Chapter 17
Hoshea of Israel. 1 Hoshea, the son of Elah, began to reign over Israel in Samaria during the twelfth year of the reign of Ahaz, the king of Judah. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
3 Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and gave him tribute. 4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was involved in a conspiracy, for he had sent messengers to the king of Egypt, and he had not given tribute to the king of Assyria as he had in previous years. The king of Assyria therefore shut him up, throwing him in prison. 5 [a]The king of Assyria occupied the entire land, and he went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.
6 The king of Assyria captured Samaria in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea. He carried Israel away into Assyria, settling them in Halah, near Habor, on the River Gozan, in the cities of the Medes. 7 This happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord, their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. They had revered other gods 8 and they had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before them and that the kings of Israel had introduced.
9 The people of Israel secretly did what was wrong against the Lord, their God. They built high places for themselves in all of their cities, whether it be a simple watchtower or fortified city. 10 They set up pillars and Asherahs for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 They burned incense on all of the high places like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them. They did wicked things, provoking the anger of the Lord. 12 They served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You are not to do this thing.”
13 The Lord had testified against Israel and against Judah through every prophet and every seer saying, “Turn from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and my statutes according to the law that I gave your fathers and which I sent you by my servants, the prophets.” 14 But they would not listen. They hardened their necks to make them just like the necks of their fathers who had not believed in the Lord, their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers and the warnings by which he bore witness against them. They followed after vain idols, becoming foolish. They also followed after the nations that surrounded them, the ones of whom the Lord had told them that they should not do what they did. 16 They abandoned the commandments of the Lord, their God, and they made molten images of two calves for themselves. They made Asherah, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served the Baals.[b] 17 They burned their sons and their daughters in fire, and they practiced divination and sorcery. They sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord and to provoke him to anger.
18 The Lord was thus very angry with Israel. He removed them from out of his sight, so that there were none of them left except for the tribe of Judah.
19 Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord, their God, but they walked in the practices that Israel had introduced. 20 The Lord rejected all of the descendants of Israel, punishing them and delivering them into the hands of those who plundered them until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, their king. Jeroboam misled Israel, causing them to turn away from following the Lord, making them commit a great sin. 22 The Israelites walked in all of the sins that Jeroboam committed; they did not turn away from them 23 until the Lord had removed them from out of his sight as he had predicted through all of his servants, the prophets. Israel was exiled out of their own land into Assyria where they are up until the present.
24 Foreigners Deported to Samaria.[c] The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the cities of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.
25 When they first began to dwell there, they did not fear the Lord, so the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. 26 The king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the God of the land. This is why he sent lions among them to kill them, because they did not know the law of the God of the land.”
27 The king of Assyria commanded, “Carry one of the priests there whom you deported. Let him go and dwell there to teach them the law of the God of the land.”
28 One of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria went and dwelt in Bethel. He taught them how to fear the Lord. 29 But all the nations still made their own gods, and they placed their shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, each nation in their own cities where they dwelt. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak. The Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of the Sepharvaim.
32 They also feared the Lord, and they appointed priests for the high places from their lowliest classes. They performed sacrifices for them in the shrines on the high places. 33 So they feared the Lord but they also served their own gods in the tradition of the nations from which they had been carried away. 34 Up to the present they still follow their previous traditions. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not observe the statutes or the ordinances or the law or the commandment that the Lord had given to the children of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel.
35 The Lord made a covenant with them and ordered them, “You shall not fear other gods,[d] nor shall you bow yourselves down to them, nor shall you serve them, nor shall you offer sacrifices to them. 36 You shall fear the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to fear him, and you are to worship him, and you are to offer sacrifice to him. 37 You will always carefully observe the statutes, the ordinances, the laws, and the commandments that he wrote for you. You are not to fear other gods. 38 You will not forget the covenant that I made with you, and you are not to fear other gods. 39 You will fear the Lord, your God. He will deliver you out of the hands of all of your enemies.”
40 However, they would not listen; they practiced their previous traditions. 41 The nations thus feared the Lord, but they also served their graven images. Their children and their grandchildren did what their fathers had done, up to the present day.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 17:5 The capital falls (721 B.C.) after a three-year siege. The northern kingdom now vanishes, and a page of Israel’s history is turned, with no hope of going back. The simple record of the event in verses 5-6 is followed by a spiritual comment, the result of long meditation, which recalls countless pages of the prophetic literature. Another account of the tragic events in the north is given in 2 Ki 18:9-12.
- 2 Kings 17:16 The reference is to the golden calves in Dan and Bethel (1 Ki 12:28).
- 2 Kings 17:24 In accordance with Assyrian custom, the territory now largely deserted is repopulated by other peoples, who are taught to worship the Lord but who combine this with worship of the gods of their native lands. The resultant syncretism gives rise to the Samaritans, who will be regarded as heretics (Ezr 4:1-5; Sir 50:25), even in New Testament times (Jn 4:9, 20; 8:48; Acts 8:4-6; Lk 9:52; Mt 10:5). The mingling of the remaining Israelites with the newcomers was perhaps enough to explain the development.
- 2 Kings 17:35 Not fear other gods: from this point to verse 40, inclusive, the text picks up verse 23 and continues the reflection on the Israelites; the point is that they did not worship the Lord. Verse 41 refers again to the Samaritans.