2 Kings 17:18

_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,...

Verse 2 Kings 17:18. _REMOVED THEM OUT OF HIS SIGHT_] Banished them from the promised land, from the temple, and from every ordinance of righteousness, as wholly unworthy of any kind of good. _NONE LEFT BUT THE TRIBE OF JUDAH ONLY._] Under this name all those of _Benjamin_ and _Levi_, and the _Israelites_, who abandoned their idolatries and joined with Judah, are comprised. It was the _ten tribes_ that were carried away by the Assyrians....

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

THEREFORE THE LORD WAS VERY ANGRY WITH ISRAEL,.... Nothing being more provoking to him than idolatry: AND REMOVED THEM OUT OF HIS SIGHT; not out of the reach of his all seeing eye, but from all tokens of his favour, from the good land he had given them, and all the benefits and privileges of it: THERE WAS NONE LEFT BUT THE TRIBE OF JUDAH ONLY; and part of Benjamin, which was annexed to it, and incorporated in it, and made one kingdom, and maintained the same worship; and there was the lot of Simeon, which was within the tribe of Judah; and the priests and the Levites, and various individuals of the several tribes, that came and settled among them for the sake of worship; but no perfect, distinct, tribe besides....

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.

JUDAH ONLY. Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of the Part), Levites and Benjamin and additions from Israel are of course included....

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....

AND REMOVED THEM OUT OF HIS SIGHT— A very strong expression to signify God's rejection and total removal of this apostate people from his care and Providence. REFLECTIONS.—1st, Hoshea, the last of Israel's kings, lost with shame the throne that he had ascended by perfidy and murder. We have here, 1. Israel become tributary, as a prelude to their final destruction. Though their king was not so bad as his predecessors, the people continued as bad as ever; and therefore God sold them into the hand of Shalmaneser. _Note;_ (1.) God tries lesser judgments before he strikes the final blow. (2.) They who sell themselves to the service of sin, will shortly find the wages of it to be eternal ruin. 2. Utterly destroyed and dispersed, Hoshea, by the help of So, king of Ethiopia, rebelled against the king of Assyria; but he suffered for his falsehood: his country is ravaged, his capital besieged, a...