2 Kings 17:37

24-41 The terror of the Almighty will sometimes produce a forced or feigned submission in unconverted men; like those brought from different countries to inhabit Israel. But such will form unworthy thoughts of God, will expect to please him by outward forms, and will vainly try to reconcile his service with the love of the world and the indulgence of their lusts. May that fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, possess our hearts, and influence our conduct, that we may be ready for every change. Wordly settlements are uncertain; we know not whither we may be driven before we die, and we must soon leave the world; but the righteous hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from him....

WHICH HE WROTE FOR YOU - It is worth observing here, first, that the author regards the whole Law as given to the Israelites in a written form; and secondly, that he looks on the real writer as God....

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 THE STATUTES, AND THE ORDINANCES, AND THE LAW, AND THE COMMANDMENT WHICH HE WROTE FOR YOU,.... On the two tables of stone: YE SHALL OBSERVE TO DO FOR EVERMORE; those commands relating to religious worship, especially the object of it, and to moral duties, being of eternal obligation; and all other statutes and ordinances of a ceremonial kind he ordered to be written for them, being such that they were to regard until the Messiah came, and a new world began: AND YE SHALL NOT FEAR OTHER GODS; which is repeated, that it might be observed, as it also afterwards is....

2 Kings 17:23. _So was Israel carried away out of their own hand to Assyria this day. 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 dwelt in the cities thereof._ It was a part of the tactics of the Assyrian empire to take people away from their original location and colonize them in other places to shift them to another land; so that while the Israelites were taken to Babylon, numbers of those who had lived round about Babylon were brought to live in the Samaritan province, in order that nationalities might thus be broken down and patriotism might expire, thus making it easier for the Assyrian tyrant to govern the land....

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

THE ORIGIN OF THE SAMARITANS. This is a somewhat mixed account. 2 Kings 17:24 describes the settlement of the land with captives from other parts of the Assyrian empire, and the sending of a priest to teach them the manner of the God of the country. Next, 2 Kings 17:29 relates that the new settlers not only feared (_i.e._ worshipped) Yahweh, but also served their own gods. Finally (2 Kings 17:34) there is a general statement regarding the sin of Israel. This has no connexion with what precedes, nor does it in any way describe the Samaritan religion. It is perhaps nothing more than a new description of the sins for which Israel and Judah were carried away captive....

WHICH HE WROTE, &C. See note on Exodus 17:14, and App-47....

_which he wrote for you_ The compiler of Kings considered, as we can gather from this expression, that -the statutes and ordinances", even the whole Law, was written down for the Israelites, and was of divine origin. The quotations made above are found in Deuteronomy Chapter s 4, 5. and 6 If the compiler be, in this passage, drawing, as he assuredly does in a large part of his work, from a record nearly contemporary with the events, we have here, from some writer of the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, a number of quotations which shew that, in some form, the fifth book of Moses belongs to a time anterior to the date which recent criticism has assigned to it. If he be here but recording his own ideas, it is manifest that he himself had no doubt about the early origin of the Book....

B. THE REPOPULATION OF SAMARIA 17:24-41 TRANSLATION (24) And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in her cities. (25) And it came to pass at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. And the LORD sent against them lions which slew some of them. (26) And they said to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which you carried away and caused to dwell in the cities of Samaria do not know the manner of the God of the land, and He has sent among them lions; and behold they are killing them because they do not know the manner of the God of the land. (27) And the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Cause one of the priests which you carried away from there to go there, and let them go and dwell there...