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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>2 Kings 17 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/2_kings/17.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/2_kings/17.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/2_kings/17-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../2_kings/">2 Kings</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../2_kings/16.htm" title="2 Kings 16">◄</a> 2 Kings 17 <a href="../2_kings/18.htm" title="2 Kings 18">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-1.htm">2 Kings 17:1</a></div><div class="verse">In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.</div>XVII.<p>THE REIGN OF HOSHEA, THE LAST KING OF SAMARIA. THE FALL OF SAMARIA. CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL, AND RE-PEOPLING OF THE LAND BY FOREIGNERS.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">In the twelfth year of Ahaz.</span>—If Pekah reigned thirty years (see Note on <a href="/2_kings/15-27.htm" title="In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years.">2Kings 15:27</a>), and Ahaz succeeded in Pekah’s seventeenth year (<a href="/2_kings/16-1.htm" title="In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.">2Kings 16:1</a>), Ahaz must have reigned thirteen years concurrently with Pekah. Hoshea, therefore, succeeded Pekah in the <span class= "ital">fourteenth</span> year of Ahaz.<p><span class= "bld">Began Hoshea.</span>—See the inscription of Tiglath Pileser, quoted at <a href="/2_kings/15-30.htm" title="And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.">2Kings 15:30</a>, according to which, Hoshea (<span class= "ital">A-u-si-ha</span>) only mounted the throne as a vassal of Assyria. On the news of the death of Tiglath, he probably refused further tribute.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-2.htm">2 Kings 17:2</a></div><div class="verse">And he did <i>that which was</i> evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">But not as</span> <span class= "bld">the kings of Israel that were before him.</span>—The preceding phrase is used of all the northern kings but Shallum, who only reigned a month, and had no time for the display of his religious policy. We can hardly assume that Hoshea abandoned the calf-worship of Bethel, but he may have discountenanced the <span class= "ital">cultus</span> of the Baals and Asheras. The <span class= "ital">Seder Olam</span> states that Hoshea did not replace the calf of Bethel, which, it assumes, had been carried off by the Assyrians in accordance with the prophecy of Hosea (<a href="/hosea/10-5.htm" title="The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.">Hosea 10:5</a>). We may remember that the last sovereigns of falling monarchies have not always been the worst of their line—<span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> Charles I. or Louis XVI.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-3.htm">2 Kings 17:3</a></div><div class="verse">Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria.</span>—Shalmaneser IV. (<span class= "ital">Shalmânu-ushshir, “</span>Shalman be gracious!”)<span class= "ital">,</span> the successor of Tiglath Pileser II., and predecessor of Sargon, reigned 727-722 B.C. No annals of his reign have come down to us in the cuneiform inscriptions, but a fragment of the Eponyra-list notes foreign expeditions for the three successive years 725-723 B.C. This agrees with what Menander states (Josephus, <span class= "ital">Ant. ix.</span> 14, 2), according to whom Shalmaneser made an expedition against Tyre (and no doubt Israel, as the ally of Tyre), which lasted <span class= "ital">five</span> years—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> was continued beyond Shalmaneser’s reign into that of Sargon. Nothing is known of the death of Shalmaneser.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-4.htm">2 Kings 17:4</a></div><div class="verse">And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as <i>he had done</i> year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Conspiracy</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> as is presently explained, a conspiracy with the king of Egypt against his suzerain. Shalmaneser regarded Hoshea, and probably the king of Egypt also, as his “servant” (<a href="/2_kings/17-3.htm" title="Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.">2Kings 17:3</a>). (Comp. <a href="/2_kings/12-20.htm" title="And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goes down to Silla.">2Kings 12:20</a> and <a href="/jeremiah/11-9.htm" title="And the LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.">Jeremiah 11:9</a>.) Thenius wishes to read “falsehood,” after the LXX., <span class= "greekheb">ἀδικίαν</span> (comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/19-18.htm" title="And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;">Deuteronomy 19:18</a>; <a href="/micah/6-12.htm" title="For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.">Micah 6:12</a>), a change involving transposition of two Heb. letters (<span class= "ital">sh</span>è<span class= "ital">qer</span> for <span class= "ital">q</span>è<span class= "ital">sher</span>)<span class= "ital">;</span> but the change is needless.<p><span class= "bld">So.</span>—The Hebrew letters should be pointed differently, so as to be pronounced <span class= "ital">S</span>è<span class= "ital">w</span>è<span class= "ital">,</span> or <span class= "ital">Sĕwē,</span> as this name corresponds to the Assyrian <span class= "ital">Shab’i,</span> and the Egyptian <span class= "ital">Shabaka,</span> the Greek <span class= "ital">Sabaco,</span> the first king of the 25th, or Ethiopian dynasty, whom Sargon defeated at Raphia in 720 B.C. Sargon calls him “prince,” or “ruler,; (<span class= "ital">shiltân</span>)<span class= "ital">,</span> rather than “king” of Egypt; and it appears that at this time Lower Egypt was divided among a number of petty principalities, whose recognition of any central authority was very uncertain—a fact which rendered an Egyptian alliance of little value to Israel. (See Isaiah 19, 20)<p><span class= "bld">Brought.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">offered.</span> The word elsewhere is always used of <span class= "ital">sacrifice.</span><p><span class= "bld">As he had done.</span>—Omit. The Hebrew phrase (<span class= "ital">according to a year, in a year</span>)<span class= "ital">,</span> which is not found elsewhere, denotes the regular payment of yearly dues. This Hoshea failed to discharge.