E8 P 1. Introduction.
Q 2. Events. Personal. Evil-doing.
Q 3-6. Event. Political. Captivity.
P 7-41. Conclusion. Causes.620 to 611 B.C.
2 Kings 17)
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah (there was anarchy for 9 years between Pekah and Hoshea. For, in 15:30, Hoshea conspired against Pekah in the 20th year of Jotham, which was the 3rd year of Ahaz [20 - 12 = 8]: For Ahaz began in Pekah's 17th year [16:1], and Hoshea began in Ahaz's 12th year. But Pekah's 20 years end in Ahaz's 3rd year) began Hoshea (= salvation) the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years (reckoned from the 12th of Ahaz. Hoshea kept under under by the Assyrian till then. Cp. Hos.10:14, where Shalmaneser spoiled Beth-arbel in his first expedition, and would spoil Beth-el at his second.).
2 And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the Lord (Yehovah), but not as the kings of Israel that were before him (Thus, we do not read that he opposed Hezekah's invitation [2 Chron. 30:5-11]. And scholars kind of wrestle with this, “what does this mean?” He didn’t do things as the kings of Israel that were before him. I like the explanation best that the scholars say that this means… you remember Hezekiah? He as a very righteous king of Israel. He reinstituted the Passover. And what did he do? He invited all of the people of the North, the 10 Northern tribes of Samaria to come to celebrate that Passover. And it’s thought by this that Hoshea did not reject the people to come to Jerusalem in participating in that wonderful Passover.)
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser (= fire-worshiper) king of Assyria; (A type for the antichrist, again. Shalmaneser began the siege, and this is according to Bullinger, but he was not able to complete it. The siege went on for 3 years and Bullinger thinks that Sargon, one of the descendants of Cain, and there may be many of you that have read Sargon the magnificent will know, was the one that completed the siege. Other scholars believe that Shalmaneser and Sargon were one in the same. I kind of lean with Bullinger on this) and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. (Here we have the King of Israel, the last king of Israel, man-king I’ll say, serving, worshiping if you will, the king of Assyria).
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt (the Heb. drops the embarrassing "k" of Sabako, his Ethiopian name. Afterward vanquished by Tirhakah. See 19:9), and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as [he had done] year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. (Hoshea was paying the Egyptians to help him fight the Assyrian. And when the Assyrian found out he was giving the money that should be coming to him to the Egyptians, it made him mad and he threw him in jail. What’s the type that we can see from the Assyrian in this? Think about it. Do you think you’re going to make the Assyrian real happy with what you’re doing? Do you think he’s going to be real happy with you? No he’s not going to be happy with you. What do you think will be happening with the king of Assyria? Here the whole world will be worshiping the antichrist and you are not worshiping him. Do you think he might be a little angry with you and bind you up and throw you in prison? Does that sound so bad? What I’m asking you people, are you mentally prepared for that? Is going to prison and standing up for Jesus Christ our Savior all that bad a thing? I mean, I know you’re all very good people, but the thought of going to prison right now in your mind is probably something you really haven’t thought about that much. But that’s what I’m asking you to think about ladies and gentlemen. How many times was Paul in prison? Was he a bad man? No, Paul was a very good man. Well especially after he was struck down on the road to Damascus. Stephen might not have had a great place in his heart for Paul, but after he was struck down on the road to Damascus he ended up in prison for what? For telling the truth! You’re liable to end up in prison for telling the truth. Bring it on! Bring it on! That’s our destiny! Our destiny is to be delivered up! And you hear people saying, "Boy, I don’t know. I don’t know if I can do that or not." Yes you can. You know that's what you have to do. But be prepared for it even if it means going to prison.)
5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land (Shalmaneser [v.3], who commenced the siege, but died before Sargon, his successor, captured Samaria in 611 B.C.), and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years (from 613-611).
611 B.C.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea Shalmaneser took Samaria (here, in the days of Hoshea [king of Israel]; and in ch. 18 as connected with the days of Hezekiah [king of Judah]. Cp. 18:9), and carried Israel away into Assyria (Sargon's own inscription says 27,290. Cp. 18:9-12), and placed them in Halah (= completion, old age.) and in Habor (= beautiful banks) [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (A historical document known as Sargon’s Inscription records that 27,290 were taken captive. And you can believe it was the cream of the crop, the princes of the families, the military leaders, the priests who were educated, and they left the base people in the land. Would the king of Assyria just be happy with taking the 10 tribes?)
P x¹ 7-12. Provocation of Israel.
y¹ 13. Remonstrance.
x² 14-17. Obduracy of Israel.
y² 18. Removal.
x³ 19. Disobedience of Judah.
y³ 20,21. Rejection and rending.
x4 22,23-. Obduracy of Israel.
y4 -23-33. Removal.
x5 34-40. Transplanting of Israel; and sequel.
y5 41. Replaced people.
7 For [so] it was, that the sons 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,
8 And walked in the statutes of the nations, whom the Lord cast out from before the sons of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the sons of Israel did secretly [those] things that [were] not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city (from the remote watchtower in the country to the fortified city = the whole country).
