2 Kings 17 explained: The Northern Kingdom Falls to Assyria

Israel's last king falls (vv. 1-6)

Hoshea had been paying yearly tribute to Assyria, the great empire of the day, but he stopped and looked to Egypt for help, so Assyria jailed him and besieged the capital, Samaria, for three years. When it fell, around 722 BC, Assyria followed its usual policy of moving conquered people far from home so they could not band together and rebel.

The writer explains why (vv. 7-17)

Instead of explaining the defeat through politics, the writer blames Israel's long unfaithfulness to the LORD: hilltop shrines, standing stones and wooden poles honoring the goddess Asherah, star worship, fortune telling, and even burning children as sacrifices. The point is that prophets warned them again and again, yet they kept copying the religions around them.

The root goes back generations (vv. 18-23)

Only Judah, the southern kingdom, remained, and the writer notes it was already slipping into the same habits. He traces Israel's ruin back to Jeroboam, the first northern king, who set up two golden calf statues as worship centers so his people would not go south to Jerusalem.

New settlers and the lions (vv. 24-28)

Assyria moved in people from other conquered regions, and when lions attacked them, they took it as a sign that the god of this land was angry. In the thinking of the time, each land had its own god with his own rules, so the king sent back an exiled Israelite priest to teach them how to worship the LORD.

Many gods side by side (vv. 29-33)

Each group kept its own gods and set them up in the old shrines, and one group burned its children in sacrifice. Scholars are unsure about some of these gods' names and forms, but the writer's point is that the LORD was worshiped as one god among many.

The old command restated (vv. 34-41)

The writer repeats the heart of the binding agreement God made with Israel: worship the LORD alone, who brought you out of Egypt. Later Jewish tradition linked this mixed population with the Samaritans, though the Samaritans themselves trace their roots to Israelites who stayed in the land.

Key verse: 2 Kings 17:7

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether to read Israel's fall as God directly bringing Assyria against them, or as the writer's faith-based interpretation of a political catastrophe.

Something to think about

When something falls apart, in a nation or a life, how do you decide whether to explain it by outside forces or by choices made long before?