<p><span class= "bld">Therefore . . . shut him</span> <span class= "bld">up.</span>—Comp. <a href="/jeremiah/33-1.htm" title="Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying,">Jeremiah 33:1</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/36-5.htm" title="And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:">Jeremiah 36:5</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/32-2.htm" title="For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.">Jeremiah 32:2-3</a>. This statement seems to imply that Shalmaneser took Hoshea prisoner <span class= "ital">before</span> the siege of Samaria: a supposition which finds support in the fact that Sargon, who ended the siege, makes no mention of the capture or death of the Israelite king.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-5.htm">2 Kings 17:5</a></div><div class="verse">Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Then</span> (<span class= "ital">and</span>) <span class= "bld">the king of Assyria came up . . . and besieged it three years.</span>—Sargon states that he took Samaria (<span class= "ital">Samer</span><span class= "greekheb">ί</span><span class= "ital">na</span>) in his <span class= "ital">first</span> year. Shalmaneser therefore had besieged the city some two years before his death.<p>The brief narrative before us does not discriminate between the respective shares of the two Assyrian sovereigns in the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, but it is noticeable that it does <span class= "ital">not</span> say that <span class= "ital">Shalmaneser</span> “besieged Samaria three years,” and “took Samaria.” (Comp. <a href="/2_kings/18-11.htm" title="And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel to Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:">2Kings 18:11</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-6.htm">2 Kings 17:6</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>by</i> the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">In the ninth year of Hosheathe king of Assyria took Samaria.</span>—Comp. <a href="/hosea/10-5.htm" title="The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.">Hosea 10:5</a> <span class= "ital">seq.;</span> <a href="/micah/1-6.htm" title="Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.">Micah 1:6</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/28-1.htm" title="Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!">Isaiah 28:1-4</a>. In the great inscription published by Botta, Sargon says: “The city of Samaria I assaulted, I took; 27,280 men dwelling in the midst thereof I carried off; 50 chariots among them I set apart (for myself), and the rest of their wealth I let (my soldiers) take; my prefect over them I appointed, and the tribute of the former king upon them I laid.”<p><span class= "bld">Placed them.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">made them dwell.</span> LXX.,<p><span class= "bld">In Halah.</span>—This place appears to be identical with <span class= "ital">Halahhu,</span> a name occurring in an Assyrian geographical list between <span class= "ital">Arrabha</span> (Arrapachitis) and <span class= "ital">Ratsappa</span> (Rezeph). It probably lay in Mesopotamia, like Rezeph and Gozan. (See Note on <a href="/1_chronicles/5-26.htm" title="And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, to this day.">1Chronicles 5:26</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">In Habor by the river of Gozan.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">on</span> <span class= "ital">Habor the river of Gozan.</span><p><span class= "bld">The cities of the Medes.-</span> The LXX. seems to have read “mountains of the Medes.” (Comp. Notes on <a href="/1_chronicles/5-26.htm" title="And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, to this day.">1Chronicles 5:26</a>, where “Hara and the river of Gozan” is probably the result of an inadvertent transposition of “The river of Gozan and Hara.”)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-7.htm">2 Kings 17:7</a></div><div class="verse">For <i>so</i> 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,</div>(7-23) <span class= "bld">REFLECTIONS OF THE LAST EDITOR ON THE MORAL CAUSES OF THE CATASTROPHE.</span><p>(7) <span class= "bld">For so it was.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">and it came to pass.</span><p><span class= "bld">Sinned against the Lord . . . Egypt.</span>—The claim of Jehovah to Israel’s exclusive fealty was from the outset based upon the fact that He had emancipated them from the Egyptian bondage—a fact which is significantly asserted as the preamble to Jehovah’s laws. (See <a href="/exodus/20-2.htm" title="I am the LORD your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.">Exodus 20:2</a>; and comp. <a href="/hosea/11-1.htm" title="When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.">Hosea 11:1</a>; <a href="/hosea/12-9.htm" title="And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.">Hosea 12:9</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Had feared other gods.</span>—Such as the Baals and Asheras of Canaan, which symbolised the productive powers of Nature, and, further, the heavenly bodies. Comp. <a href="/context/amos/5-25.htm" title="Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?">Amos 5:25-26</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/8-14.htm" title="Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.">Ezekiel 8:14</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/8-16.htm" title="And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.">Ezekiel 8:16</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-8.htm">2 Kings 17:8</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Statutes of the heathen . . . and of the kings of Israel.</span>—The national guilt was twofold. It comprised: (1) idolatry in the strict sense—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> worship of other gods than Jehovah; (2) a heathenish mode of worshipping Jehovah Himself—namely, under the form of a bullock, as Jeroboam I. had ordained. The term “statutes” means religious rules or ordinances. (Comp. <a href="/exodus/12-14.htm" title="And this day shall be to you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.">Exodus 12:14</a>, “statutes;” <a href="/leviticus/20-23.htm" title="And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.">Leviticus 20:23</a>, “manners;” <a href="/1_kings/3-3.htm" title="And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.">1Kings 3:3</a>, “ordinance.”)