2 Kings 17:1-6

16. Hoshea’s evil reign in Israel 17:1-6

Hoshea was the Northern Kingdom’s last king. He reigned in Samaria for 9 years (732-722 B.C.). He was a bad king, but he was not as bad as his predecessors. A seal of Abdi, an official of Hoshea, has been discovered that bears the name of this Israelite king, who was heretofore unmentioned outside the Bible. [Note: See Andre Lemaire, "Name of Israel’s Last King Surfaces in a Private Collection," Biblical Archaeology Review 21:6 (November-December 1995):49-52.]

Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.) had succeeded his father Tiglath-Pileser III on Assyria’s throne. Hoshea became the servant of Assyria rather than of Yahweh (2 Kings 17:3). However, he was not a faithful servant even of Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:4). This led to the end of his freedom and the siege of his capital (2 Kings 17:4-5). Samaria fell to Assyria in 722 B.C., and a second deportation of the population to various parts of the Assyrian empire followed in harmony with Assyria’s policy toward conquered peoples (cf. 2 Kings 15:29). [Note: See Luckenbill, 2:2, 26-27. See Rodger C. Young, "When Was Samaria Captured? The Need for Precision in Biblical Chronologies," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47:4 (December 2004):577-95, for a reexamination of Thiele’s dates; and idem, "Tables of Reign Lengths from the Hebrew Court Recorders," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:2 (June 2005):225-48.]

"So" (2 Kings 17:4) may be the Hebrew pronunciation of the Egyptian capital, Sais, rather than the name of a pharaoh. [Note: H. Goedicke, "The End of So, King of Egypt," Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 171 (1963):64-66.] The verse so translated would read ". . . who had sent messengers to So [to the] king of Egypt," as in the NIV margin. Alternatively "So" may have been Pharaoh Tefnakht [Note: John Day, "The Problem of ’So, King of Egypt’ in 2 Kings 17:4," Vetus Testamentum 42:3 (July 1992):289-301.] or Pharaoh Piankhy. [Note: Alberto R. W. Green, "The Identity of King So of Egypt-An Alternative Interpretation," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 52:2 (April 1993):99-108. On the subject of Egyptian history during this period, see Hallo and Simpson, pp. 287-92.]

As God had promised, the Israelites’ apostasy had resulted in their scattering among other peoples (Deuteronomy 28:64). According to 1 Chronicles 7, some members of the ten northern tribes returned to the Promised Land at the end of the 70-year Babylonian Captivity. Apparently most of the Northern Kingdom exiles intermarried and lost their identity among the other Semitic people among whom they went to live. There is no evidence that the "ten lost tribes" became the American Indians, the Afghans, the Armenians, the Nestorians, or the English, as various modern cults claim. [Note: See The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 446.]

Israel had suffered for 209 years under 20 different kings from 9 different families, sometimes called dynasties. The heads of these ruling families were Jeroboam I (two kings), Baasha (two kings), Zimri (two kings), Omri (four kings), Jehu (five kings), Shallum (one king), Menahem (two kings), Pekah (one king), and Hoshea (one king). Seven of these kings died at the hands of assassins: Nadab, Elah, Jehoram, Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, and Pekah. All of them were evil. They did not comply with the will of Yahweh as contained in the Mosaic Law and the revelations of His prophets.