XVII. THE REIGN OF HOSHEA, THE LAST KING OF SAMARIA. THE FALL OF SAMARIA. CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL, AND RE-PEOPLING OF THE LAND BY FOREIGNERS. (1) IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF AHAZ. — If Pekah reigned thirty years (see Note on 2 Kings 15:27), and Ahaz succeeded in Pekah’s seventeenth year (2 Kings 16:1), Aha... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOT AS THE KINGS OF ISRAEL THAT WERE BEFORE HIM. — The preceding phrase is used of all the northern kings but Shallum, who only reigned a month, and had no time for the display of his religious policy. We can hardly assume that Hoshea abandoned the calf-worship of Bethel, but he may have discoun... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST HIM CAME UP SHALMANESER KING OF ASSYRIA. — Shalmaneser IV. (_Shalmânu-ushshir, “_Shalman be gracious!”)_,_ the successor of Tiglath Pileser II., and predecessor of Sargon, reigned 727-722 B.C. No annals of his reign have come down to us in the cuneiform inscriptions, but a fragment of the Ep... [ Continue Reading ]
CONSPIRACY — _i.e.,_ as is presently explained, a conspiracy with the king of Egypt against his suzerain. Shalmaneser regarded Hoshea, and probably the king of Egypt also, as his “servant” (2 Kings 17:3). (Comp. 2 Kings 12:20 and Jeremiah 11:9.) Thenius wishes to read “falsehood,” after the LXX., ἀδ... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN (_and_) THE KING OF ASSYRIA CAME UP... AND BESIEGED IT THREE YEARS. — Sargon states that he took Samaria (_Samer_ί_na_) in his _first_ year. Shalmaneser therefore had besieged the city some two years before his death. The brief narrative before us does not discriminate between the respective s... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE NINTH YEAR OF HOSHEATHE KING OF ASSYRIA TOOK SAMARIA. — Comp. Hosea 10:5 _seq.;_ Micah 1:6; Isaiah 28:1. In the great inscription published by Botta, Sargon says: “The city of Samaria I assaulted, I took; 27,280 men dwelling in the midst thereof I carried off; 50 chariots among them I set apa... [ Continue Reading ]
(7-23) REFLECTIONS OF THE LAST EDITOR ON THE MORAL CAUSES OF THE CATASTROPHE. (7) FOR SO IT WAS. — Literally, _and it came to pass._ SINNED AGAINST THE LORD... EGYPT. — The claim of Jehovah to Israel’s exclusive fealty was from the outset based upon the fact that He had emancipated them from the E... [ Continue Reading ]
STATUTES OF THE HEATHEN... AND OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL. — The national guilt was twofold. It comprised: (1) idolatry in the strict sense — _i.e.,_ worship of other gods than Jehovah; (2) a heathenish mode of worshipping Jehovah Himself — namely, under the form of a bullock, as Jeroboam I. had ordaine... [ Continue Reading ]
DID SECRETLY. — The literal sense is _covered._ In this connection it is natural to remember that Heb. verbs of _covering_ and _hiding_ are often used in the sense of dealing _perfidiously_ or _deceitfully._ (Comp. _mâ’al,_ l Chron. 10:13, with _me’îl,_ “mantle;” and _bâgad,_ “to deal treacherously,... [ Continue Reading ]
IMAGES AND GROVES. — _Pillars and Asheras_ — _i.e.,_ sacred trunks. The _second_ degree of guilt: the setting up of idolatrous symbols.... [ Continue Reading ]
WROUGHT WICKED THINGS. — Not merely idolatrous rites, but also the hideous immoralities which constituted a recognised part of the nature - worships of Canaan.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY SERVED IDOLS. — Rather, _and they served the dunglings;_ a term of contempt used in 1 Kings 15:19; Deuteronomy 29:16, where see Note.... [ Continue Reading ]