<p><span class= "bld">Which they had made</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the statutes which the kings of Israel had made. (Comp. <a href="/2_kings/17-19.htm" title="Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.">2Kings 17:19</a> <span class= "ital">b.</span>)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-9.htm">2 Kings 17:9</a></div><div class="verse">And the children of Israel did secretly <i>those</i> things that <i>were</i> 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.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Did secretly.</span>—The literal sense is <span class= "ital">covered.</span> In this connection it is natural to remember that Heb. verbs of <span class= "ital">covering</span> and <span class= "ital">hiding</span> are often used in the sense of dealing <span class= "ital">perfidiously</span> or <span class= "ital">deceitfully.</span> (Comp. <span class= "ital">mā’al,</span> l Chron. 10:13, with <span class= "ital">me’îl,</span> “mantle;” and <span class= "ital">bāgad,</span> “to deal treacherously,” <a href="/hosea/5-7.htm" title="They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.">Hosea 5:7</a>, with <span class= "ital">bèged,</span> “garment.”) The form in the text (the <span class= "ital">pihel</span> of <span class= "ital">‘hāphā</span>) is only found here.<p><span class= "bld">They built them high places.</span>—First, the institution of unlawful <span class= "ital">places</span> of worship.<p><span class= "bld">From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.</span>—The towers are such as are mentioned in <a href="/2_chronicles/26-10.htm" title="Also he built towers in the desert, and dig many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: farmers also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry.">2Chronicles 26:10</a>. Here, and in <a href="/2_kings/18-8.htm" title="He smote the Philistines, even to Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.">2Kings 18:8</a>, these solitary buildings, tenanted by a few herdsmen, are contrasted with the embattled cities which protected multitudes. Wherever men were, whether in small or large numbers, these high places were established.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-10.htm">2 Kings 17:10</a></div><div class="verse">And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Images and groves.</span>—<span class= "ital">Pillars and Asheras</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> sacred trunks.<p>The <span class= "ital">second</span> degree of guilt: the setting up of idolatrous symbols.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-11.htm">2 Kings 17:11</a></div><div class="verse">And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as <i>did</i> the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Wrought wicked things.</span>—Not merely idolatrous rites, but also the hideous immoralities which constituted a recognised part of the nature - worships of Canaan.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-12.htm">2 Kings 17:12</a></div><div class="verse">For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.</div>(12) F<span class= "bld">or they served idols.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">and they served the dunglings;</span> a term of contempt used in <a href="/1_kings/15-19.htm" title="There is a league between me and you, and between my father and your father: behold, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold; come and break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.">1Kings 15:19</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/29-16.htm" title="(For you know how we have dwelled in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;">Deuteronomy 29:16</a>, where see Note.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-13.htm">2 Kings 17:13</a></div><div class="verse">Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, <i>and by</i> all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments <i>and</i> my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Yet the Lord testified against Israel.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">And Jehovah adjured Israel</span> . . . The verb means here, <span class= "ital">gave solemn warning,</span> or <span class= "ital">charge.</span> In <a href="/2_kings/17-15.htm" title="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.">2Kings 17:15</a> it is repeated, with a cognate noun as object: “His testimonies which he testified against them;” or, <span class= "ital">his charges </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> precepts) <span class= "ital">which he had given them.</span><p><span class= "bld">By all the prophets, and by all the seers.</span>—The Hebrew text is, <span class= "ital">by the hand of all his prophets</span>—<span class= "ital">namely, every seer.</span> One or two MSS. and the Targum have <span class= "ital">prophet,</span> instead of <span class= "ital">his prophets.</span> The Syriac has “by the hand of all his servants the prophets, and all the seers.” The Vulg. and Arabic also have both nouns plural. Seers were such persons as, without belonging to the prophetic order, came forward in times of emergency upon a sudden Divine impulse. Thenius thinks Israel and Judah are mentioned together because the reference is to the time before the partition of the kingdom; more probably, because both apostatised, and prophets were sent to both.<p><span class= "bld">And which I sent</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., the law</span> which I sent. But—as according to later Jewish ideas, the prophets did not bring the Law, but only interpreted it—it seems better to understand with the Vulg. (“et sicut misi”) “<span class= "ital">and according to all</span> that I sent to you (<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> enjoined upon you) by my servants the prophets.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-14.htm">2 Kings 17:14</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Notwithstanding . . . hear.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">and they hearkened not.</span><p><span class= "bld">Necks.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">neck.</span> (Comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/10-16.htm" title="Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked.">Deuteronomy 10:16</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/17-23.htm" title="But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.">Jeremiah 17:23</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/36-13.htm" title="And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning to the LORD God of Israel.">2Chronicles 36:13</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Like to the neck.