1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2And he did evil in the eyes of Jehovah, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his servant, and paid him tribute. 4And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. 5Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they feared other gods, 8and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom Jehovah had cast out before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9And the children of Israel secretly did things against Jehovah their God that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. 10They set up for themselves sacred pillars and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. 11There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom Jehovah had carried away before them, and did evil things to provoke Jehovah to anger; 12for they served idols, of which Jehovah had said to them, You shall not do this thing. 13Yet Jehovah testified against Israel and against Judah, by the hand of all of His prophets and every seer, saying, Turn away from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the Law which I have commanded your fathers, and which I have sent to you by the hand of My servants the prophets. 14Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who had not believed in Jehovah their God. 15And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they went after their vanities, became vain, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them. 16And they left all the commandments of Jehovah their God, made for themselves molten images, two calves, made a grove and bowed down to all the host of the heavens, and served Baal. 17And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced divination of witchcraft and fortunetelling, and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger. 18Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and removed them away from before His face; there was no one left but only the tribe of Judah. 19Also Judah did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they had made. 20And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them away from before His face. 21For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following after Jehovah, and made them sin a great sin. 22For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they have not departed from them, 23until Jehovah had removed Israel from before His face, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. Thus Israel was carried away from their own land into Assyria, as it is this day. 24Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. 25And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear Jehovah; therefore Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the ordinances of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them because they do not know the ordinances of the God of the land. 27So the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Send there one of the priests whom you have brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the ordinances of the God of the land. 28Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah. 29However nation by nation they continued making gods of their own, and put them in the houses on the high places which those from Samaria had made, nation by nation in the cities where they were living. 30The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32So they feared Jehovah; and from among all of them they appointed for themselves priests of the high places, who attended to the houses of the high places for them. 33They feared Jehovah, and also served their own gods; according to the manner of the nations from where they were carried away. 34To this day they continue doing according to the former manner; they do not fear Jehovah, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the Law and commandments which Jehovah has commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He had ordained with the name, Israel; 35with whom Jehovah had made a covenant and charged them, saying: You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; 36but Jehovah, who has brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, to Him you shall bow down, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. 37And the statutes, the ordinances, the Law, and the commandments which He has written for you, you shall take heed to do forever; you shall not fear other gods. 38And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. 39But Jehovah your God you shall fear; and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. 40However they have not obeyed, but are doing according to their former manner. 41Thus these nations feared Jehovah, while also serving their graven images. And their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers have done, even to this day.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 HOSHEA'S WICKED REIGN. (
2Kgs 17:1-6)
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, began Hoshea . . . to reign--The statement in
2Kgs 15:30 may be reconciled with the present passage in the following manner: Hoshea conspired against Pekah in the twentieth year of the latter, which was the eighteenth of Jotham's reign. It was two years before Hoshea was acknowledged king of Israel, that is, in the fourth of Ahaz, and twentieth of Jotham. In the twelfth year of Ahaz his reign began to be tranquil and prosperous [CALMET].
2 he did evil . . . but not as the kings of Israel--Unlike his predecessors from the time of Jeroboam, he neither established the rites of Baal, nor compelled the people to adhere to the symbolic worship of the calves. [See on
2Chr 30:1.] In these respects, Hoshea acted as became a constitutional king of Israel. Yet, through the influence of the nineteen princes who had swayed the scepter before him (all of whom had been zealous patrons of idolatry, and many of whom had been also infamous for personal crimes), the whole nation had become so completely demoralized that the righteous judgment of an angry Providence impended over it.
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser--or Shalman (
Hos 10:14), the same as the Sargon of Isaiah [
Isa 20:1]. Very recently the name of this Assyrian king has been traced on the Ninevite monuments, as concerned in an expedition against a king of Samaria, whose name, though mutilated, COLONEL RAWLINSON reads as Hoshea.
4 found conspiracy in Hoshea--After having paid tribute for several years, Hoshea, determined on throwing off the Assyrian yoke, withheld the stipulated tribute. Shalmaneser, incensed at this rebellion, proclaimed war against Israel. This was in the sixth year of Hoshea's reign.
he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt--the Sabaco of the classic historians, a famous Ethiopian who, for fifty years, occupied the Egyptian throne, and through whose aid Hoshea hoped to resist the threatened attack of the Assyrian conqueror. But Shalmaneser, marching against [Hoshea], scoured the whole country of Israel, besieged the capital Samaria, and carried the principal inhabitants into captivity in his own land, having taken the king himself, and imprisoned him for life. This ancient policy of transplanting a conquered people into a foreign land, was founded on the idea that, among a mixed multitude, differing in language and religion, they would be kept in better subjection, and have less opportunity of combining together to recover their independence.
6 carried Israel away--that is, the remaining tribes (see on
2Kgs 15:29).
and placed them, &c.--This passage GESENIUS renders thus, omitting the particle by, which is printed in italics to show it is not in the original: "and placed them in Halah, and on the Chabor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes."
Halah--the same as Calah (
Gen 10:11-
Gen 10:12), in the region of the Laycus or Zab river, about a day's journey from the ruins of Nineveh.
