2 Kings 17
OGC2 Kings 17:1-6
III. THE ASSYRIAN DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL AND THE DEPORTATION OF THE TEN TRIBES 17:1-41
Chapter 17 relates the sad story of how the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrian superpower. After narrating the political facts relating to the reign of the last king of Israel (2 Kings 17:1-6), the author of Kings undertakes a lengthy explanation of why the calamity of captivity befell this portion of God’s covenant people (2 Kings 17:7-23). The author then describes the syncretistic practices of the foreigners who were forced to repopulate Samaria (2 Kings 17:24-41).
A. HOSHEA: THE LAST KING OF ISRAEL 17:1-6
**TRANSLATION
(1) In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel; and he reigned for nine years. (2) And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, only not like the kings of Israel who were before him. (3) Against him Shalmaneser king of Assyria went up, and Hoshea became a servant to him and rendered to him tribute. (4) And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea because he had sent messengers unto So king of Egypt; and he brought 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) And the king of Assyria went up in all the land, and went up to Samaria, and laid siege to it for three years. (6) In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, took Israel captive to Assyria, and made them dwell in Halah, and in Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.**
Nineteenth King of Israel HOSEA BEN ELAH 732-722 B.C. (Deliverer)
2 Kings 15:30; 17:1-6
Synchronism Hoshea 1 = Jotham 20
Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.
COMMENTS
Hoshea came to the throne in 732 B.C., the twentieth year of Jotham (2 Kings 15:30) and the twelfth year of the coregency of Ahaz (2 Kings 17:1).[590] He reigned for some nine years over the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17:1). Like his predecessors, Hoshea did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He continued the apostate calf worship, leaned upon the arm of flesh, and turned a deaf ear to the voice of God’s prophets. But he was not guilty of any special wickedness like some of those who had occupied that throne before him (2 Kings 17:2). When Tiglath-pileser died, Hoshea tried to regain his independence by withholding the annual tribute money. But the new king, Shalmaneser, came up against him and forced him to resume his position of Assyrian tributary.[591] These events probably transpired in the year 727 B.C.
[590] For a discussion of the problem in this synchronism, see the special study at the conclusion of the next chapter. [591] This may have been the time when Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle (Hosea 10:14), defeating Hoshea near that place and taking the city.
Though forced back into the Assyrian orbit, Hoshea searched for some means by which he might extricate himself. Grasping at straws, he was persuaded to enter alliance with a certain King So of Egypt. This So is probably to be identified with Sib-’e, a commander of one of the small monarchies of the Egypt delta.[592] King So must have made certain commitments to Hoshea. With this backing the Israelite monarch tried once again to withhold tribute from Shalmaneser. This act of rebellion brought down the wrath of the Assyrian upon Samaria. The text as it stands gives the impression that Hoshea may have gone out to meet Shalmaneser to sue for peace and pardon. He was then arrested and imprisoned (2 Kings 17:4).[593]
[592] J. A. Wilson, So, IDB, vol. R-Z, p. 394. Gray (OTL, p. 642) thinks So is not a person, but a placethe Egyptian capital of this period, Sais. The Hebrew text as it stands suggests that a person is intended.
[593] Others think that 2 Kings 17:4 gives the ultimate result, and 2 Kings 17:5-6 the details of how that result came about.
The king of Assyria came with a vast army to besiege the kingless capital of the country. According to the Hebrew mode of reckoning parts of years as full years, the siege lasted three years. Actually the siege need not have lasted longer than one full year and parts of two other ones, i.e., a little over one year. Samaria held out as long as it could, awaiting the promised aid from Egypt (2 Kings 17:5). Finally in 722 B.C. Samaria fell to the king of Assyria, either Shalmaneser, or to Sargon who claimed the throne that same year.[594] The Assyrian records relate that 27,290 persons were carried captive from Samaria, and doubtlessly many others from smaller villages round about. These captives were taken and distributed in the distant eastern provinces of the Assyrian empire.
[594] In various texts Sargon claims to have captured Samaria. However A. T. Olmstead makes a strong case that Shalmaneser was still king at the time the city fell. The Fall of Samaria, AJSL, XXI (1904, 5), 179-82.