</span>—LXX. and Syriac, <span class= "ital">more than the neck.</span> One letter different in the Hebrew.<p><span class= "bld">Did not believe in the Lord their God.</span>—The reference is not to <span class= "ital">intellectual</span> but to <span class= "ital">moral</span> unbelief, evincing itself as disobedience. Vulg., “qui volerunt obediren.” They did not render the obedience of faith. (Comp. the use of <span class= "greekheb">ἀπειθεῖ ν</span> in the Greek Testament.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-15.htm">2 Kings 17:15</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>were</i> round about them, <i>concerning</i> whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">And they followed vanity, and became Vain.</span>—The same expression occurs in <a href="/jeremiah/2-5.htm" title="Thus said the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?">Jeremiah 2:5</a>. The word “vanity” (<span class= "ital">hèbel</span>) has the article. It denotes strictly <span class= "ital">breath;</span> and then that which is as <span class= "ital">transient</span> as a breath. (Comp. <a href="/job/7-16.htm" title="I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity.">Job 7:16</a>.) Here the idols and their worship are intended. The cognate verb, “became vain,” means “dealt (or, ‘talked;’ <a href="/job/27-12.htm" title="Behold, all you yourselves have seen it; why then are you thus altogether vain?">Job 27:12</a>) foolishly.” The LXX. has <span class= "greekheb">ἐματαιώθησαν</span><span class= "ital">.</span> (Comp. <a href="/romans/1-21.htm" title="Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.">Romans 1:21</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-16.htm">2 Kings 17:16</a></div><div class="verse">And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, <i>even</i> two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Molten images.</span>—<a href="/1_kings/12-28.htm" title="Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.">1Kings 12:28</a>. Literally, <span class= "ital">a casting.</span><p><span class= "bld">A grove.</span>—<span class= "ital">An Asherah</span> (<a href="/1_kings/14-23.htm" title="For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.">1Kings 14:23</a>; <a href="/1_kings/16-33.htm" title="And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.">1Kings 16:33</a>). Schlottmann writes: “That Ashera was only another name for the same supreme goddess (<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> Ashtoreth) is at once shown by the parallelism of ‘Baal and Ashtaroth’ (<a href="/judges/2-13.htm" title="And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.">Judges 2:13</a>) with ‘Baal and Asherim’ (the plural of Ashera) in <a href="/judges/3-7.htm" title="And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.">Judges 3:7</a>. In quite the same way Baal and Ashera stand side by side in <a href="/judges/6-28.htm" title="And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered on the altar that was built.">Judges 6:28</a>, <a href="/2_kings/23-4.htm" title="And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.">2Kings 23:4</a>; and in <a href="/1_kings/18-19.htm" title="Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table.">1Kings 18:19</a> the 450 prophets of the Baal and the 400 of the Ashera. further, in <a href="/2_chronicles/15-16.htm" title="And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.">2Chronicles 15:16</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/24-18.htm" title="And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.">2Chronicles 24:18</a>, the LXX. render Ashera by Astarte; and in other passages Aquila, Symmachus, and the Peshito do the same thing.” He then refers to <a href="/1_kings/14-23.htm" title="For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.">1Kings 14:23</a> and <a href="/isaiah/17-8.htm" title="And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.">Isaiah 17:8</a>; <a href="/isaiah/27-9.htm" title="By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.">Isaiah 27:9</a>, and continues: “according to these and many other passages, <span class= "ital">Ashera</span> was used as the designation of the commonest material representation of the goddess. It consisted of a block of wood, of considerable size (<a href="/judges/6-26.htm" title="And build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which you shall cut down.">Judges 6:26</a>), and resembling a tree, as is shown by the expressions used in connection with it, such as <span class= "ital">‘</span>setting up,’ ‘planting,’ and ‘cutting down’ (<a href="/2_kings/17-10.htm" title="And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:">2Kings 17:10</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-21.htm" title="You shall not plant you a grove of any trees near to the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you.">Deuteronomy 16:21</a>; <a href="/judges/6-28.htm" title="And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered on the altar that was built.">Judges 6:28</a>; <a href="/2_kings/18-4.htm" title="He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for to those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.">2Kings 18:4</a>, &c). In <a href="/isaiah/27-9.htm" title="By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.">Isaiah 27:9</a> the LXX. actually renders tree; ‘and so the Peshito in Deut. vi 21, <a href="/micah/5-13.htm" title="Your graven images also will I cut off, and your standing images out of the middle of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.">Micah 5:13</a>. Hence, we must not think of pillars like the Greek Hermae, but of a <span class= "ital">real trunk planted in the ground, rootless, but not branchless;</span> for which purpose pines and evergreens were preferred. The <span class= "ital">tree</span> signifies, according to an ancient and widespread conception, <span class= "ital">nature,</span> or <span class= "ital">the world,</span> which in this case stands as goddess at the side of the Baal——<span class= "ital">the lord</span> of the world. (Comp. the Norse tree, Yggdrasil, and the Assyrian sacred tree.) Hence, the Ashera was set up by the altar of Baal (<a href="/judges/6-28.htm" title="And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered on the altar that was built.">Judges 6:28</a>). (Comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/16-21.htm" title="You shall not plant you a grove of any trees near to the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you.">Deuteronomy 16:21</a>.)” Schlottmann adds that Movers is wrong in making Astarte and Ashera two different goddesses, the former being “the stern, cruel virgin,” the latter, “the goddess who excites to pleasure;” and he justly observes that, as in the case of Baal, the same deity may be conceived under contrary aspects (Riehm’s <span class= "ital">Handworterbuch Bibl. Alterthums,</span> pp. Ill—114). For the Hebrew conception of Astarte see <a href="/jeremiah/7-18.htm" title="The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.">Jeremiah 7:18</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/44-17.htm" title="But we will certainly do whatever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.">Jeremiah 44:17</a> <span class= "ital">seq.