“In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him.” (v1,2)
Hoshea led a conspiracy against Pekah, king of Israel (2 Kings 15). Having assassinated him he took the throne for a short period. Whilst he did evil, he wasn’t as bad as his predecessors. He was attacked by Shalmaneser king of Assyria and Hoshea gave him tribute money, therefore, he was allowed to remain as king of Israel so long as he paid up. However, Hoshea entered into a conspiracy with the king of Egypt with the apparently strange name of So. He stopped paying the tribute money and Shalmaneser imprisoned him (v3,4). He probably thought that the new king of Assyria would not be as strong as his father Tiglath-Pileser and took advantage of seeking help from the king of Egypt who was also in conflict with Assyria. Instead of seeking the LORD, Hoshea sought the help of Egypt, which led to his downfall. Hosea prophesied this – “As for Samaria, her king is cut off like a twig on the water” (Hosea 10:7).
Shalmaneser attacked Israel and besieged Samaria for three years. Although it took three years, Assyria finally won n the ninth year of Hoshea. The Northern Kingdom fell because they had forsaken God and ignored His guidance, and God stopped protecting them.
As was their usual custom, Assyria took captives back to their land on journeys of hundreds of miles. The captives were usually naked and together, led in humiliating ways (see Amos 4:2,3). They were utterly degraded. They usually took all but the very lowest class to train and use in their empire.
The Assyrian captivity or exile covered the the period during which tens of thousands of Israelites from the Northern Kingdom were forcibly relocated by Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser and later kings Sargon and Sennacherib. Not all were deported and those left became known as Samaritans. Those who were taken became known as the Ten Lost Tribes and Judah was left as the sole Israelite kingdom until the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587BC
I digress to summarise the captivity – It began approximately in 732BC when Pul and Tiglath-Pileser, kings of Assyria, stirred up by God, carried away the two and a half tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan (see 1 Chronicles 5) and in the days of Pekah, king of Israel, a large part of the north of Israel was taken (see 2 Kings 15). Around ten years later, the city of Samaria was taken by Sargon after the three-year siege started by Shalmaneser, and Hoshea became his servant, after he had conspired with the king of Egypt and failed to pay tribute.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa (2 Chronicles 15:8-10) having heard the prophecy of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable things of the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the hill country of Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD. He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those of Simeon, Ephraim and Manasseh who came to him when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
There is also evidence in 2 Chronicles 30:1 that some of the people in the Northern Kingdom were not exiled. The ones who remained were invited by King Hezekiah to keep the Passover in Jerusalem. Those who delivered the invitations were mocked by those of Ephraim, Manasseh and Zebulun, however, some of the people of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came (v11,12). Even some of the tribe of Issachar and strangers were said to later take part in the Passover.
The letters to them told them not to be stubborn as their fathers had been, but to serve the LORD God and if they did come back, they would find compassion for the LORD their God was gracious and merciful and would not turn His face away if they returned to Him (2 Chronicles 30:5-9).
Hezekiah prayed for them that God would pardon them even though they ate the Passover without cleansing themselves (30:18). There was rejoicing and great joy as nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem since the time of Solomon (30:25,26).
The remnant of Israel who returned broke the baals, pillars and Asherim, the high places and altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh. They went to their own cities (31:1).
The Babylonian records showed that 27,290 captives were taken from Samaria by Sargon.
Nehemiah chapter 11: 3 describes a group called “Israel” settling in Judean neighbourhoods. This “Israel” was composed of various Israelite tribes, who intermarried with each other. In contrast, the Israelite tribes of Judah and Benjamin settled in Jerusalem.
The rest of 2 Kings 17 shows why God permitted this desolation to fall on His people.
They sinned against God who had delivered them from Egypt and served other gods (v7). They failed to remember how good God had been to them, and they forsook Him for worthless idols. If that wasn’t bad enough, they went further by walking in the statutes of the Canaanites who had occupied the land before God cast them out. In accordance with God’s provision, they lived in the land, the Promised Land where previously pagan practices had taken place, and now they were dabbling in those very same practices (v8). God had cast the Canaanites out, now He was going to do the same to Israel.