YET THE LORD TESTIFIED AGAINST ISRAEL. — Rather, _And Jehovah adjured Israel_... The verb means here, _gave solemn warning,_ or _charge._ In 2 Kings 17:15 it is repeated, with a cognate noun as object: “His testimonies which he testified against them;” or, _his charges_ (_i.e.,_ precepts) _which he... [ Continue Reading ]
NOTWITHSTANDING... HEAR. — Rather, _and they hearkened not._ NECKS. — Heb., _neck._ (Comp. Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 17:23; 2 Chronicles 36:13.) LIKE TO THE NECK. — LXX. and Syriac, _more than the neck._ One letter different in the Hebrew. DID NOT BELIEVE IN THE LORD THEIR GOD. — The reference... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY FOLLOWED VANITY, AND BECAME VAIN. — The same expression occurs in Jeremiah 2:5. The word “vanity” (_hèbel_) has the article. It denotes strictly _breath;_ and then that which is as _transient_ as a breath. (Comp. Job 7:16.) Here the idols and their worship are intended. The cognate verb, “b... [ Continue Reading ]
MOLTEN IMAGES. — 1 Kings 12:28. Literally, _a casting._ A GROVE. — _An Asherah_ (1 Kings 14:23; 1 Kings 16:33). Schlottmann writes: “That Ashera was only another name for the same supreme goddess (_i.e.,_ Ashtoreth) is at once shown by the parallelism of ‘Baal and Ashtaroth’ (Judges 2:13) with ‘Baal... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CAUSED... FIRE. — The _cultus_ of Moloch (2 Kings 16:3). USED DIVINATION AND ENCHANTMENTS. — Deuteronomy 18:10; Numbers 23:23. “Divinationibus inserviebant et auguriis” (Vulg.). SOLD THEMSELVES. — Idolatry is regarded as a _servitude._ (Comp. 1 Kings 21:20; 1 Kings 21:25.)... [ Continue Reading ]
REMOVED THEM OUT OF HIS SIGHT. — By banishing them from his land (2 Kings 17:23) — an expression founded upon the old _local_ conceptions of deity. THE TRIBE — i.e., the kingdom. (Comp. 1 Kings 11:36.)... [ Continue Reading ]
ALSO JUDAH KEPT NOT ... — Judah was no real or permanent exception to the sins and punishment of Israel; she imitated the apostasy of her sister-kingdom, and was visited with a similar penalty. THE STATUTES OF ISRAEL WHICH THEY MADE. — See Note on 2 Kings 17:8 _supra,_ and comp. Micah 6:16, “the st... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD REJECTED ALL THE SEED OF ISRAEL. — Thenius prefers the reading of the LXX. “and rejected the Lord (as in the last clause of 2 Kings 17:19), and the Lord, was angry with all the seed of Israel,” &c. It thus becomes plain that the writer goes back to 2 Kings 17:18, after the parenthesis r... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE RENT ... — The verse assigns the _fons et origo mali;_ it makes the secession of the Ten Tribes from the house of David the ultimate cause of their ruin. The “for,” therefore, refers to what has just been said in 2 Kings 17:18. HE RENT ISRAEL. — The Hebrew as it stands can only mean _Israel... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WALKED ... — Israel obstinately _persisted_ in the sin of Jeroboam, in spite of all warning.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY ALL HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS. — Comp. Hosea 1:6; Hosea 9:16; Amos 3:11; Amos 5:27; Isaiah 28:1. SO WAS ISRAEL CARRIED AWAY. — That the land was not entirely depopulated appears from such passages as 2 Chronicles 30:1; 2 Chronicles 34:9. But henceforth “the distinctive character of the nation was... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-33) RE-PEOPLING OF THE LAND WITH ALIENS; THEIR WORSHIP DESCRIBED. (24) THE KING OF ASSYRIA. — Sargon (_Sargîna_)_,_ who actually records that in his first year (721 B.C.) he settled a body of conquered Babylonians in the land of _Hatti_ or Syria. In another passage he speaks of locating certain... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SENT (the) LIONS. — In the interval between the Assyrian depopulation and the re-peopling of the land, the lions indigenous to the country had multiplied naturally enough. Their ravages were understood by the colonists as a token of the wrath of the local deity on account of their neglect o... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SPAKE. — Rather, _men spake, i.e.,_ the prefects of the province. THE MANNER OF THE GOD. — The word _mishpât,_ “judgment,” “decision,” here means “appointed worship” or “cultus.” In the Koran the word _din,_ “judgment,” is used in a similar way, as equivalent to “religion,” especially the reli... [ Continue Reading ]