2 Kings 17:7-23
B. EXPLANATION OF THE CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL 17:7-23
**TRANSLATION
(7) And it came to pass because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God who brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; but they feared other gods. (8) And they walked In the statutes of the nations which the LORD had driven out from before the children of Israel, and (hi the customs of) the kings of Israel which they had introduced. (9) And the children of Israel did secretly the things which were not right against the LORD then- God, and built for themselves high places in all their cities from the tower of the watchmen unto the fortified city. (10) And they set up for themselves pillars and Asherim upon every high hill and under every green tree. (11) And they burned incense there in all the high places like the nations which the LORD had carried away from before them; and did evil things to provoke the LORD. (12) And they served idols which the LORD had said to them, Do not do this evil thing. (13) Yet the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah by the hand of all His prophets and all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes and all the instruction which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent unto you by the hand of My servants the prophets. (14) Yet they did not hearken, but hardened their necks like the neck of their fathers who did not believe in the LORD then- God. (15) And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they followed after vanity and became vain, and acted like the nations which were round about them concerning which the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. (16) And they forsook all the commands of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images, two calves, and they made an Asherah, and they worshiped all the host of the heavens, and served Baal. (17) And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD to provoke Him. (18) And the LORD became exceedingly angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; not one was left except the tribe of Judah alone. (19) Also Judah did not keep the commands of the LORD their God, and walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. (20) And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of spoilers until He had cast them from before Him. (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 to commit a great sin. (22) And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not turn from it. (23) Until the LORD removed Israel from His sight as He had spoken by the hand of all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away captive from off their land to Assyria until this day.
COMMENTS**
In 2 Kings 17:7-23 the writer ceases to be mere historian and becomes a prophetic teacher, interpreting for future generations the calamitous fall of the Northern Kingdom. 2 Kings 17:7-12 contain a general statement of Israel’s wickedness. After God had delivered his people from the oppression in Egypt they had taken up the worship of other gods (2 Kings 17:7). They followed the statutes of the heathen, i.e., their customs and religious observances, even though it was these very statutes which caused the Holy God to order the Canaanite nations driven from that land. The kings of the Northern Kingdom had also been a negative influence upon the people as a whole, introducing into the nation the apostate calf worship as a substitute for the pure worship which the Lord had ordained to be conducted in Jerusalem (2 Kings 17:8).
In secret, i.e., private, the Israelites participated in all kinds of rites which were not pleasing to the Lord. High places were built throughout the land in open violation of the divine command that there be one Temple and one altar. The proverbial expression, from the tower of the watchman to the fortified city (2 Kings 17:9), means from the smallest and most solitary place to the largest and most populous. Stone pillars such as used in heathen symbolism were set up along with Asherim (not groves as in KJV), the wooden poles emblematic of the female deity Asherah (2 Kings 17:10). The worship in the high places followed the pattern of Canaanite worship with the offering of incense (2 Kings 17:11). By these actions the men of Israel were indicating their allegiance to the idols. The word for idols in 2 Kings 17:12 is a term of derision rarely used except by Ezekiel. The basic meaning of gillulim seems to be something like things of dung or odorous ones.
In spite of the blatant apostasy of Israel, God graciously continued to plead with them and warn them through His spokesmen. Prophets and seers are terms used interchangeably in the Old Testament (cf. 1 Samuel 9:9). One thinks of the ministries of Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings 14:2); Jehu the son of Hanani who prophesied concerning Baasha (1 Kings 16:1); Elijah and Micaiah who were active during the reign of Ahab; Elisha who bore testimony during the first half of the Jehu dynasty; Jonah and Amos who ministered during the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II; and Hosea who labored the last half-century of Israel’s history. In Judah one thinks of Shemaiah who was contemporary with the first king of the Divided Monarchy; of Micah and Isaiah who labored in the eighth century; and of a whole host of lesser known prophets mentioned by the Chronicler.[595] All of these men of God pleaded urgently with the inhabitants of the land to heed the divinely revealed Law of Moses (2 Kings 17:13). But in spite of these efforts the people continued to harden their necks, i.e., to be obstinate, just as their stiff-necked fathers who failed God so often in the period of the wilderness wanderings (2 Kings 17:14). Rejecting the statutes of God, the people of Israel had in effect rejected the covenant with God into which they had entered at Mt. Sinai (cf. Exodus 19:5-8). His testimoniesthose commandments which witness of Him and reveal His naturethey also rejected. The people chose to follow vanity, the empty, futile, impotent pagan gods, and as a result they themselves became vain, i.e., impotent. Whereas God had commanded and expected His people to be separate and distinct from all nations, they chose instead to follow the way of the heathen (2 Kings 17:15).
