Hoshea, whose name means "salvation," ironically becomes Israel's final king who leads the nation into exile, embodying the tragic reversal of God's promised deliverance.
2 Kings 17
The Fall of Samaria and Exile of Israel
1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years.
2He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.
4The king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria seized him, and bound him in prison.
5Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7It was so because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8and walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made.
9The children of Israel secretly did things that were not right against the LORD their God; and they built high places for themselves in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;
10and they set up for themselves pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;
11and there they burned incense in all the high places, as the nations whom the LORD carried away before them did; and they did wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger;
12and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
13Yet the LORD testified to Israel and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
14Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck like the neck of their fathers who didn’t believe in the LORD their God.
15They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them.
16They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made molten images for themselves, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.
17They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger.
18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19Also Judah didn’t keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20The LORD rejected all the offspring of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of raiders, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21For he tore Israel from David’s house; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
22The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they didn’t depart from them
23until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria to this day.
24The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.
25So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn’t fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
26Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria don’t know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them; and behold, they kill them, because they don’t know the law of the god of the land.”
27Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land.”
28So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29However 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 in which they lived.
30The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32So they feared the LORD, and also made from among themselves priests of the high places for themselves, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33They feared the LORD, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
34To this day they do what they did before. They don’t fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes, or the ordinances, or the law, or the commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35with whom the LORD had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;
36but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.
37The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever more. You shall not fear other gods.
38You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods.
39But you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”
40However they didn’t listen, but they did what they did before.
41So these nations feared the LORD, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.
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Theme
2 Kings 17 records the final collapse of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, when Assyria conquered Samaria and exiled the Israelites after King Hoshea's failed rebellion. The chapter provides a comprehensive theological explanation for this catastrophe, detailing Israel's persistent idolatry, rejection of God's covenant, and refusal to heed prophetic warnings throughout their history. The narrative concludes with Assyria's resettlement policy, bringing foreign peoples into the land who develop a syncretistic form of worship that combines reverence for Yahweh with pagan practices.
Context
This chapter marks the climactic end of the northern kingdom's story that began with the division after Solomon's death, setting up the narrative's focus on Judah alone in subsequent chapters.
Key Themes
Outline
- 1-6 Hoshea's Reign and Assyrian Conquest Hoshea's rebellion against Assyria leads to the siege and fall of Samaria and Israel's exile.
- 7-12 Israel's Fundamental Sins The narrator explains Israel's destruction as divine judgment for idolatry and covenant violation.
- 13-17 Rejected Warnings and Escalating Rebellion Despite persistent prophetic calls to repentance, Israel hardened their hearts and embraced increasingly abominable practices.
- 18-23 Divine Judgment and Exile God's anger results in Israel's removal from the land, fulfilling prophetic warnings.
- 24-33 Assyrian Resettlement Policy Foreign peoples are brought to inhabit Samaria, leading to religious syncretism after divine judgment.
- 34-41 Persistent Syncretism The new inhabitants and their descendants continue mixing pagan worship with reverence for Yahweh.
The Fall of Samaria and Exile of Israel
17:1–17:41 narrative narration solemn
The northern kingdom of Israel falls to Assyria and is exiled due to persistent idolatry and disobedience to God's covenant, despite repeated prophetic warnings.
person_contrast
Hoshea, whose name means "salvation," ironically becomes Israel's final king who leads the nation into exile, embodying the tragic reversal of God's promised deliverance.
