48 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 17 This chapter relates the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, and how it came about, 2 Kings 17:1, the cause of it, their idolatry, which they persisted in, notwithstanding the remonstrances made against it, 2 Kings 17:7, in whose stead were placed people from different parts, who exercised a mixed religion, partly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
In the tenth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. In this account there is some difficulty, since it was in the twentieth of Jotham, that is, the fourth of Ahaz, that Hosea conspired against Pekah king of Israel, and slew him, when it might be reasonably thought he began his reign: now...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter gives us an account of the captivity of the ten tribes, and so finishes the history of that kingdom, after it had continued about 265 years, from the setting up of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. In it we have, I. A short narrative of this destruction, ver. 1-6. II. Remarks upon it, and the causes of it, for the justifying of God in it and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. He did not worship Baal, as some of them had done; and he could not worship the calves, as all of them had, for they were carried away by the Assyrians in the former captivities, as the Jews (s) say; and who also observe (t), that he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria,.... Which some take to be the same with Tiglathpileser, see 1 Chronicles 5:26 but he rather seems to be his son; his name was to be found, as Josephus (w) relates, in the archives of the Tyrians, against whom he had an expedition; his name is Salmanassar in Metasthenes (x), who says he reigned...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea,.... That he was forming a scheme to rebel against him, and cast off his yoke; of this he had intelligence by spies he sent, and placed to observe him very probably: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt; to treat with him, and enter into alliance with him, to help him against, and free...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land,.... Of Israel, there being none to oppose his march; Hoshea not daring to come out, and meet him and fight him: and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years; so long the city held out against him, see 2 Kings 18:9.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,..... Which was the last year of his reign, and to be reckoned either from the time of his reigning in full power and authority, or from his first casting off the Assyrian yoke; [See comments on 2 Kings 17:1] and carried Israel away into Assyria; not only the inhabitants of Samaria, but...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God,.... By committing idolatry, which is the sin enlarged upon in the following discourse, as the cause of their being carried captive: which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; which is observed to show their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel,.... Meaning the Canaanites, in whose idolatrous ways they walked, and whom they imitated; though their ejection out of the land should have been a warning to them, and they were the more inexcusable, as they were particularly cautioned against...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God,.... As being partly conscious to themselves that they were not right, and ashamed to commit them openly; and partly as foolishly imagining, that, being done privately, they were not seen and observed of God, having imbibed some atheistical notions...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree. That is, statues and idols; for groves of trees could not be set under green trees; but they placed idols of stone, and of wood, as the latter were, in such places as Heathens were wont to do; see Jeremiah 3:6 [See comments on 1 Kings 14:23], so the Indians to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there they burnt incense in all the high places,.... As even the tribe of Judah did, which is observed in all the preceding reigns: as did the Heathen whom the Lord carried away before them: the Canaanites, and therefore they might justly expect to be carried captive also: and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: by their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they served idols,.... Baalim, as the Targum; dunghill gods, as the word signifies, as they are often called in Scripture; and Sterculius was one of the names of Saturn, an Heathen deity, which he had, as is supposed, by his finding out the method of making land fruitful with dung (i): whereof the Lord said unto them, ye shall not do this...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, [and by] all the seers,.... Against their sins, reproving them for them, dehorting them from them, exhorting them to repent and leave them; as in all preceding reigns, by Ahijah the Shilonite, by Elijah and Elisha, by Hosea, Amos, and Micah, and others: saying, turn ye...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Notwithstanding, they would not hear,.... Their instructions, advice, and admonitions, and obey them: but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God: as Terah and Nahor, who were idolaters; or rather, their fathers in the wilderness, that made and served the calf, and those that rebelled...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers,.... At Sinai and Horeb, see Exodus 24:8, and his testimonies which he testified against them; calling heaven and earth to witness what he would do to them if they broke his laws, Deuteronomy 4:26, and which were so many testifications of his mind and will what they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God,.... Which their idolatry led them to; and indeed he that offends in one point is guilty of them all, James 2:10 and made them molten images, [even] two calves; which they set up at Dan and Bethel, in the times of their first king Jeroboam, 1 Kings 13:28 and made a grove; as Ahab, another of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire,.... To Baal or Moloch, which were the same, and represented the sun, which, as the above writer observes, presides in the element of fire; this was done either by way of lustration, or so as to be burnt, see 2 Kings 16:3 and used divination and enchantments: to get knowledge...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel,.... Nothing being more provoking to him than idolatry: and removed them out of his sight; not out of the reach of his all seeing eye, but from all tokens of his favour, from the good land he had given them, and all the benefits and privileges of it: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only; and...