10 And they set them up statues and groves (Ásherah. See Ex.34:13) in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as [did] the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:
12 For they served filthy (or manufactured) idols, whereof the Lord had said to them, “You all shall not do this thing.” (Cp. Ex. 20:3; 23:13. Lev. 26:1. Deut. 12:31, &c.)
13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, [and by] all the seers (= every one who had a vision), saying, “Turn you all from your evil ways, and keep My commandments [and] My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by the hand of My servants the prophets.” (Those in Israel were Ahijah, Jehu [son of Hanani], Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Jonah, Obed, Amos, and Hosea. Those in Judah were Shemaiah, Iddo, Azariah, Hanani, Jehu, Zechariah [son of Jehoiada], Micah, and Isaiah)
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to as their father's neck [was stiffened], that did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 And they rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they followed vanity (a term often applied to idols), 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.
16 And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, [even] two calves, and made an asherah (see v.10), and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire (cp. Lev. 18:21. Deut. 12:31; 18:10), and used divination and enchantments (i.e. traffic with evil spirits and demons, and familiar spirits. Identical with modern spiritualism. Cp. Deut. 18:10, and see 1 Sam. 28:8. Acts 16:16. Rev. 9:21), and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only (fig., when a part is put for the whole. Levites and Benjamin and additions from Israel are of course included).
19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made (cp. Athaliah [8:18,27; 16:3, &c.).
20 And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel (a prophetic anticipation), and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
21 For He tore Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin (see 1 Kings 14:16).
22 For the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, according as He had said by all His servants the prophets.
y4 z¹ -23-25-. Peoples exchanged. "No reverence
of God".
a¹ -25. Punishment. Lions.
z² 26. Peoples. Report. Ignorance.
a² 27,28. Remedy proposed: to revere Yahaveh.
z³ 29-33. People. Corrupt fear of Yahaveh.611 to 603 B.C.
So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria to this day.
24 And the king of Assyria brought [men] from Babylon (these were the substituted people forming the nucleus of the later Samaritans; but subsequently intermixed with Israelites returning with Ezra and Nehemiah [Neh. 13:3,23-31]. In N.T. called "foreigners" [Luke 17:18]. Cp. Matt. 10:5,6. Sargon refers to this in his inscriptions. Only one figure remains [7] of the number he gives), and from Cuthah (10 miles north-east of Babylon. In the first year of Sargon there was war between Cuthah and Babylon, and the people of Cuthah were transported to Syria and Palestine), and from Ava (= either the Ivah of 18:34, or the Avaha of Ezra 8:15), and from Hamath (the one in Syria), and from Sepharvaim (Dual. The two Sippars in Babylonia. Sippar sa Samas [the sun-god] and Sippar sa Anuituv), and placed [them] in the cities of Samaria instead of the sons of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And [so] it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, [that] they feared not the Lord:
therefore the Lord sent lions among them (for lions in Palestine see 1 Kings 13:24), which kept on slaying them.
26 Wherefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations which you have removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore He has sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.”
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry to that place one of the priests (an idolatrous Israelite priest from Samaria [v.28]) whom you all brought from that place; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.”
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear (better "revere") Yehovah.
29 However every nation made gods of their own, and put [them] in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
30 And (fig. many "ands", emphasizing the 5 nations brought into Palestine. p. v.24. Each brought its own gods. Thus [according to the language of the O.T.] Samaria committed adultery [idolatry] with 5 husbands [cp. Isa. 54:5 with Isa. 23:17. Jer. 22:20. No wonder the woman worshiped she knew not what [John 4:22]) the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth (= tents of daughters), and the men of Cuth made Nergal (= hero), and the men of Hamath made Ashima (identical to the "Pan" of the Greeks),
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz (the barker) and Tartak (= prince of darkness), and the Sepharvites burnt up their sons in fire to Adrammelech (splendor of the king) and Anammelech (image of the king), the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the Lord, and made to themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places (cp. 1 Kings 12:31), which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the Lord (cp. v.41), and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from that place (or, from which place they [the settlers] had carried them away).
34 To this day they do after the former manners (these, according to the Structure, are the Israelites. The member [x5, 34-40] records their continued obduracy in their dispersion): they fear (or "revere") not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes (see Deut. 4:1), or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, [after the manner of the several nations; gods which had caused them (i.e. the Israelites) to go captive from that place] (i.e. out of the Land. Gen.32:28. 1 Kings 18:31) He named Israel;
35 With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, “You all shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the Lord, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, Him shall you all revere (or love), and Him shall you all worship, and to Him shall you all do sacrifice.
37 And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which He wrote for you (see Ex.17:14), you all shall observe to do for evermore; and you all shall not revere other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you you all shall not forget; neither shall you all revere other gods.
39 But the Lord your God you all shall revere; and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”
40 However they did not listen, but they did after their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their sons, and their son's sons: according as did their fathers, so do they to this day.