History · Chapter 17 of 25
2 Kings 17
Hoshea, Israel's last king, rebels against Assyria, and after a three-year siege Samaria falls and the northern kingdom is carried into exile. The writer pauses to explain the disaster theologically: Israel had persistently forsaken the LORD, worshiped idols, ignored the prophets, and broken the covenant. Assyria resettles the land with foreign peoples, whose mixed worship of the LORD and their own gods produces the syncretism of the later Samaritans.
What happens in 2 Kings 17
Hoshea reigns over Israel and becomes Assyria's vassal, but when he conspires with Egypt and withholds tribute, Shalmaneser imprisons him and besieges Samaria for three years. The city falls, and Israel is deported to Assyria, scattered across distant provinces. The narrator then delivers an extended sermon explaining why. Israel had sinned against the LORD who redeemed them from Egypt, feared other gods, built high places, set up images, and worshiped the host of heaven, even sacrificing their children in fire.
Despite persistent warnings from every prophet and seer, they hardened their necks and would not believe. So God removed them from his sight, as he had warned. Assyria then imports peoples from Babylon and elsewhere to resettle Samaria; plagued by lions, they receive an Israelite priest to teach them the LORD, yet they fear him while still serving their own carved gods.
2 Kings 17 in context
This chapter records the end of the northern kingdom of Israel, roughly 722 before Christ, after about two centuries of separate existence following the split from Judah. It stands as the theological climax of Kings so far, the narrator stepping back to interpret the catastrophe as covenant judgment rather than mere political defeat.
The resettlement policy of Assyria created the mixed population and syncretistic religion that lie behind the later tension between Jews and Samaritans seen in the Gospels.
Main themes of 2 Kings 17
2 Kings 17 (KJV)
1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. 2And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. 3Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. 4And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present 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 into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had 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 heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. 13Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye 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 hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. 19Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 21For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. 22For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. 24And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. 25And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 26Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. 27Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. 28Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD. 29Howbeit 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 wherein they dwelt. 30And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. 33They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence. 34Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel; 35With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them: 36But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice. 37And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods. 38And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods. 39But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. 40Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. 41So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
Verses to carry from 2 Kings 17
“Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye 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.”2 Kings 17:13
“Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.”2 Kings 17:23
“They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.”2 Kings 17:33
Thematic connection
How 2 Kings 17 points to Jesus
The exile of the northern tribes is a sobering display of what covenant unfaithfulness deserves, and it exposes a problem no reform could fix: the human heart's stubborn refusal to hear God. This is the plight Jesus came to answer. Where Israel would not listen to the prophets, Jesus is the final Word who not only warns but rescues, gathering the lost sheep of Israel that were scattered.
The syncretism of Samaria, feared and half-worshiped, sets up the moment when Christ crosses old hostilities to offer a Samaritan woman living water, and true worship in spirit and truth. The scattering that begins here God will one day answer by gathering people from every nation into one flock under one Shepherd. The judgment reveals the need; Christ is the mercy that meets it.
Questions about 2 Kings 17
Why does the narrator interrupt the history with such a long explanation?
Because the fall of Israel could easily be read as mere geopolitics, Assyria simply being stronger. The writer insists it was covenant judgment. Israel had a redemptive history with God, received centuries of prophetic warning, and persistently chose idols. The extended sermon makes clear that the exile was moral and spiritual before it was military, a consequence of forsaking the God who saved them.
How does this chapter set up the Samaritans of the Gospels?
Assyria resettled Samaria with foreign peoples who blended worship of the LORD with their own gods, producing a mixed population and hybrid religion. Over centuries this became the Samaritan community, viewed by Jews as impure. This background illuminates why Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman, or praising a Samaritan's mercy, was so striking. He deliberately reached across a division rooted in this ancient tragedy.
Reflection
Israel fell not for lack of warning but from a settled refusal to listen. The most dangerous spiritual condition is not open rebellion but the slow hardening that stops hearing God's voice.
Are there areas where you have quietly stopped listening, where conviction no longer stirs you? God's patience is real, but so is the call to turn while his voice is still speaking.
A prayer from 2 Kings 17
Read the whole Bible with the family
Open it in the app, study it live with someone, and let it lead you to Christ.
Open the BibleRead it togetherSee what God is doing