</span> Kuenen, <span class= "ital">Rel. of Isr. i.</span> 88 <span class= "ital">seq.,</span> agrees with Movers, but hardly proves his case.<p><span class= "bld">Worshipped all the host of heaven.</span>—<a href="/2_kings/21-3.htm" title="For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.">2Kings 21:3</a>; comp. <a href="/2_kings/23-4.htm" title="And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.">2Kings 23:4</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-17.htm">2 Kings 17:17</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">And they caused . . . fire.</span>—The <span class= "ital">cultus</span> of Moloch (<a href="/2_kings/16-3.htm" title="But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.">2Kings 16:3</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Used divination and enchantments.</span>—<a href="/deuteronomy/18-10.htm" title="There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.">Deuteronomy 18:10</a>; <a href="/numbers/23-23.htm" title="Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God worked!">Numbers 23:23</a>. “Divinationibus inserviebant et auguriis” (Vulg.).<p><span class= "bld">Sold themselves.</span>—Idolatry is regarded as a <span class= "ital">servitude.</span> (Comp. <a href="/1_kings/21-20.htm" title="And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy? And he answered, I have found you: because you have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.">1Kings 21:20</a>; <a href="/1_kings/21-25.htm" title="But there was none like to Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.">1Kings 21:25</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-18.htm">2 Kings 17:18</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Removed them out of his sight.</span>—By banishing them from his land (<a href="/2_kings/17-23.htm" title="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 to this day.">2Kings 17:23</a>)—an expression founded upon the old <span class= "ital">local</span> conceptions of deity.<p><span class= "bld">The tribe</span>—i.e., the kingdom. (Comp. <a href="/1_kings/11-36.htm" title="And to his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.">1Kings 11:36</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-19.htm">2 Kings 17:19</a></div><div class="verse">Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Also Judah kept not</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—Judah was no real or permanent exception to the sins and punishment of Israel; she imitated the apostasy of her sister-kingdom, and was visited with a similar penalty.<p><span class= "bld">The statutes of Israel which they made.</span>—See Note on <a href="/2_kings/17-8.htm" title="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.">2Kings 17:8</a> <span class= "ital">supra,</span> and comp. <a href="/micah/6-16.htm" title="For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels; that I should make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people.">Micah 6:16</a>, “the statutes of Omri.” According to <a href="/2_kings/8-27.htm" title="And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab.">2Kings 8:27</a>; <a href="/2_kings/16-3.htm" title="But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.">2Kings 16:3</a>, Ahaziah and Ahaz especially favoured the idolatry practised in the northern kingdom. The example of her more powerful neighbour exercised a fatally powerful spell upon Judah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-20.htm">2 Kings 17:20</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel.</span>—Thenius prefers the reading of the LXX. “and rejected the Lord (as in the last clause of <a href="/2_kings/17-19.htm" title="Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.">2Kings 17:19</a>), and the Lord, was angry with all the seed of Israel,” &c. It thus becomes plain that the writer goes back to <a href="/2_kings/17-18.htm" title="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.">2Kings 17:18</a>, after the parenthesis relating to Judah. “Israel” is used in the narrow sense in those verses.<p><span class= "bld">Into</span> <span class= "bld">the</span> <span class= "bld">hand of spoilers</span>—<span class= "ital">e.g.,</span> the Syrians (<a href="/2_kings/10-32.htm" title="In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel;">2Kings 10:32</a>;) and the Assyrians (<a href="/2_kings/15-19.htm" title="And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.">2Kings 15:19</a>; <a href="/2_kings/15-29.htm" title="In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.">2Kings 15:29</a>; <a href="/2_kings/17-3.htm" title="Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.">2Kings 17:3</a>. The writer probably remembered <a href="/judges/2-14.htm" title="And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.">Judges 2:14</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-21.htm">2 Kings 17:21</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">For he rent</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—The verse assigns the <span class= "ital">fons et origo mali;</span> it makes the secession of the Ten Tribes from the house of David the ultimate cause of their ruin. The “for,” therefore, refers to what has just been said in <a href="/context/2_kings/17-18.htm" title="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.">2Kings 17:18-20</a>.<p><span class= "bld">He rent Israel.</span>—The Hebrew as it stands can only mean <span class= "ital">Israel rent.</span> The want of an object after the transitive verb favours the suggestion of Thenius that the <span class= "ital">niphal</span> should be restored: <span class= "ital">Israel rent himself away</span> (comp. the Vulg., “scissus est”). (If <span class= "ital">Israel</span> were the object, <span class= "ital">‘eth</span> should be expressed.)