.
34 Unto this day they do after sthe 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, twhom he named Israel;
s De.28.64. ver.8,12, 16,17,41.
t Ge.32. 28; 35. 10. 1 Ki.18.31.
35 With whom the LORD had umade 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, xwho brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye yfear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
x 1 Ki.8. 9. Ex. 6. 6; vii.-xiv. Ne. 9. 10, 11. De.5.15. Je.32.21.
37 Andz the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and aye 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 bthey did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
b ver.14. 2 Ch.36.16.
41 So these nations cfeared the LORD,7 and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.8
c ver.25,32. Zep.1.5. Jos.24.19. Re.3.15,16.
7 These nations formed the people afterwards called Samaritans When Cyrus permitted the Jews to return, these mixed and commingled people wished to join with Zerubbabel in building the temple, and his refusal, together with the heathenism the Samaritans still retained, laid the foundations of that national enmity which subsisted in the time of our Lord, and only ceased when Jews and Samaritans were alike swept from the land they had defiled.—C.
8 B.C. 450.
Notes
[Ver. 6. The Israelites when taken captive were settled 'in Halah, and in Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.' Gozan was a province of Mesopotamia, called by Ptolemy Gausanitis. It lay along the southern base of Mount Masius, and embraced the regions watered by the upper Khabûr and Jerujer rivers, to the ranges of Sinjar and Hamma. The province of Halah lay along the banks of the upper Khabûr, extending from its source at Ras el-Ain, to its junction with the Jerujer. One of the mounds on the bank of this river, marking the site of an ancient city, bears the name of Kalah. 'Habor, the river of Gozan,' is identical with the modern Khabûr, which rises in lat. 36° 40′, lon. 40°, and flows eastward to its junction with the Jerujer. The united streams form the lower Khabûr. It is a remarkable fact that down as late as the 12th century there were large Jewish communities dwelling on the banks of the Khabûr. P.]
Ver. 16. [The word rendered 'grove' in this verse and verse 10 is Ashara, and is generally the proper name of the Phœnician goddess Astarte, sometimes called Ashtoreth, the companion and consort of Baal. But the word is also frequently employed to signify the image of the goddess (in the plural images), which was set up either in a temple or on some sacred hill. The meaning grove, which has been adopted from the Septuagint and Vulgate versions, is altogether unsuitable here. The signification is 'an image of Astarte.' P.]
Ver. 17. [Divination. Various pretended methods of prying into futurity, such as an examination of the entrails of sacrificed animals, the flight of birds, palmistry.—Enchantments. The various impostures in which the eyes are deceived by great dexterity, or the mind subdued by the wonderful effects produced by the concealed knowledge of natural causes, also various pretended secret means of acquiring affection or inflicting revenge.—Sold themselves to do evil. These pretended arts were, and even in Christian lands still are, practised for money, especially by the people called Gipsies, whom happily, at last, Christian care is beginning to reach and settle in fixed habitations and useful employments. C.—Sold themselves. We find the same kind of expression in Ro. 7. 14: 'I am carnal, sold under sin.' Now the Hebrew and Greek words in these places signify primarily 'to sell;' but according to the idiom of these languages, a man who gave himself up to any course of action, or to any form of sin, was said to sell himself. But the English word to sell can have no such latitude of meaning. The proper rendering therefore would be, 'they gave themselves up to do evil.' P.]
Ver. 29. [It has been generally supposed that the Samaritans were a mixed race of Jews and Gentiles. Such was not the case. They were wholly of Gentile origin. Strangers in blood, they were merely instructed in some of the leading points of the Jewish religion, which they observed while they retained their own national deities. They received the Pentateuch as their revelation; and their reverence for this sacred book eventually led them to renounce their idolatry. In after-times the Jews refused to acknowledge them in any way, and would not permit them to assist in building the second temple. Being cast off by the Jews, the Samaritans erected a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim about the year B.C. 420. Shechem became the metropolis of the sect, and was for a time an asylum for all apostate Jews. Enmity was thus fostered between Jews and Samaritans, which has survived the lapse of ages, and is at this day almost as strong as ever. P.]
Reflections.—God tries men with lesser judgments before he strikes the final blow. But such as continue selling themselves to the service of sin will at last share its wages in ruin. How wisely God times his tremendous judgments!—In the days of a king better than his fellows, and even by his treachery to a tyrant, the nation is plunged into misery and ruin.
What an exact account God keeps of men's sin and every aggravation of it! He marks against what mercies, warnings, and judgments it has been committed; and in what different forms: and what influence it has had in the seduction of others. And certain, however slow, is the destruction of apostates from God; and even at distant periods God is preparing for it. Great is the instability of earthly settlements: and who knows whither the Lord may toss us in life? Yet men carry their sins closely with them, go where they will. And easily can God punish those who pollute what belongs to him with their wickedness. Lions and all other creatures are at his call. Satan and men's lusts often quit a part that they may not be obliged to give up their whole power and honour. But no external instructions, warnings, mercies, or judgments will reform sinners from the false or medley religions which themselves have invented. While the religion of Jesus scarcely continues pure for an age, the religion of the devil can flourish with most for many ages together.