2 Kings 17:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the reign and ruin of Hoshea, the last king of Israel. Notice, first, that he took the throne by treason and murder, as we read earlier (2 Kings 15:30), but he did not get to keep it right away. He killed Pekah in the fourth year of Ahaz, yet he did not begin to reign until the twelfth year of Ahaz (2 Kings 17:1). We do not know whether the delay came through the king of Assyria, the king of Judah, or some of Hoshea’s own people, but it lasted a long time.

His evil plans were justly punished, and God’s word was fulfilled, “Now they will say, We have no king, because we did not fear the Lord” (Hosea 10:3). Though Hoshea was bad, he was not as devoted to the golden calves as earlier kings of Israel had been (2 Kings 17:2). The Jews say the calf at Dan had already been carried off by the king of Assyria in the campaign recorded in 2 Kings 15:29. If that is so, Hoshea may have trusted the other calf less, and some say he also allowed people to go up to Jerusalem to worship if they wished.

Yet it is striking that the kingdom of Israel fell during the reign of one of its better kings. “Your judgments, O God,” are a great deep. God was showing that this ruin was for the sins of many generations, not just that one. He was also punishing the people themselves, not only their kings. Hoshea may not have been as wicked as those before him, but the people were still as sinful as ever, and the fact that he gave them room to do better made their guilt even clearer.

The judgment also came step by step. First they were made to pay tribute to the king of Assyria, and only later were they made captives (2 Kings 17:3). If that lighter discipline had humbled them and led them to change, the worse judgment might have been avoided. But instead they tried to throw off Assyria’s rule in a crooked way (2 Kings 17:4). If the king and people had turned to God, made peace with him, and prayed to him, they might have recovered their freedom and honor. Instead, they withheld tribute and leaned on the king of Egypt, who proved to be no help at all, like a broken reed. Men gain nothing by struggling against God’s net, only more trouble.

In the end, the destruction was complete. The king of Israel was taken prisoner, shut up, and bound, likely caught by surprise before Samaria itself was besieged. The land of Israel was overrun, and the army of Assyria took possession of it (2 Kings 17:5). Samaria, the royal city, held out for three years after the rest of the country had fallen, and much suffering must have come during that time. Still, the short way the account is told suggests that God had withdrawn from them and no longer showed the same concern for Israel’s affliction as he sometimes had before.

At last the people of Israel were carried away into Assyria (2 Kings 17:6). The leading people were forced from their homes and taken to a foreign land to live as slaves and beggars. In this, Assyria showed its power over them, stripped them of their property, punished their rebellion, and made sure they could not rise up again. It also benefited from their labor, much as Pharaoh once benefited from the labor of their ancestors. So this unworthy people ended as they began, under oppression and in servitude.

They were settled in Halah and Habor, likely far apart so they could not keep in touch and become a threat again. After some time, they were so mixed in with other nations that they were lost from sight, and the name of Israel was no longer remembered. Those who forgot God were themselves forgotten. Those who wanted to be like the nations were buried among the nations. Those who would not serve God in their own land were made to serve their enemies in a foreign land.

It is likely that the men of rank and property were carried away, while many of the poorer people were left behind, including people from every tribe. Some of these went to Judah, and others became subject to the Assyrian settlers. Their descendants were later known as Galileans or Samaritans. So Israel as a nation came to an end. They became Lo-ammi, “not my people,” and Lo-ruhamah, “no longer pitied.” Canaan itself expelled them.

When we read of their entrance into the land under Hoshea son of Nun, who would have expected such an ending under Hoshea son of Elah? In later history, Rome’s glory under Augustus faded many ages afterward under Augustulus. God ordered it so that the honor of the ten tribes would be eclipsed, while the honor of Judah, the royal tribe, and Levi, the holy tribe, would shine more clearly. Yet we still read of a sealed people from every one of the twelve tribes, except Dan (Revelation 7).

James writes to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations (James 1:1), and Paul speaks of the twelve tribes as serving God with earnest devotion day and night (Acts 26:7). So, even though we do not read much about the people who were taken into exile, and even though there is no good reason to accept the idea that they still exist as a separate people in some faraway place, a remnant did escape. They kept the name of Israel alive until it came to belong to the gospel church, the spiritual Israel, where it will remain forever (Galatians 6:16).