<p><span class= "bld">Drave.</span>—Hebrew text, <span class= "ital">put far away</span> (<a href="/amos/2-3.htm" title="And I will cut off the judge from the middle thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, said the LORD.">Amos 2:3</a>). Hebrew margin, <span class= "ital">misled</span> (<a href="/2_chronicles/21-11.htm" title="Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto.">2Chronicles 21:11</a>); the Targum and Syriac “caused to stray.” The argument obviously is this—separation from Judah led to the calf-worship, and that to idolatry pure and simple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-22.htm">2 Kings 17:22</a></div><div class="verse">For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;</div>(22) <span class= "bld">The children of Israel walked</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—Israel obstinately <span class= "ital">persisted</span> in the sin of Jeroboam, in spite of all warning.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-23.htm">2 Kings 17:23</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">By all his servants the prophets.</span>—Comp. <a href="/hosea/1-6.htm" title="And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.">Hosea 1:6</a>; <a href="/hosea/9-16.htm" title="Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yes, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.">Hosea 9:16</a>; <a href="/context/amos/3-11.htm" title="Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your palaces shall be spoiled.">Amos 3:11-12</a>; <a href="/amos/5-27.htm" title="Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, said the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.">Amos 5:27</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/28-1.htm" title="Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!">Isaiah 28:1-4</a>.<p><span class= "bld">So was Israel carried away.</span>—That the land was not entirely depopulated appears from such passages as <a href="/2_chronicles/30-1.htm" title="And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel.">2Chronicles 30:1</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/34-9.htm" title="And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.">2Chronicles 34:9</a>. But henceforth “the distinctive character of the nation was lost; such Hebrews as remained in their old land became mixed with their heathen neighbours. When Josiah destroyed the ancient high places of the northern kingdom he slew their priests, whereas the priests of Judæan sanctuaries were provided for at Jerusalem. It is plain from this that he regarded the worship of the northern sanctuaries as purely heathenish (comp. <a href="/2_kings/23-20.htm" title="And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there on the altars, and burned men's bones on them, and returned to Jerusalem.">2Kings 23:20</a> with <a href="/2_kings/17-5.htm" title="Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.">2Kings 17:5</a>)<span class= "ital">,</span> and it was only in much later times that the mixed population of Samaria became possessed of the Pentateuch, and set up a worship on Mount Gerizim, in imitation of the ritual of the second Temple. We have no reason to think that the captive Ephraimites were more able to retain their distinctive character than their brethren who remained in Palestine. The problem of the lost tribes, which has so much attraction for some speculators, is a purely fanciful one. The people whom Hosea and Amos describe were not fitted to maintain themselves apart from the heathen among whom they dwelt. Scattered among strange nations, they accepted the service of strange gods (<a href="/deuteronomy/28-64.htm" title="And the LORD shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, even wood and stone.">Deuteronomy 28:64</a>), and, losing their distinctive religion, lost also their distinctive existence.” (<span class= "ital">Robertson Smith.</span>)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-24.htm">2 Kings 17:24</a></div><div class="verse">And the king of Assyria brought <i>men</i> from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed <i>them</i> in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.</div>(24-33) <span class= "bld">RE-PEOPLING OF THE LAND WITH ALIENS; THEIR WORSHIP DESCRIBED.</span><p>(24) <span class= "bld">The king of Assyria.</span>—Sargon (<span class= "ital">Sargîna</span>)<span class= "ital">,</span> who actually records that in his first year (721 B.C. ) he settled a body of conquered Babylonians in the land of <span class= "ital">Hatti</span> or Syria. In another passage he speaks of locating certain Arab tribes, including those of Thamûd and Ephah, in the land of Beth-Omri; and in a third passage of his annals he says that he “removed the rest” of these Arab tribes, “and caused them to dwell in the city of Samerina” (Samaria). This notice be. longs to Sargon’s seventh year (715 B.C. ). Kuthah and Sepharvaim were also towns in Babylonia. The former is called <span class= "ital">Kutie</span> in the cuneiform inscriptions. It had a temple of Nergal and Laz, the ruins of which have been discovered at <span class= "ital">Tell-Ibrâhîm,</span> north-east of Babylon. Sepharvaim, in the cuneiform <span class= "ital">Sipar</span> and <span class= "ital">Sippar,</span> means “the two Sipars;” in allusion, probably, to the fact that the town was divided between the two deities <span class= "ital">Samas</span> (the sun), and <span class= "ital">Anunitum,</span> and bore the names of <span class= "ital">Sippar sa Samas</span> (“Sippara of the Sun”), and <span class= "ital">Sippar sa Anunitum</span> (“Sippara of Anunit”). Rassam discovered ruins of <span class= "ital">Èparra,</span> the great sun-temple, at <span class= "ital">Abu Habba,</span> south-west of Bagdad, on the east bank of the Euphrates.<p><span class= "bld">Ava</span> (Heb., (‘<span class= "ital">Avvā</span>) may be the same as Ivah (Heb. <span class= "ital">Iwwah</span>) (<a href="/2_kings/18-34.htm" title="Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?">2Kings 18:34</a>; <a href="/2_kings/19-13.htm" title="Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?">2Kings 19:13</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Hamath.</span>—Sargon has recorded his reduction, in 720 B.C. , of <span class= "ital">Itu-bi-’di</span> (or <span class= "ital">Yau-bi-’di</span>) king of Hamath, and also his settling of colonists in Hainathite territory. It is, therefore, quite likely that he had, as usual, deported the conquered Hamathites, and, in fact, settled some of them in Samaria, as this verse relates.