CARRY. — _Cause to go._ LET THEM GO AND DWELL. — To be corrected after the Syriac and Vulg.: _let him go and dwell._ YE BROUGHT. — _Ye carried away. _... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TAUGHT. — _And was teaching,_ implying a _permanent_ work. IN BETHEL. — Because he was a priest of the calfworship. FEAR THE LORD. — Not in the modern _ethical_ but in the ancient _ceremonial_ sense.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWBEIT. — _And._ The colonists did not fear Jehovah in a monotheistic sense; they simply _added_ his _cultus_ to that of their ancestral deities. THE HOUSES OF THE HIGH PLACES. — The temples or chaples which constituted the sanctuaries of the different cities in the Samaritan territory. THE SAMAR... [ Continue Reading ]
SUCCOTH-BENOTH. — The Hebrew spelling of this name has probably suffered in transmission. The Babylonian goddess _Zirbânit_ or _Zarpanitum_ (“seed-maker”) the consort of Merodach, appears to be meant. NERGAL. — The name of the god represented by the colossal _lions_ which guarded the doorways of As... [ Continue Reading ]
NIBHAZ and TARTAK are unknown, but the forms have an Assyrio-Babylonian cast. (Comp. Nimrod, Nergal with the former, and Ishtar, Namtar, Merodach, Shadrach, with the latter.) Before Nibhaz the LXX. have another name, _Abaazar,_ or _Eblazer_ (? _’abal Assûr_ “the Son of Assur”). ADRAMMELECH. — Comp.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY FEARED. — _They were fearing._ (See Note on 2 Kings 17:25; 2 Kings 17:28, _supra._) OF THE LOWEST OF THEM. — Rather, _of all orders,_ or _promiscuously._ (Comp. 1 Kings 12:31.) This is another indication that it was _Jeroboam’s_ mode of worship which was now restored. WHICH SACRIFICED. — Heb.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY FEARED... GODS. — Literally, _Jehovah were they fearing, and their own gods were they serving._ The verse recapitulates 28-32. WHOM THEY CARRIED AWAY FROM THENCE. — Rather, _whence they had been carried away._ Literally, _whence men carried them away._ The meaning is: according to the customs... [ Continue Reading ]
(34-41) THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE MIXED POPULATION OF SAMARIA IN THE TIME OF THE EDITOR. (34) THEY DO AFTER THE FORMER MANNERS. — They still keep up the religious customs of the first colonists. THEY FEAR NOT THE LORD. — They fear Him not in the sense of a _right_ fear; they do not honour Him in... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL YE FEAR OTHER GODS. — This formula is repeated thrice (2 Kings 17:35; 2 Kings 17:37), as the main point of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE. — The pronoun is emphatic: “and He, on His part, will deliver you.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY — _i.e.,_ the Ephraimites. DID. — _Continued doing._ AFTER THEIR FORMER MANNER — i.e., they clung to the old-established cultus of the calves.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THESE NATIONS FEARED... IMAGES. — A variation of 2 Kings 17:33. THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN. — The captivity of Ephraim took place in 721 B.C. Two generations later bring us to the times of the exile of Judah — the age of the last Redactor of Kings.... [ Continue Reading ]