2 Kings 17

2 Kings 17:1-6

In this chapter we have, 1. The captivity of the ten tribes, ver. 1—6. 2. Reminds upon it, and the conly, of it, ver. 7—23. 3. An account of the nations which succeeded them, and their religion, ver. 24—41.

Hofhea, the last of Israel’s kings, lost with shame the throne he had ascended by perfidy and murder. It was nine years on the way fixed in the throne; or perhaps he reigned at first only as viceroy to the king of Affyria, and his reign is dated from his withdrawing himself from his service. We have here.

1. Israel become tributary, as a prelude to their final destruction. Though their king was not so bad as his predecessor, the people continued as bad as ever; and therefore God sold them into the hand of Shalmanaezer. Note, (1.) God tries to offer judgments before he strikes the final blow. (2.) They who fell themselves to the service of sin, will find the wages of it shortly to be eternal ruin.

2. Utterly destroyed and dispersed. Hofhea, by the help of So, king of Ethiopia, rebelled against the king of Affyria; but he suffered for his fasthood: his country’s ravaged, his capital besieged, and, after three years resistance, taken; himself made prisoner; and, effectually to prevent any future revolt, all the people of any note carried away captive, and dispersed in the north of Affyria, and in the cities of Media; whilst colonies of Affyrians are put in possession of their fruitful land, under whom the remainder of this miserable nation might be husbandmen and vice-dressers, and serve, in other mental employments, their proud conquerors. What guilty nation sinning against gospel grace, need not tremble, that reads the catastrophe of God’s once favoured people?

Thus ended the kingdom of Israel, which, from its commencement under Jeroboam, had continued two hundred and fifty-five years.

7. For so it was, that the children of Israel had finned 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 statues of the heathen, (whom

the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel) before Christ and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly these 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 images 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 wrongly 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, ‘by all the prophets, and by all the feers, 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 hardest their necks, like to the neck of their faithers, 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 restitutencies which he testified against them, and they followed vanity, and ‘became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, swearing 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 statues 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 drove 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 Affyria, unto this day.

2 Kings 17:7-23

To vindicate the ways of God to man, and open the causes why Israel was thus abandoned to ruin, the sacred historian, after relating their dispersion, declares the just reasons of God’s procedure.

1. Their sins had provoked his judgment, great, numberless, aggravated, and incorrigible.

(1.) Beef ingratitude. God, had rescued them from the iron bondage of Egypt; after many wonderful interpositions, had bestowed on them the land of the heathen; and, to crown all, had given them the plainest direction for their conduct, and the most glorious promises to encourage their obedience. But all would not engage their hearts to him; they forget the God of their mercies, and turned from him to idols.

(2.) Wilful disobedience. They rejected God’s covenant, v. 15. left all his commandments, v. 16. and sold themselves to work wickedness, v. 17. as slaves by willing choice to their lusts: and if for a time restrained, through fear or shame, from open and avowed impiety, they still in secret indulged their abandoned hearts, and continued as bad as ever.

(3.) Greal idolatry. Of all their sins this was most provoking: against it they had received especial warnings; and, because of it, had sent God’s heavy judgments on the heathen. Yet, they not only learned their ways, but became more than the idolaters they imitated. They readily kissed the calves the wicked Jeroboam erected; adopted all their neighbours gods, v. 15. worshipped the hosts of heaven, the sin, moon, and planets; yea, so mad were they upon their idols, that there was not a grove, or a spreading tree scarcely, without an image under it. Every city, yea, every village, even to the meanest watch-tower, had its hill-altar, till they were multiplied as heaps in the furrows of the field, Hof. xii. 11. There they offered incense to these strange gods; and so lost to natural af-

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before Chord 787. section, so befooted were they in their adulterous rage after their abominations, that their very children were led through the fires, or burnt in them, to honour these diabolical deities. Lord, what is man?

(4.) Hardmed incristigibness. Prophet after prophet did God raise up to warn them, v. 17. and, to enforce the word of their mouth, he smote them with the sword of his corrections; but under both they proved alike impetuous. They regarded not the warning voice, nor repeated under the stroke of judgment. Therefore, when every method of recovery was fruitless,

2. God removed them out of his fight, according to the word of his prophets. The rod of his anger was the Affyrian, but the deft-action was from the Almighty.

3. Judah is glanced at in this catalogue of sins, v. 19. as having learned of their brethren, which was an aggravation of Israel’s sin. But let Judah be warned by their sufferings to repent, left evil also overtake them.

4. ¶ And the king of Affyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, ‘intitued of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. 25. And ye it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which flew some of them. 26. Wherefore they spake to the king of Affyria, 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 Affyria 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 ‘Beth-el, 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 Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Athima. 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. Upon 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 bore 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.

2 Kings 17:24-41

What a change hath this unhappy land undergone! Strangers devour it. We have here.

1. The persons whom the king of Affyria sent to occupy the land of Israel from Babylon. See, who dwelt in the cities of Samaria, and entered into the defolate heritage of God’s people.

2. God’s visitation upon them. Lions, which were common on the banks of Jordan, are sent to chastise those strangers. So

easily could God make their abode too hot to hold them. Note, If God let loose the old raging lion upon the soul, then, woe to the sinner.

3. Concluding Israel’s God, whom they regarded as a topical deity, offended, because they knew not the manner of his worship, they send to Affyria their complaints; and one of Jeroboam’s priests is sent them, who took up his residence at Beth-el, the seat of the calves. He taught them probably the law of Moses, so far as the outward ritual went; but did not oppose, or could not prevail on them to forklare their idols; so that there was a strange medley of religion, whilst in general they observed the Jewish rites and festivals, conferring priests of the people in common for their sacrifices, as Jeroboam had done; yet every nation kept its own unstar gods, and sacrificed to them in the high places. The names of these gods are preferred, but their significations are very dubious. Succoth-benoth is thought to be the godless Venus; the rest, different names of the Sun, according to the different manifestations under which these nations worshipped him. This mungrel superstition continued long, at least till the time of Alexander the Great, and was not quite abolished, even to our Savour’s time. See John iv. 22.

4. A short account is given of those who went into captivity. Not the least altered by their sufferings. They did after their former manner, v. 40. a reproach to the name of Israel, which they bore; ungrateful to their great benefactor, rebellious against his word, rooted in idolatry, and therefore left to perish, left and incorporated in the idolatrical nations, among whom they dwelt. Note, They whom no judgments can reclaim, must perish without remedy.