Chabor--is a river, and it is remarkable that there is a river rising in the central highlands of Assyria which retains this name Khabour unchanged to the present day.
Gozan--("pasture") or Zozan, are the highlands of Assyria, which afford pasturage. The region in which the Chabor and the Zab rise, and through which they flow, is peculiarly of this character. The Nestorians repair to it with their numerous flocks, spending the summer on the banks or in the highlands of the Chabor or the Zab. Considering the high authority we possess for regarding Gozan and Zozan as one name, there can be no doubt that this is the Gozan referred to in this passage.
cities of the Medes--"villages," according to the Syriac and Vulgate versions, or "mountains," according to the Septuagint. The Medish inhabitants of Gozan, having revolted, had been destroyed by the kings of Assyria, and nothing was more natural than that they should wish to place in it an industrious people, like the captive Israelites, while it was well suited to their pastoral life [GRANT, Nestorians].
7 SAMARIA TAKEN, AND ISRAEL FOR THEIR SINS CARRIED CAPTIVE. (2Ki. 17:7-41)
For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned--There is here given a very full and impressive vindication of the divine procedure in punishing His highly privileged, but rebellious and apostate, people. No wonder that amid so gross a perversion of the worship of the true God, and the national propensity to do reverence to idols, the divine patience was exhausted; and that the God whom they had forsaken permitted them to go into captivity, that they might learn the difference between His service and that of their despotic conquerors.
24 the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, etc.--This was not Shalmaneser, but Esar-haddon (
Ezek 4:2). The places vacated by the captive Israelites he ordered to be occupied by several colonies of his own subjects from Babylon and other provinces.
from Cuthah--the Chaldee form of Cush or Susiana, now Khusistan.
Ava--supposed to be Ahivaz, situated on the river Karuns, which empties into the head of the Persian Gulf.
Hamath--on the Orontes.
Sepharvaim--Siphara, a city on the Euphrates above Babylon.
placed them in the cities of Samaria, &c.--It must not be supposed that the Israelites were universally removed to a man. A remnant was left, chiefly however of the poor and lower classes, with whom these foreign colonists mingled; so that the prevailing character of society about Samaria was heathen, not Israelite. For the Assyrian colonists became masters of the land; and, forming partial intermarriages with the remnant Jews, the inhabitants became a mongrel race, no longer a people of Ephraim (
Isa 7:6). These people, imperfectly instructed in the creed of the Jews, acquired also a mongrel doctrine. Being too few to replenish the land, lions, by which the land had been infested (
Judg 14:5;
1Sam 17:34;
1Kgs 13:24;
1Kgs 20:36;
Song 4:8), multiplied and committed frequent ravages upon them. Recognizing in these attacks a judgment from the God of the land, whom they had not worshipped, they petitioned the Assyrian court to send them some Jewish priests who might instruct them in the right way of serving Him. The king, in compliance with their request, sent them one of the exiled priests of Israel [
2Kgs 17:27], who established his headquarters at Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. It is not said that he took a copy of the Pentateuch with him, out of which he might teach them. Oral teaching was much better fitted for the superstitious people than instruction out of a written book. He could teach them more effectually by word of mouth. Believing that he would adopt the best and simplest method for them, it is unlikely that he took the written law with him, and so gave origin to the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch [DAVIDSON, Criticism]. Besides, it is evident from his being one of the exiled priests, and from his settlement at Beth-el, that he was not a Levite, but one of the calf-worshipping priests. Consequently his instructions would be neither sound nor efficient.
29 Howbeit every nation made gods of their own--These Assyrian colonists, however, though instructed in the worship, and acknowledging the being of the God of Israel, did not suppose Him to be the only God. Like other heathens, they combined His worship with that of their own gods; and as they formed a promiscuous society from different nations or provinces, a variety of idols was acknowledged among them.
30 Succoth-benoth--that is, the "tents" or "booths of the daughters," similar to those in which the Babylonian damsels celebrated impure rites (
Amos 2:8).
Nergal--The Jewish writers say this idol was in the form of a cock, and it is certain that a cock is often associated with a priest on the Assyrian monuments [LAYARD]. But modern critics, looking to the astrological character of Assyrian idolatry, generally consider Nergal as the planet Mars, the god of war. The name of this idol formed part of the appellation of two of the king of Babylon's princes (
Jer 39:3).
Ashima--an idol under the form of an entirely bald he-goat.
31 Nibhaz--under that of a dog--that Egyptian form of animal-worship having prevailed in ancient Syria, as is evident from the image of a large dog at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, or Dog river.
Tartak--According to the rabbis, it was in the form of an ass, but others understand it as a planet of ill-omen, probably Saturn.
Adrammelech--supposed by some to be the same as Molech, and in Assyrian mythology to stand for the sun. It was worshipped in the form of a mule--others maintain in that of a peacock.
Anammelech--worshipped in the form of a hare; others say in that of a goat.
34 Unto this day--the time of the Babylonian exile, when this book was composed. Their religion was a strange medley or compound of the service of God and the service of idols. Such was the first settlement of the people, afterwards called Samaritans, who were sent from Assyria to colonize the land, when the kingdom of Israel, after having continued three hundred fifty-six years, was overthrown.