[595] E.g., Iddo (2 Chronicles 13:22); Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1); Hanani (2 Chronicles 16:7); Jehu (2 Chronicles 19:2); Jahaziel (2 Chronicles 20:14); Eliezer (2 Chronicles 20:37); Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20).
The inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom forsook the commands of the Lord and made for themselves molten images, viz., the two calves. How devoted they were to these symbols of their apostate worship! Every king of Israel had maintained the calf cult, and Bethel had become known as the king’s chapel (Amos 7:13). In the days of Ahab, Phoenician deities were introduced alongside the apostate calf worship, and for a time both Baal and his consort Asherah had companies of prophets in Samaria. At some stage, astral deities had been introduced into Israelthe host of heavenworship of the various planets. Such worship must have been imported from Mesopotamia (2 Kings 17:16). With the pagan deities came the pagan practiceschild immolation (see 2 Kings 16:3), and various magical practices (see 2 Kings 9:22). They had sold themselves to do evil with the deliberate intention, it would seem, of provoking the Lord (2 Kings 17:17). When their cup of iniquity was full, God’s wrath, long restrained, descended upon them. God removed them out of His sight. They were cast off, removed from their land, and declared no longer to be the people of God (Hosea 1:9). Judah alone was left to become God’s peculiar people (2 Kings 17:18).
By God’s grace the Southern Kingdom was preserved for a few short years after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. But Judah rejected the commandments of the Lord for the statutes of Israel, i.e., the Baal worship and all the vile practices connected with it (2 Kings 17:19). The only sin of Israel not attested in Judah is that of the calf worship. Since God is no respecter of persons, He rejected all the seed of IsraelJudah as well as Israeland afflicted them by the hand of foreign oppressorsthe Arameans, the Assyrians and finally the Chaldeans. The spoilers would include in addition to the powers just mentioned, the neighboring nations which took advantage of the weakness of Israel and Judah and attacked and plundered them. This divine program of harassment and humiliation lasted until Judah as well as Israel had been removed from God’s land and God’s favor (2 Kings 17:20).
The rejection and punishment of all the seed of Israel took place in two great stages. God had torn the ten Northern tribes away from the house of David in the schism of 931 B.C. Those tribes had made Jeroboam the son of Nebat their king. The political separation alone might not have had any ill result. But under the leadership of Jeroboam the Northern Kingdom fell into religious apostasy. The calf worship introduced by this king had the effect of driving the people of the Northern tribes away from strict obedience to the Lord (2 Kings 17:21). Throughout the history of the Northern Kingdom, the people continued to walk in the sins of Jeroboam which, in addition to the golden calves, also included the appointment of priests who were not of the seed of Aaron (1 Kings 13:33). Even in the reform movement of Jehu in 841 B.C. no effort was made to correct this basic apostasy (2 Kings 17:22). Warnings of punishment and deportation had been given by all the prophets of God by Moses (Deuteronomy 4:26-27), Ahijah (1 Kings 14:15-16), Amos (2 Kings 7:17), Hosea (2 Kings 9:3; 2 Kings 9:7), and others. The inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom experienced the fate of which they had been warned. They were carried away in large numbers to the far reaches of the Assyrian empire where they were still residing at the time the Book of Kings was compiled (2 Kings 17:23).[596]
[596] A great deal of speculation has arisen about the fate of these Northern tribes. Many of these people returned with Zerubbabel to Palestine in 538 B.C. and others with Ezra in 458 B.C. (See Ezra 2:70; Ezra 3:1; Ezra 6:16-17; Ezra 7:13; Ezra 8:35; 1 Chronicles 9:2-3; Zechariah 8:13). Those who remained in the lands of the captivity either united with the Jewish colonies which were later established there, or else they simply adopted fully the practices of the heathen, intermarried with them, and disappeared as a distinct group.
