2 Kings 17 · WEB
Fall of Samaria to Assyria; Israel Exiled; Origin of the Samaritans
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In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and reigned nine years.
2He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his servant and brought him tribute.
4The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered 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.
5Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7This was so because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8and walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9The children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against Yahweh their God. They built high places for themselves in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;
10and they set them up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree;
11and they burned incense there, in all the high places, as the nations did whom Yahweh carried away before them; and they did evil things to provoke Yahweh to anger;
12and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."
13Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
14Notwithstanding they would not listen, but hardened their necks like the neck of their fathers who didn't believe in Yahweh their God.
15They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity and became vain, and followed the nations around them, concerning whom Yahweh had commanded them that they should not do like them.
16They abandoned all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.
17They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, to provoke him to anger.
18Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19Also Judah didn't keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20Yahweh rejected all the offspring of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21For he tore Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following Yahweh and made them sin a great sin.
22The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did. They didn't depart from them
23until Yahweh removed Israel out of his sight, as he spoke by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria to this day.
24The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.
25So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn't fear Yahweh. Therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
26Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria don't know the law of the God of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them, because they don't know the law of the God of the land."
27Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the God of the land."
28So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Yahweh.
29However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.
30The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32So they feared Yahweh, and also made for themselves from among themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33They feared Yahweh and also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
34To this day they do what their former customs were. They don't fear Yahweh, and they don't follow his statutes, or his ordinances, or the law, or the commandment which Yahweh commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35with whom Yahweh 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 Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm — him you shall fear, and to him you shall bow down, and to him you shall sacrifice.
37The statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever. You shall not fear other gods.
38You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods.
39But Yahweh your God you shall fear, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies."
40However they didn't listen, but they did what they had previously done.
41So these nations feared Yahweh and also served their engraved images. Their children likewise, and their children's children, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
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Summary
The northern kingdom of Israel falls to Assyria in 722 BC when Hoshea, after attempting to switch allegiance to Egypt, is imprisoned and Samaria is besieged for three years before being taken by Shalmaneser V (or Sargon II). The writer provides an extended theological explanation for the exile — a long accumulation of idolatry, covenant breaking, and refusal to heed the prophets — tracing the root cause back to Jeroboam's golden calves. The Assyrians resettle the land with peoples from Babylon, Cuthah, Hamath, and other regions; these people mix worship of Yahweh with worship of their own national gods, creating the syncretic religion that will characterize the Samaritans. God sends lions among the newcomers, which prompts them to request instruction in the "law of the God of the land."
Themes
- The catastrophic end of the northern kingdom as the result of prolonged covenant unfaithfulness
- God's patient warning through prophets before judgment falls
- Syncretism — mixing true and false worship — as spiritually deadly as outright paganism
- The origin of the mixed religious identity of the Samaritans
Key verses
- 2 Kgs 17:13 — “Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer, saying, 'Turn from your evil ways.'”
- 2 Kgs 17:33 — “They feared Yahweh and also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.”
- 2 Kgs 17:41 — “So these nations feared Yahweh and also served their engraved images… so they do to this day.”
- 2 Kgs 17:6 — “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria.”
Context & background
Samaria (modern Sebastia, West Bank) was the capital of the northern kingdom and fell to the Assyrian empire in 722 BC — one of the most consequential events in Israelite history. The Assyrian capital at Nineveh (modern Mosul, northern Iraq) directed this massive deportation policy, scattering the ten northern tribes into what is now northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and northwestern Iran (the "cities of the Medes"). The peoples resettled in Israel came from Babylon (modern central Iraq), Cuthah (also near Babylon), Hamath (modern Hama, central Syria), and other Mesopotamian regions. The resulting mixed population became the ancestors of the Samaritans known in the New Testament — explaining the deep Jewish-Samaritan hostility Jesus navigates in John 4, and why the "Good Samaritan" parable was so striking to its audience.
Cross-references
- 1 Kgs 12:28-30 — Jeroboam's calves, identified in verse 21-22 as the root cause of Israel's fall
- Amos 5:27 — "I will carry you away into captivity beyond Damascus" — prophesied 30 years before this
- Deut 28:36-37 — Moses' warning that exile would come for covenant unfaithfulness
- John 4:9-20 — Jesus meets the Samaritan woman, whose religion was the direct result of this chapter
- Luke 10:33 — The "good Samaritan" — the very people whose mixed worship origins are explained here