UNROLL
Early morning from a hillside far to the east: the rounded hill of Samaria stands far off under a thin gray haze, its walls broken, while a long thin line of tiny walking people with bundles and donkeys winds away along a valley road.

The Book of

2 Kings 17

Three years of siege, and Samaria falls. Then the narrator stops the story to tell us why.

41 verses≈ 9 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–8ElishaThe prophet's double portion
  2. 9–12JehuThe house of Ahab falls
  3. 13–17Last kings of IsraelSamaria fallsChapter 17
  4. 18–20HezekiahTrust in the LORD
  5. 21–23JosiahThe Book found
  6. 24–25ExileJerusalem falls

Hoshea the Last King of Israel

Late afternoon: Samaria finished, a walled city crowning its rounded hill, the royal palace of fine pale stone on the summit inside an inner wall, terraced olive slopes below and roads winding up from the green valleys.

Israel

Hoshea of Israel · 9 years

  1. Ahaz’s 12th year

    Hoshea king in Samaria

    In the twelfth year of the reign of Ahaz over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria nine years.

  2. did evil

    Evil, yet not like those before

    And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.

But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.

Israel Carried Captive to Assyria

Afternoon from a far hillside: an Assyrian siege camp of tents spreads around the foot of Samaria's hill, soldiers in pointed bronze helmets stand in ranks, and an earthen ramp climbs the slope to the pale city wall with a wheeled battering engine at its top.

Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.

Evening on the flat steppe of upper Mesopotamia: a long thin line of weary exiles of Israel with bundles and donkeys, seen from far off, reaches a slow river lined with poplars and reeds, a mud-brick city on a high mound beyond.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Why Israel fell

The charges

  1. Against the God who freed them

    All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

  2. Other gods and the nations’ ways

    They had worshiped other gods and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel.

  3. Wrongs done in secret

    The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right.

  4. High places in every town

    From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities.

  5. Pillars and Asherah poles

    They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

  6. Incense like the nations

    They burned incense on all the high places like the nations that the LORD had driven out before them.

  7. Provoking the LORD

    They did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger.

  8. Exodus 20:4–6

    Idols, though He said no

    They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.”

Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”

2 Kings 17:13

They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.

So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained, and even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced.

So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.

When the LORD had torn Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin. The Israelites persisted in all the sins that Jeroboam had committed and did not turn away from them.

Finally, the LORD removed Israel from His presence, as He had declared through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their homeland into Assyria, where they are to this day.

Reflect

Warned again and again

For two hundred years the LORD sent prophet after prophet, and Israel “would not listen.” Patience came first, then judgment. Is there a warning you keep hearing from Scripture, or from someone who loves you, that you keep putting off? What would turning look like this week?

Samaria Resettled

Habor RiverAssyriaMediaSamariaHamathGozanHalah (site uncertain)Babylon

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Carried to Assyria

After three years of siege Samaria fell, about 722 BC. The Assyrians carried the Israelites some four hundred miles and more to the northeast: to Gozan by the Habor River, to Halah, and as far as the cities of the Medes. Then the king of Assyria brought people the other way, from Babylon and Cuthah in the south of Mesopotamia and from Hamath, Avva and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the towns of Samaria. The sites of Halah, Avva and Sepharvaim are uncertain.

Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.

Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

The king’s officials

So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The peoples that you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land. Because of this, He has sent lions among them, which are indeed killing them off.”

The king of Assyria

Then the king of Assyria commanded: “Send back one of the priests you carried off from Samaria, and have him go back to live there and teach the requirements of the God of the land.”

Morning on Bethel's hilltop: in the weedy court of the old shrine, its pedestal empty where the golden calf once stood, a gray-bearded Israelite priest sits on a stone and teaches a mixed group of settlers in foreign dress seated on the ground.

Thus one of the priests they had carried away came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should worship the LORD.

Question

Quick question

Lions came among the settlers, and the king of Assyria sent for help.

Whom did the king of Assyria send back to Samaria?

Nevertheless, the people of each nation continued to make their own gods in the cities where they had settled, and they set them up in the shrines that the people of Samaria had made on the high places. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.

So the new residents worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed for themselves priests of all sorts to serve in the shrines of the high places. They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been carried away.

To this day they are still practicing their former customs. None of them worship the LORD or observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, whom He named Israel.

For the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites and commanded them, “Do not worship other gods or bow down to them; do not serve them or sacrifice to them. Instead, worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him and offer sacrifices to Him. And you must always be careful to observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments He wrote for you. Do not worship other gods.

Do not forget the covenant I have made with you. Do not worship other gods, but worship the LORD your God, and He will deliver you from the hands of all your enemies.”

2 Kings 17:38–39

But they would not listen, and they persisted in their former customs. So these nations worshiped the LORD but also served their idols, and to this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.

Pray

One heart for the LORD

Thank the LORD for His patience, who warned His people through prophet after prophet. Confess the divided heart that fears Him and still serves other things. Ask Him for undivided worship, to “worship the LORD your God” alone. And thank Him that Jesus went to the Samaritans and offers living water to everyone who comes.

You’ve experienced

2 Kings 17

0 of 25 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”

2 Kings 17:13

or swipe left