So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence. So the LORD rejectedThe Hebrew word for "rejected" is "מָאַס" (ma'as), which conveys a strong sense of disdain or spurning. This rejection is not a capricious act but a response to Israel's persistent disobedience and idolatry. Throughout the Old Testament, God’s covenant with Israel was conditional upon their faithfulness. The rejection here is a judicial act, emphasizing God's holiness and justice. It serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of turning away from God. all the descendants of Israel
This phrase underscores the collective nature of Israel's sin and the resulting judgment. The term "descendants" (Hebrew: "זֶרַע" - zera) refers to the offspring or seed, indicating that the rejection affected the entire nation, not just a segment. Historically, this period marks the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which had been steeped in idolatry since the reign of Jeroboam. The phrase highlights the communal aspect of sin and its repercussions. afflicted them
The Hebrew word "עָנָה" (anah) means to oppress or humble. This affliction was a form of divine discipline intended to bring Israel to repentance. It reflects God's love and desire for His people to return to Him, even in the midst of judgment. The affliction was not merely punitive but redemptive, aiming to restore the broken relationship between God and His people. and delivered them into the hands of plunderers
The phrase "delivered them" (Hebrew: "נָתַן" - natan) indicates a deliberate act of handing over. The "plunderers" were the Assyrians, who conquered Israel and exiled its people. This historical event is well-documented in Assyrian records and serves as a fulfillment of prophetic warnings given by prophets like Hosea and Amos. The phrase illustrates the sovereignty of God over nations and His ability to use even foreign powers to accomplish His purposes. until He had banished them from His presence
The word "banished" (Hebrew: "סוּר" - sur) means to remove or turn away. This banishment signifies the severing of the special relationship Israel had with God. Being "from His presence" indicates a loss of divine favor and protection, which was central to Israel's identity and survival. This tragic outcome was the culmination of years of unrepentant sin, serving as a powerful warning to remain faithful to God. Theologically, it points to the necessity of holiness and obedience in maintaining fellowship with God. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who is just and righteous in His dealings with His people. 2. Descendants of IsraelRefers to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, consisting of the ten tribes that separated from Judah after Solomon's reign. 3. PlunderersInvading forces, particularly the Assyrians, who were used by God as instruments of judgment against Israel. 4. Banished from His PresenceThe exile of the Northern Kingdom, a significant event where the Israelites were removed from the Promised Land due to their persistent idolatry and disobedience. 5. Assyrian ExileThe historical event in 722 BC when the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom and deported many Israelites. Teaching Points The Seriousness of IdolatryIdolatry is a grave sin that leads to separation from God. We must guard our hearts against modern forms of idolatry, such as materialism or self-worship. The Consequences of DisobediencePersistent disobedience to God's commands results in His discipline. We should strive to live in obedience to God's Word to avoid spiritual and physical consequences. God's Righteous JudgmentGod's judgment is always just and righteous. Understanding His character helps us trust His decisions, even when they involve discipline. The Importance of RepentanceRepentance is crucial in restoring our relationship with God. We should regularly examine our lives and turn away from sin. God's Faithfulness to His CovenantDespite Israel's unfaithfulness, God remains faithful to His covenant. This encourages us to rely on His promises and faithfulness in our lives. Bible Study Questions 1. What specific actions led to the LORD rejecting the descendants of Israel, and how can we avoid similar pitfalls in our own lives? 2. How does the concept of being "banished from His presence" relate to our spiritual walk today, and what steps can we take to ensure we remain in God's presence? 3. In what ways does the Assyrian exile serve as a warning for believers today regarding the consequences of persistent sin? 4. How can we apply the lessons from Israel's disobedience to our understanding of God's expectations for His people in the New Testament? 5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's discipline. How did it lead to growth and a deeper understanding of His love and righteousness? Connections to Other Scriptures Deuteronomy 28This chapter outlines the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, which directly relate to the consequences faced by Israel in 2 Kings 17:20. 2 Kings 17:7-18Provides context for why the LORD rejected Israel, detailing their idolatry and failure to heed the warnings of the prophets. Hosea 9:17Hosea prophesies about Israel being rejected by God due to their unfaithfulness, echoing the themes of 2 Kings 17:20. Psalm 106:40-41Describes God's anger towards His people and His decision to give them into the hands of the nations, similar to the events in 2 Kings 17:20. People Adrammelech, Ahaz, Anammelech, Avites, Avvites, David, Elah, Hoshea, Israelites, Jacob, Jeroboam, Nebat, Pharaoh, Sepharvites, ShalmaneserPlaces Assyria, Avva, Babylon, Bethel, Cuth, Cuthah, Egypt, Gozan, Habor River, Halah, Hamath, Samaria, SepharvaimTopics Afflicted, Afflicteth, Attackers, Cast, Delivered, Descendants, Face, Giveth, Hands, Kicketh, Nothing, Offspring, Plunderers, Presence, Rejected, Seed, Sight, Spoilers, Thrust, Till, TroubleDictionary of Bible Themes 2 Kings 17:3-23 7233 Israel, northern kingdom 2 Kings 17:6-23 6659 freedom, acts in OT 2 Kings 17:7-20 8705 apostasy, in OT 2 Kings 17:7-23 6026 sin, judgment on 2 Kings 17:13-20 6195 impenitence, results 2 Kings 17:14-20 8741 failure 2 Kings 17:17-23 8748 false religion 2 Kings 17:18-20 6232 rejection of God, results