2 Kings 17:24-41
B. THE REPOPULATION OF SAMARIA 17:24-41
**TRANSLATION
(24) And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in her cities. (25) And it came to pass at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. And the LORD sent against them lions which slew some of them. (26) And they said to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which you carried away and caused to dwell in the cities of Samaria do not know the manner of the God of the land, and He has sent among them lions; and behold they are killing them because they do not know the manner of the God of the land. (27) And the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Cause one of the priests which you carried away from there to go there, and let them go and dwell there that he may teach them the manner of the God of the land. (28) And one of the priests who had been carried away from Samaria came, and dwelled in Bethel, and taught them how they might fear the LORD. (29) But each nationality made its own gods; and they put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, each nationality in the cities where they were dwelling. (30) And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, 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 continued to bum their children in fire to Adremmelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. (32) So they feared the LORD, while they made for themselves from the lowest of them priests of the high places who made offerings for them in the houses of the high places. (33) They feared the LORD, while they served their own gods according to the manner of the nations from which they were carried away. (34) Unto this day they are doing according to the former manner; they do not fear the LORD, neither do they do after their statutes and their judgments, or the instruction and commandments which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob whom He named Israel. (35) And the LORD made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, Do not fear other gods, and do not bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them, (36) But the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great strength and outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him bow down, and to Him make sacrifice. (37) And the statutes and the judgments and the instruction and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods. (38) And the covenant which I made with you, do not forget, and do not fear other gods. (39) But fear the LORD your God, and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies. (40) Yet they did not hearken, but did according to their former manner. (41) So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images; also their sons and the sons of their sons; as their fathers did, so do they unto this day.
COMMENTS**
In keeping with imperial policy, the Assyrian king replaced those Israelites taken into captivity with subjects from other parts of his empire. It would seem that this resettlement started not long after the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C.[597] Five areas are named as having furnished the foreign settlers of Samaria. Babylon and its near neighbor Cuthah were conquered by Sargon in 709 B.C. Hamath on the Orontes river fell to Sargon in 720 B.C. and its inhabitants were carried off. The location of Ava and Sepharvaim is disputed, some scholars feeling they were Mesopotamian towns, and others, that they were located in Syria.[598] The Assyrian policy of national transplantation which had been introduced by Tiglath-pileser was practiced on an even larger scale by Sargon. By separating people from their native lands and from their leadership, the Assyrians hoped to be able to prevent rebellions from subject peoples (2 Kings 17:24).
[597] In his annals Sargon mentions deporting people from Mesopotamia to the Hatti land (Syria-Palestine) in his first year of reign (721 B.C.). A similar repopulation of Samaria took place in his seventh year (715 B.C.). In the days of Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.) the resettlement of Samaria was still taking place (Ezra 4:2).
[598] In 2 Kings 18:34 Ivvah is probably the same as Ava here. It is there mentioned with various Syrian locations. That Sepharvaim is a Syrian town is suggested by 2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13.
The foreign colonists were ignorant of Yahweh and therefore neglected to pay Him the proper respect. To teach these idolaters a much-needed lesson, the Lord sent against them lions. These beasts are no longer found in Palestine, but apparently in antiquity they were quite numerous in this region. The rural areas of the Northern Kingdom had become so depopulated by war and deportation that conditions were favorable for the rapid increase of the lion population. Several of the colonists lost their lives (2 Kings 17:25) and the situation became a matter of grave concern. Word came to the Assyrian king along with the suggestion that the colonists needed to learn the proper ritual to perform in order to please the God of Israel and thus bring about the end of the lion plague (2 Kings 17:26). The king then ordered that one of the priests of Yahweh be sent back to instruct the colonists in the ways of the Lord. Since the priests were such prominent personages in ancient society, they had all been carried away to other parts of the Assyrian empire. While there was a remnant of Israel left in the land (2 Chronicles 34:9), they would not have been familiar with the details of the religious ritual practiced in the temples. This priest, along with his entourage (note the plural them in 2 Kings 17:27), returned to dwell in Bethel. He taught the new settlers to fear the Lord (2 Kings 17:28) by which is most certainly meant the perverted parody of the true worship practiced in Jerusalem. No positive evidence exists, however, that this priest set up a new calf image to replace the one which had been carried off to Assyria (Hosea 10:5).