Insights
Cross-References
Connected passages across Scripture
2 Kings 17:1 5 references
Lexicals 5
2 Kings 18:1 Lexical
Now in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 18:9 Lexical
In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king o…
2 Kings 15:30 Lexical
Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, attacked him, killed him, and reigned in his…
2 Kings 18:10 Lexical
At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel…
2 Kings 15:17 Lexical
In the thirty ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel for ten years in S…
2 Kings 17:3 1 reference
2 Kings 17:4 1 reference
2 Kings 17:5 1 reference
2 Kings 17:6 4 references
Lexicals 4
2 Kings 18:11 Lexical
The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in…
1 Chronicles 5:26 Lexical
So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria, a…
2 Kings 18:10 Lexical
At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel…
2 Kings 18:9 Lexical
In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king o…
2 Kings 17:9 1 reference
2 Kings 17:10 5 references
Lexicals 5
1 Kings 14:23 Lexical
For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every gre…
Jeremiah 17:2 Lexical
Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
Jeremiah 2:20 Lexical
“For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and unde…
Jeremiah 3:6 Lexical
Moreover, the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She…
2 Chronicles 28:4 Lexical
He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2 Kings 17:11 1 reference
2 Kings 17:13 5 references
Lexicals 5
2 Chronicles 29:25 Lexical
He set the Levites in the LORD’s house with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the command…
Nehemiah 9:29 Lexical
and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to yo…
Nehemiah 9:34 Lexical
Also our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and…
Nehemiah 9:26 Lexical
“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that…
Genesis 26:5 Lexical
because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
2 Kings 17:15 5 references
Lexicals 5
2 Chronicles 34:31 Lexical
The king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, h…
Leviticus 26:15 Lexical
and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments,…
2 Kings 23:3 Lexical
The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments, hi…
Jeremiah 32:40 Lexical
I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will pu…
Jeremiah 2:5 Lexical
The LORD says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked aft…
2 Kings 17:16 5 references
Lexicals 5
2 Chronicles 33:3 Lexical
For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, mad…
2 Kings 21:3 Lexical
For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal, and made a…
2 Chronicles 7:19 Lexical
But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other god…
2 Chronicles 34:4 Lexical
They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and he cut down the incense altars that were on high above them…
Psalms 106:19 Lexical
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image.
2 Kings 17:17 4 references
Lexicals 4
Deuteronomy 18:10 Lexical
There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divina…
2 Chronicles 33:6 Lexical
He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination,…
2 Kings 21:6 Lexical
He made his son to pass through the fire, practiced sorcery, used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar sp…
Ezekiel 13:23 Lexical
Therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. Then y…
2 Kings 17:18 3 references
Lexicals 3
Isaiah 49:21 Lexical
Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am alone…
Joshua 1:7 Lexical
Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commande…
Deuteronomy 4:9 Lexical
Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart fro…
2 Kings 17:21 5 references
Lexicals 5
2 Kings 15:28 Lexical
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which…
2 Kings 13:2 Lexical
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made I…
2 Kings 15:18 Lexical
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. He didn’t depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat…
1 Kings 16:26 Lexical
For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke…
2 Kings 10:29 Lexical
However, Jehu didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin—the golden calv…
2 Kings 17:22 5 references
Lexicals 5
2 Kings 14:24 Lexical
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. He didn’t depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with wh…
2 Kings 13:11 Lexical
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. He didn’t depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with wh…
2 Kings 15:9 Lexical
He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, as his fathers had done. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the…
2 Kings 10:31 Lexical
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He didn’t depart from the s…
2 Kings 13:6 Lexical
Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked in…
2 Kings 17:24 4 references
Lexicals 4
2 Kings 18:34 Lexical
Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Sam…
2 Kings 19:13 Lexical
Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Isaiah 37:13 Lexical
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Isaiah 36:19 Lexical
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
2 Kings 17:34 5 references
Lexicals 5
1 Kings 2:3 Lexical
and keep the instruction of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinanc…
Deuteronomy 30:10 Lexical
if you will obey the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of…
Genesis 26:5 Lexical
because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Deuteronomy 11:1 Lexical
Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandment…
Deuteronomy 8:11 Lexical
Beware lest you forget the LORD your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I com…
2 Kings 17:35 5 references
Lexicals 5
Jeremiah 22:9 Lexical
Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, worshiped other gods, and served them…
Joshua 23:16 Lexical
when you disobey the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yo…
Jeremiah 11:10 Lexical
They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other g…
1 Kings 9:6 Lexical
But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have…
Judges 2:19 Lexical
But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to se…
2 Kings 17:36 3 references
Lexicals 3
Deuteronomy 9:29 Lexical
Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”
Jeremiah 27:5 Lexical
‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstr…
Jeremiah 32:17 Lexical
“Ah Lord GOD! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is…
2 Kings 17:37 5 references
Lexicals 5
Nehemiah 9:13 Lexical
“You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good…
2 Chronicles 19:10 Lexical
Whenever any controversy comes to you from your brothers who dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law…
1 Kings 2:3 Lexical
and keep the instruction of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinanc…
Nehemiah 9:14 Lexical
and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,
2 Chronicles 34:31 Lexical
The king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, h…
2 Kings 17:38 1 reference
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Timeline
Exodus
c. 1446 BCIsrael's miraculous deliverance from Egyptian slavery under Moses' leadership, including the ten plagues and Red Sea crossing. This foundational event established Israel as God's chosen nation.
Israel's exile reverses God's deliverance from Egypt due to covenant unfaithfulness.
The Fall of Samaria and Exile of Israel