2 Kings 17

2 Kings 17:1

Y. King Hoshea of Israel (17:1-6)Hoshea the son of Elah was king of Israel for nine years (732/31723/22 B.C.). 17:1, 2 We come now to the final king and the ninth and final dynasty of Israel. Hoshea killed Pekah (cf. 2Ki_15:30), perhaps because of his inability to resist Assyria’s inroads into Israel, and took the reins of government. He was not as wicked as his predecessors, but the nation had gone too farhis improvements were too late. 17:3-6 Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, marched against Samaria and made Hoshea pay tribute. Hoshea conspired with the king of Egypt against Assyria and reneged on his payment of tribute. Therefore the king of Assyria (either Shalmaneser or Sargon, his successor) imprisoned Hoshea, besieged . . . Samaria . . . for three years, and carried some of the people into captivity. We are not told Hoshea’s fate; he simply disappears into an Assyrian prison, leaving Samaria without a king during her last days. The final fall of Israel took place in 723 or 722 B.C.

2 Kings 17:7

Z. The Fall of the Northern Kingdom (17:7-41)17:7-23 These verses explain the underlying reasons why God was displeased with Israel and allowed the nation to be conquered and exiled. They had feared other gods, . . . walked in the customs of the nations, . . . built for themselves high places, . . . sacred pillars, and wooden images (Asherim) everywhere, and multiplied their idolatry. They refused to listen to His prophets but stiffened their necks and refused to believe the word of the LORD their God. They turned their backs on God’s commandments and adopted the man-made religion of their neighbors. They were zealous in their pursuit of evil, offering their sons and daughters to false gods. 17:24, 25 The king of Assyria carried the ten northern tribes of Israel away to Mesopotamia and Media. Also, he brought people from five other nations which he had conquered and placed them in the land of Israel. Earlier, when Israel obeyed the Lord, He drove out the heathen nations and settled His people in Canaan by the hand of Joshua. When they stopped listening to Jehovah, He drove them out and brought the nations back in by the hand of the king of Assyria. These pagan people worshiped their own heathen deities and thus brought themselves under God’s displeasure, especially since they were now living in Immanuel’s land. The Lord’s anger was revealed when He sent lions among them which roamed through the land, killing some of the people. 17:26-28 Someone notified the king of Assyria that the plague of lions was caused by the presence of these foreigners who did not know the law of the God of Israel. The king of Assyria then ordered an Israelite priest to be returned from captivity for the purpose of instructing the heathen colonists how they should fear the Lord. The priest who returned was likely one of the idolatrous priests of Israel, not a true priest of Jehovah. He went to Bethel, the seat of calf-worship (although the calf was no longer there), and taught the new inhabitants the polluted religion of Jeroboam, which included, but was in no way limited to, the worship of Jehovah. These foreign colonists intermarried with the Israelites in the land, and this produced the people known as Samaritansa mixed ethnic group with its own religion and customs. 17:29-34a These verses seem to describe the foreign settlers in the land. Each nationality had its own . . . gods and appointed . . . priests from among its own people. They also adopted the worship of Jehovah, and the result was a mixed religion, which was worse than out-and-out paganism. 17:34b-40 The section from verse 34b (“they do not fear the LORD . . .”) through verse 40 seems to describe the Israelites who remained in the land. They did not heed the repeated warnings of the Lord against idolatry but continued to worship the golden calves. 17:41 This refers back to the foreign settlers in the land. They appeared to be less guilty than Israel. With what little light they had, they feared the LORD after a fashion; but the ten tribes, with all the light they had, did not fear the LORD (v. 34b). As far as we know the ten tribes never returned to the land. They are scattered throughout the world. Perhaps they include the black Falasha Jews of Ethiopia, the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng-Fu, and the Cochin Jews of India. Their identity is not hidden from God; He will bring them back to Israel in a coming day. The prophet Hosea’s ministry probably ended at this timethat is, with the fall of Samaria and the captivity of Israel.