Those who had settled in the region of Samaria were polytheists and, in spite of the teaching of the priest of Yahweh, they continued to worship their native deities. They set up their idols in the high places which had been constructed by the Samaritans (i.e., the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom) throughout their cities (2 Kings 17:29). The Babylonians worshiped Succoth-benoth which is generally regarded as a corruption of the name of the goddess who was the wife of Marduk, viz., Sarpanitu.[599] The men of Cuth (Cuthah of 2 Kings 17:24) continued to honor Nergal the god of war which was the titular deity of their native city. The colonists from Hamath worshiped Ashima, a deliberate misvocalization of Asherah, the name of the Canaanite mother goddess (2 Kings 17:30).
[599] This goddess was popularly titled Zir-banitu (seed-creating).
The names of the gods of the Avites are unfamiliar, but this is to be expected in view of the fact that nothing is known of the religion of that particular city. Nibhaz and Tartak may have been purely local gods, or they may have been local names for gods worshiped elsewhere under other appellations. The Sepharvites worshiped Adram-melech (the glorious king), which may have been a special title of Shamash the sun god. Anammelech (the arranging king) may be an intentional Hebrew corruption of the name of the goddess Anunit who was the consort of Shamash.[600] In honor of these particular gods, the Sepharvites committed the most abominable rite of antiquity, the sacrifice of their children (2 Kings 17:31).
[600] Gray (OTL, p. 655) thinks Anammelek means Anu (the Mesopotamian sky-god) is king.
It is in the very nature of polytheism to be syncretistic. Thus it is not strange to find that the foreign colonists in the territory of Samaria feared the Lord and served their own gods. To the author of Kings this mixed religion was so inexplicable and repugnant that he dwells upon it. While they feared, i.e., worshiped, the Lord, the Samaritans followed the apostate practice of recruiting priests from all ranks of society, even the lowest (cf. 1 Kings 12:31). These priests were willing to officiate in the illegitimate high places which were maintained contrary to the Law of Moses (2 Kings 17:32). The Samaritans continued to mix with this apostate Yahwism the worship to which they were accustomed prior to being transplanted by the Assyrian authorities to Samaria (2 Kings 17:33). At the time Kings was written, this syncretistic religion was still being practiced in the North.
While in an external sense the Samaritans feared the Lord (2 Kings 17:32-33; 2 Kings 17:41), in reality they did not, for genuine fear of the Lord demand the elimination of all who would rival His deity. Had these people really wanted to serve Yahweh they would have attended to their statutes and ordinances, i.e., the divine commandments which are binding upon all who would pretend to worship the Lord (2 Kings 17:34). With the children of Jacob (Israel), God had made a covenant in which He had stipulated that they should not worship any other god (2 Kings 17:35). All religious devotion belonged exclusively to Yahweh who had brought these people out of the land of their bondage (2 Kings 17:36). To all of His commandments they must forever give heed and never must they fear, i.e., serve, other gods (2 Kings 17:37). Never were they to forget that Sinai covenant (Exodus 19:5-8) which had been so solemnly ratified by the sprinkling of blood and by a covenant feast (Exodus 24:3-11). For the sake of emphasis again, the author reiterates that God’s people were not to fear other gods (2 Kings 17:38). God’s promise of deliverance and protection for His people was conditioned upon their faithfulness to Him (2 Kings 17:39). The colonists in Samaria refused to hearken to the warnings of the Law, but continued to maintain the syncretism described in 2 Kings 17:28-33.
The final verse of chapter 17 sums up the spiritual condition of the foreign colonists who were brought by the Assyrians to Samaria. They feared the Lord (externally) and at the same time continued to serve their graven images. In Mesopotamia the images of the gods generally assumed human form. The syncretistic worship of the Samaritans continued right down to the time of the author (2 Kings 17:41). But by the time of Christ, the Samaritans had become devoted followers of Yahweh and followers of the Law of Moses in most respects. To this day a small colony of these Samaritans still can be found in Nabulus Israel.