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 several immoralities, but especially their idolatries. read more
THE REIGN OF HOSHEA OVER ISRAEL . DESTRUCTION OF THE ISRAELITE KINGDOM , AND THE GROUNDS OF IT RE - PEOPLING OF THE KINGDOM BY ASSYRIAN COLONISTS . read more
Captivity and its cause. Here is the beginning of the dispersion of Israel. Soon that favored nation will be "a people scattered and peeled." These verses give us the explanation of Israel's exile. It is a solemn warning against the neglect of opportunities. I. COMMANDS DISOBEYED . "They rejected his statutes" ( 2 Kings 17:15 ); "They left all the commandments of the Lord their God" ( 2 Kings 17:16 ); "They served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this... read more
The provocations which induced God to destroy the Israelite kingdom. Here, for once, the writer ceases to be the mere historian, and becomes the religious teacher and prophet, drawing out the lessons of history, and justifying the ways of God to man. As Bahr says, he " does not carry on the narrative as taken from the original authorities, but himself here begins a review of the history and fate of Israel, which ends with 2 Kings 17:23 , and forms an independent section by itself."... read more
The lessons to be learnt from the destruction of the kingdom of Samaria. The first and main lesson is, of course, the great fact— I. THAT NATIONS ARE TREATED BY GOD AS RESPONSIBLE UNITS , AND ARE PUNISHED , EVEN DESTROYED , FOR THEIR SINS . It was their "evil ways," their transgression against the commandments of God, that lay at the root of Israel's rejection. The prophets Hosea and Amos paint an awful picture of the condition of Samaria under its later... read more
Review of the history of Israel. The Bible does not simply relate, but draws aside the veil and shows us the innermost springs of God's providence, and how they work. It teaches us to understand the deepest causes of the rise and fall of nations. The causes it insists on are not economical, or political, or intellectual, but religious, and its lessons are for all time. We may say of this survey of Israel's history—these things "are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world... read more
A great privilege, wickedness, and ruin. "For so it was," etc. We have used the first verses of this chapter, in our last sketch, to set forth the aspects of a corrupt nation . The Israelitish people appear in that fragment of their history as an unfortunate inheritor of wrong, a guilty worker of wrong, and a terrible victim of wrong. These fifteen verses now under our notice present to us three subjects of thought—a great national privilege; a great national wickedness; and a great... read more
And there they burnt incense in all the high places . Incense symbolized prayer ( Psalms 141:2 ), and ought to have been burnt only on the golden altar of incense within the veil. As did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them. The offering of incense to their gods by the Canaanitish nations had not been previously mentioned; but the use of incense in religious worship was so widely spread in the ancient world, that their employment of it might have been assumed as almost... read more
The burning of incense was a common religious practice among the Egyptians and the Babylonians; and from the present passage we gather that the Canaanite nations practiced it as one of their ordinary sacred rites. The Israelites are frequently reproached with it Hosea 2:13; Hosea 4:13; Isaiah 65:3. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Kings 17:7-23
Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly related, it is in these verses largely commented upon by our historian, and the reasons of it assigned, not taken from the second causes?the weakness of Israel, their impolitic management, and the strength and growing greatness of the Assyrian monarch (these things are overlooked)--but only from the First Cause. Observe, 1. It was the Lord that removed Israel out of his sight; whoever were the instruments, he was the... read more