<p><span class= "bld">Placed them.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">made them dwell,</span> the very phrase used by Sargon himself in describing these arrangements (<span class= "ital">usesib</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span> At a later period Esarhaddon reinforced these colonists (<a href="/ezra/4-2.htm" title="Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said to them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as you do; and we do sacrifice to him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up here.">Ezra 4:2</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-25.htm">2 Kings 17:25</a></div><div class="verse">And <i>so</i> it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, <i>that</i> they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew <i>some</i> of them.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">The Lord sent</span> (the) <span class= "bld">lions.</span>—In the interval between the Assyrian depopulation and the re-peopling of the land, the lions indigenous to the country had multiplied naturally enough. Their ravages were understood by the colonists as a token of the wrath of the local deity on account of their neglect of his worship. The sacred writer endorses this interpretation of the incident, probably remembering <a href="/leviticus/26-22.htm" title="I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.">Leviticus 26:22</a>. (Comp. <a href="/exodus/23-29.htm" title="I will not drive them out from before you in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against you.">Exodus 23:29</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/14-15.htm" title="If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:">Ezekiel 14:15</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Which slew.</span>—The form of the verb implies a state of things which lasted some time. Literally, <span class= "ital">and they were killing among them.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-26.htm">2 Kings 17:26</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">They spake.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">men spake, i.e.,</span> the prefects of the province.<p><span class= "bld">The manner of the God.</span>—The word <span class= "ital">mishpāt, </span>“judgment,” “decision,” here means “appointed worship” or “cultus.” In the Koran the word <span class= "ital">din,</span> “judgment,” is used in a similar way, as equivalent to “religion,” especially the religion of Islam.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-27.htm">2 Kings 17:27</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Carry.</span>—<span class= "ital">Cause to go.</span><p><span class= "bld">Let them go and dwell.</span>—To be corrected after the Syriac and Vulg.: <span class= "ital">let him go and dwell.</span><p><span class= "bld">Ye brought.</span>—<span class= "ital">Ye carried away.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-28.htm">2 Kings 17:28</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">And taught.</span>—<span class= "ital">And was teaching,</span> implying a <span class= "ital">permanent</span> work.<p><span class= "bld">In Bethel.</span>—Because he was a priest of the calfworship.<p><span class= "bld">Fear the Lord.</span>—Not in the modern <span class= "ital">ethical</span> but in the ancient <span class= "ital">ceremonial</span> sense.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-29.htm">2 Kings 17:29</a></div><div class="verse">Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put <i>them</i> in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">Howbeit.</span>—<span class= "ital">And.</span> The colonists did not fear Jehovah in a monotheistic sense; they simply <span class= "ital">added</span> his <span class= "ital">cultus</span> to that of their ancestral deities.<p><span class= "bld">The houses of the high places.</span>—The temples or chaples which constituted the sanctuaries of the different cities in the Samaritan territory.<p><span class= "bld">The Samaritans</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the people of northern Israel. (Comp. <span class= "ital">Samaria</span> in <a href="/2_kings/17-24.htm" title="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 dwelled in the cities thereof.">2Kings 17:24</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Dwelt.</span>—<span class= "ital">Were dwelling.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-30.htm">2 Kings 17:30</a></div><div class="verse">And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,</div>(30) <span class= "bld">Succoth-benoth.</span>—The Hebrew spelling of this name has probably suffered in transmission. The Babylonian goddess <span class= "ital">Zirbânit</span> or <span class= "ital">Zarpanitum</span> (“seed-maker”) the consort of Merodach, appears to be meant.<p><span class= "bld">Nergal.</span>—The name of the god represented by the colossal <span class= "ital">lions</span> which guarded the doorways of Assyrian palaces. These colossi were called <span class= "ital">nirgali;</span> and a syllabary informs us that Nergal was the god of Kutha.<p><span class= "bld">Ashima.</span>—Nothing is known of this idol. Schrader (in <span class= "ital">Riehm</span>) pronounces against identification with the Phœnician <span class= "ital">Esm̂un.</span> Lane’s lexicon gives an Arabic word, <span class= "ital">‘usâmatu,</span> or <span class= "ital">’al’-usâmatu,</span> “the lion,” which <span class= "ital">may</span> be cognate with Ashima.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-31.htm">2 Kings 17:31</a></div><div class="verse">And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">Nibhaz</span> and <span class= "bld">Tartak</span> are unknown, but the forms have an Assyrio-Babylonian cast. (Comp. Nimrod, Nergal with the former, and Ishtar, Namtar, Merodach, Shadrach, with the latter.) Before Nibhaz the LXX. have another name, <span class= "ital">Abaazar,</span> or <span class= "ital">Eblazer</span> (? <span class= "ital">’abal Assûr</span> “the Son of Assur”).<p><span class= "bld">Adrammelech.</span>—Comp. <a href="/2_kings/19-37.htm" title="And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.">2Kings 19:37</a>. Identified by Schrader with the Assyrian <span class= "ital">Adar-mâlik, </span>“Adar is prince” (? <span class= "ital">Adrum</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span><p><span class= "bld">Anammelech</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., Anum-mâlik,</span> “Anu is prince.” Adar and Anu are well-known Assyrian gods.