2 Kings 17:15

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

7-23 Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly related, it is in these verses largely commented upon, and the reasons of it given. It was destruction from the Almighty: the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger, Isaiah 10:5. Those that bring sin into a country or family, bring a plague into it, and will have to answer for all the mischief that follows. And vast as the outward wickedness of the world is, the secret sins, evil thoughts, desires, and purposes of mankind are much greater. There are outward sins which are marked by infamy; but ingratitude, neglect, and enmity to God, and the idolatry and impiety which proceed therefrom, are far more malignant. Without turning from every evil way, and keeping God's statutes, there can be no true godliness; but this must spring from belief of his testimony, as to wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness,...

As idols are “vanity” and “nothingness,” mere weakness and impotence, so idolators are “vain” and impotent. Their energies have been wasted, their time misspent; they have missed the real object of their existence; their whole life has been a mistake; and the result is utter powerlessness. Literally, the word rendered “vanity” seems to mean “breath” or “vapor” - a familiar image for nonentity. It occurs frequently in the prophets, and especially in Jeremiah (e. g. Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 8:19; Jeremiah 14:22, etc.)....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 17:1 THE REIGN OF HOSHEA OVER ISRAEL. DESTRUCTION OF THE ISRAELITE KINGDOM, AND THE GROUNDS OF IT RE-PEOPLING OF THE KINGDOM BY ASSYRIAN COLONISTS. 2 KINGS 17:1 REIGN OF HOSHEA. Hoshea, the last King of Israel, had a short reign of nine years only, during two of which

AND THEY REJECTED HIS STATUTES, AND HIS COVENANT THAT HE MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS,.... At Sinai and Horeb, see Exodus 24:8, AND HIS TESTIMONIES WHICH HE TESTIFIED AGAINST THEM; calling heaven and earth to witness what he would do to them if they broke his laws, Deuteronomy 4:26, and which were so many testifications of his mind and will what they should do, or otherwise what should be done to them; Ben Gersom also interprets this of the feasts of the passover and tabernacles, which were witnesses of Israel's coming out of Egypt, and of the sanctification and redemption of the firstborn, a testimony of the slaying the firstborn in Egypt: AND THEY FOLLOWED VANITY; idols, which are vain things for help, can neither hear, see, speak, c. and became vain

7. ASSYRIA CONQUERS ISRAEL AND THE CAPTIVITY CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Hoshea, Israel's last king (2 Kings 17:1)_ 2. Shalmaneser imprisons Hoshea (2 Kings 17:3) 3. Israel carried into captivity (2 Kings 17:5) 4. Retrospect and Israel's sins (2 Kings 17:7) 5. The colonization of Samaria (2 Kings 17:24) Israel's last king was Hoshea. His name means “deliverance.” It indicates what might have been had he and the people repented of their sins. The record of his character is brief. “And he did that which was

A RECAPITULATION OF THE REASONS FOR ISRAEL'S CAPTIVITY. The language recalls Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. The sins for which Israel is condemned are: (_a_) the building of high places, pillars, and Asherim (2 Kings 17:9 f_.;_ 1 Kings 12*, pp. 98- 100); (_b_) idolatry (2 Kings 17:12; 2 Kings 17:16); (_c_) making their children pass through the fire and using divination and enchantments (Isaiah 26); (_d_) walking in the sins of Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 12). A statement of Judah's sin is added in 2 Kings 17:19. 2 Kings 17:9.

AND. Note the Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ in verses: 2 Kings 17:15. Sixteen "ands" emphasizing each detail. VANITY.. term often applied to idols....

The sins for which Israel was carried into captivity (Not in Chronicles) 7. _For_so _it was that_ R.V. AND IT WAS SO BECAUSE. A better form of introduction to this account of the causes of the captivity. These are recited under three heads. First, on entering Canaan Israel adopted the idol worship of the people of the land, and would not listen to the warnings of God's prophets. Secondly, the ten tribes made the molten calves, and thirdly, they adopted the worship of Baal and Moloch and other idolatries from the more distant people, and indulged in all the practices of divination and enchantment which were attendant on these heathen forms of worship. _which had_[R.V. omits _had brought them up_ This omission makes the clause refer, as it does in the Hebrew, exactly to the same time as -whom the Lord cast out" in the following verse....

B. EXPLANATION OF THE CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL 17:7-23 TRANSLATION (7) And it came to pass because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God who brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; but they feared other gods. (8) And they walked In the statutes of the nations which the LORD had driven out from before the children of Israel, and (hi the customs of) the kings of Israel which they had introduced. (9) And the children of Israel did secretly the things which were not right against the LORD then- God, and built for themselves high places in all their cities from the tower of the watchmen unto the fortified city. (10) And they set up for themselves pillars and Asherim upon every high hill and under every green tree. (11) And they burned incense there in all the high places like the nations which the LORD had carried away from befor...