They also did things which were not right, secretly against God, as if God didn’t know. How foolish to think that they could hide anything from Him. Further they did openly build idols and practised idol worship. Again, like those whom the LORD had driven out before them. They provoked the LORD to anger, serving idols which the LORD had many times told them not to do (v9-12). In His mercy, the LORD sent prophets to warn them, 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.” But they stubbornly refused and would not listen like their fathers had before them who did not believe. They rejected the LORD’s covenants and testimonies and followed after these other gods (v13-15).
In His mercy, God always gives warnings when telling them of judgment, and he does the same to this very day. He calls for repentance from his people, offering forgiveness, but still today we ignore it to our peril. A shining example was in the days of Noah when he was 120 years in building the ark and preaching to the people, warning them of God’s judgment to come, but they ignored him, and consequently, all except Noah and his family perished.
The Children of Israel worshiped idols and became idolaters, one commentator says they worshiped emptiness and became empty. Another, they followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They forsook all God’s Commandments and made moulded images, two calves, a wooden image, and worshiped the stars and sun and moon, served Baal, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, made their children pass through the fire, sacrificing them to Molech, and sold themselves to do evil. Therefore, the LORD was very angry and forsook them and only Judah was left. But Judah followed suit and met the same fate eventually (v16-23).
The LORD was angry with Israel and ripped Israel from the house of David having made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. He had made Israel to sin, sin which was very great, as they did here in the preceding verses, until the LORD cut off Israel completely and they were carried away by Assyria into captivity (v21-23). This took place two hundred years after the sin of Jeroboam.
Even in the days of Jeroboam and the split between the Northern Kingdom from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, some of the priests and Levites did not go along with Jeroboam’s idolatry, and with others, setting their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel, moved to Judah (2 Chronicles 11:13-16), and kept their Jewish culture even when exiled into other countries.
The king of Assyria, therefore, brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and placed them in Samaria and they dwelt there (v24). Those people did not follow the LORD, so He sent lions which killed some of them (v25). The occupants of the land complained to the king of Assyria, and he commanded one of the priests they had taken from Israel, to go to Samaria to teach them the ways of the God of Israel. One went and dwelt at Bethel and taught them to fear the LORD (v26-28). The priesthood of Israel was corrupt and, therefore, this corrupt priest did not teach them clearly that they should only worship the One True God
However, the people continued to make their own gods, putting shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had built (v29). The people of Babylon made Succoth Bemoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, the Avites mad Nibhaz, and Tartak and the. Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech their gods (v30,31). They feared the LORD but sacrificed in the shrines having appointed their own priests. They were compromising in following both the LORD and serving their own gods (v32,33). It seems a contradiction in terms, but is it still the same today? I suggest that it is. Many say they are Christians but still serve other gods.
Bible Commentator, F.B.Meyer stated, “Are you sure this is not a true description of your own position? You pay an outward deference to God by attending his house, and acknowledging his day, whilst you are really prostrating yourself before other shrines.”
However, the real answer comes in v34 – ‘they do not fear the LORD and practice their old rituals’. Jesus said (Matthew 6:24), “You cannot serve God and mammon” (possessions). We cannot be devoted to both; they are in direct conflict. He went so far as to say that we cannot serve two masters, we will hate one and love the other.
Gold told the people clearly that they must not fear other gods, nor bow down to them (v35). He reminded them that it was He who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt by His great power and they should only worship Him. They were to observe God’s laws and not fear other gods, nor to forget His covenant. Again, He stressed, they were not to fear other gods (v36-38). They were to only fear the LORD their God, and He would deliver them from their enemies (v39). There was a ‘but’ and it was a big ‘but’ – They did not obey! (v40). These nations ‘feared’ the LORD but served carved images, even their children continued to do so (v41). They were worshiping the true God in a false way. The mixed religion first promoted by the Assyrians continued for many centuries in Samaria, existing even until New Testament times.
In 2 Chronicles 30:10-19 we see that in the days of Hezekiah there were some who truly worshiped the true God in the Northern Kingdom. Some responded to his invitation to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem.