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-32.htm">2 Kings 17:32</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">They feared.</span>—<span class= "ital">They were fearing.</span> (See Note on <a href="/2_kings/17-25.htm" title="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.">2Kings 17:25</a>; <a href="/2_kings/17-28.htm" title="Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelled in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.">2Kings 17:28</a>, <span class= "ital">supra.</span>)<p><span class= "bld">Of the lowest of them.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">of all orders,</span> or <span class= "ital">promiscuously.</span> (Comp. <a href="/1_kings/12-31.htm" title="And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.">1Kings 12:31</a>.) This is another indication that it was <span class= "ital">Jeroboam’s</span> mode of worship which was now restored.<p><span class= "bld">Which sacrificed.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">and they used to do.</span> The verb <span class= "ital">do</span> is used in the sense of <span class= "ital">sacra facere,</span> just like the Greek <span class= "ital">-</span> <span class= "greekheb">ποιεῗν ἔρδειν ρέζειν</span>.<p><span class= "bld">Priests of the high places.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">bāmāh-priests</span> (omit <span class= "ital">the</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span> Bamah-priests are opposed to the priests of Jehovah’s Temple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-33.htm">2 Kings 17:33</a></div><div class="verse">They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">They feared . . . gods.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Jehovah were they fearing, and their own gods were they serving.</span> The verse recapitulates 28-32.<p><span class= "bld">Whom they carried away from thence.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">whence they had been carried away. </span>Literally, <span class= "ital">whence men carried them away.</span> The meaning is: according to the customs of the cities from which Sargon had deported them.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-34.htm">2 Kings 17:34</a></div><div class="verse">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;</div>(34-41) <span class= "bld">THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE MIXED POPULATION OF SAMARIA IN THE TIME OF THE EDITOR.</span><p>(34) <span class= "bld">They do after the former manners.</span>—They still keep up the religious customs of the first colonists.<p><span class= "bld">They fear not the Lord.</span>—They fear Him not in the sense of a <span class= "ital">right</span> fear; they do not honour Him in the way He has prescribed in the Torah. The LXX. omits both <span class= "ital">nots</span> in this verse.<p><span class= "bld">After their statutes, or after their ordinances.</span>—The writer here thinks of the <span class= "ital">remnant</span> of the Ten Tribes who amalgamated with the new settlers (<a href="/2_kings/23-19.htm" title="And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.">2Kings 23:19</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/34-6.htm" title="And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even to Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.">2Chronicles 34:6</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/34-9.htm" title="And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.">2Chronicles 34:9</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/34-33.htm" title="And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.">2Chronicles 34:33</a>; <a href="/john/4-12.htm" title="Are you greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?">John 4:12</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Ordinances.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">ordinance,</span> or <span class= "ital">judgment.</span><p><span class= "bld">Or after the law and commandment.</span>—This pair of terms is exegetical of the preceding pair. Probably, however, the original reading was, “after <span class= "ital">the</span> statutes, and after <span class= "ital">the</span> ordinances,” as in <a href="/2_kings/17-37.htm" title="And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do for ever more; and you shall not fear other gods.">2Kings 17:37</a>, where the same four terms recur. Then the sense will simply be, that the Samaritans contemporary with the writer do not worship Jehovah according to the Torah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-38.htm">2 Kings 17:38</a></div><div class="verse">And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">Neither shall ye fear other gods.</span>—This formula is repeated thrice (<a href="/2_kings/17-35.htm" title="With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:">2Kings 17:35</a>; <a href="/context/2_kings/17-37.htm" title="And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do for ever more; and you shall not fear other gods.">2Kings 17:37-38</a>), as the main point of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-39.htm">2 Kings 17:39</a></div><div class="verse">But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">And he.</span>—The pronoun is emphatic: “and He, on His part, will deliver you.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-40.htm">2 Kings 17:40</a></div><div class="verse">Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">They</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the Ephraimites.<p><span class= "bld">Did.</span>—<span class= "ital">Continued doing.</span><p><span class= "bld">After their former manner</span>—i.e., they clung to the old-established cultus of the calves.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/2_kings/17-41.htm">2 Kings 17:41</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">So these nations feared . . . images.</span>—A variation of <a href="/2_kings/17-33.htm" title="They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from there.">2Kings 17:33</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Their children, and their children’s children.</span>—The captivity of Ephraim took place in 721 B.C. Two generations later bring us to the times of the exile of Judah—the age of the last Redactor of Kings.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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