2 Kings 17:6-16

Israel Captive

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, ¹the king of Assyria captured Samaria and ²carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and ³settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of ⁴Gozan, and ⁵in the cities of the Medes.

Why Israel Fell

7 Now ⁶this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, ⁷who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ⁸and they had feared other gods

8 and ⁹walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before * the sons of Israel, and in the customs ¹⁰of the kings of Israel which they had introduced.

9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from ¹¹watchtower to fortified city.

10 ¹²They set for themselves sacred pillars and ¹³Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the LORD had carried away to exile before * them; and they did evil things provoking the LORD.

12 They served idols, ¹⁴concerning which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."

13 Yet the ¹⁵LORD warned Israel and Judah ¹⁶through all His prophets and ¹⁷every seer, saying, "¹⁸Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets."

14 However, they did not listen, but ¹⁹stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.

15 ²⁰They rejected His statutes and ²¹His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And ²²they followed * vanity and ²³became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the ²⁴LORD had commanded them not to do like them.

16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even ²⁵two calves, and ²⁶made an Asherah and ²⁷worshiped all the host of heaven and ²⁸served Baal.

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2 Kings 17:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 17

This chapter relates the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, and how it came about, 2Ki 17:1-6, the cause of it, their idolatry, which they persisted in, notwithstanding the remonstrances made against it, 2Ki 17:7-23, in whose stead were placed people from different parts, who exercised a mixed religion, partly Heathenish, and partly Israelitish, 2Ki 17:24.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 28

1. Hosea 13:16
2. Deuteronomy 28:64; Deuteronomy 29:27, 28
3. 2 Kings 18:11; 1 Chronicles 5:26
4. Isaiah 37:12
5. Isaiah 13:17; Isaiah 21:2
6. Joshua 23:16
7. Exodus 14:15-30
8. Judges 6:10
9. Leviticus 18:3; Deuteronomy 18:9
10. 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 17:19
11. 2 Kings 18:8
12. Exodus 34:12-14
13. 1 Kings 14:23; Micah 5:14
14. Exodus 20:4
15. Nehemiah 9:29, 30
16. 2 Kings 17:23
17. 1 Samuel 9:9
18. Jeremiah 7:3-7; Jeremiah 18:11; Ezekiel 18:31
19. Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3; Acts 7:51
20. Jeremiah 8:9
21. Exodus 24:6-8; Deuteronomy 29:25
22. Deuteronomy 32:21
23. Jeremiah 2:5; Romans 1:21-23
24. Deuteronomy 12:30, 31
25. 1 Kings 12:28
26. 1 Kings 14:15, 23
27. Deuteronomy 4:19; 2 Kings 21:3
28. 1 Kings 16:31

Footnotes 7

[a]. Lit "revered," and so throughout the ch
[b]. Lit "statutes"
[c]. Lit "made"
[d]. Or "uttered words which"
[e]. I.e. wooden symbols of a female deity
[f]. Lit "like the neck of"
[g]. I.e. a wooden symbol of a female deity