7266 tribes of Israel 2 Kings 17:18-23 1305 God, activity of 2 Kings 17:18-28 7324 calf worship Library Divided Worship
'These nations feared the Lord, and served their own gods.'--2 KINGS xvii. 33. The kingdom of Israel had come to its fated end. Its king and people had been carried away captives in accordance with the cruel policy of the great Eastern despotisms, which had so much to do with weakening them by their very conquests. The land had lain desolate and uncultivated for many years, savage beasts had increased in the untilled solitudes, even as weeds and nettles grew in the gardens and vineyards of Samaria. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureA Kingdom's Epitaph
'In 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. 7. For 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, 8. And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture September the Eleventh a Fatal Divorce
"They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." --2 KINGS xvii. 24-34. And that is an old-world record, but it is quite a modern experience. The kinsmen of these ancient people are found in our own time. Men still fear one God and serve another. But something is vitally wrong when men can divorce their fear from their obedience. And the beginning of the wrong is in the fear itself. "Fear," as used in this passage, is a counterfeit coin, which does not ring true to the truth. It means only the …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Upon Our Lord's SermonOn the Mount
Discourse 9 "No man can serve two masters; For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Mongrel Religion
I. I shall first call your attention to THE NATURE OF THIS Mongrel Religion. It had its good and bad points, for it wore a double face. These people were not infidels. Far from it: "they feared the Lord." They did not deny the existence, or the power, or the rights of the great God of Israel, whose name is Jehovah. They had not the pride of Pharaoh who said, "Who is Jehovah that I should obey his voice?" They were not like those whom David calls "fools," who said in their hearts, "There is no God." …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881 Building in Troublous Times
'Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel; 2. Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3. But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Profession and Practice.
18th Sunday after Trinity. S. Matt. xxii. 42. "What think ye of Christ?" INTRODUCTION.--Many men are Christians neither in understanding nor in heart. Some are Christians in heart, and not in understanding. Some in understanding, and not in heart, and some are Christians in both. If I were to go into a Temple of the Hindoos, or into a Synagogue of the Jews, and were to ask, "What think ye of Christ?" the people there would shake their heads and deny that He is God, and reject His teaching. The …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent The Original Text and Its History.
1. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew, with the exception of certain portions of Ezra and Daniel and a single verse of Jeremiah, (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4, from the middle of the verse to end of chap. 7; Jer. 10:11,) which are written in the cognate Chaldee language. The Hebrew belongs to a stock of related languages commonly called Shemitic, because spoken mainly by the descendants of Shem. Its main divisions are: (1,) the Arabic, having its original seat in the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and his Adherents, in this Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls.
1. The power of the Church in enacting laws. This made a source of human traditions. Impiety of these traditions. 2. Many of the Papistical traditions not only difficult, but impossible to be observed. 3. That the question may be more conveniently explained, nature of conscience must be defined. 4. Definition of conscience explained. Examples in illustration of the definition. 5. Paul's doctrine of submission to magistrates for conscience sake, gives no countenance to the Popish doctrine of the obligation …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion A More Particular view of the Several Branches of the Christian Temper, by which the Reader May be Farther Assisted in Judging what He Is, And
1, 2. The importance of the case engages to a more particular survey what manner of spirit we are of.--3. Accordingly the Christian temper is described, by some general views of it, as a new and divine temper.--4. As resembling that of Christ.--5. And as engaging us to be spiritually minded, and to walk by faith.--6. A plan of the remainder.--7. In which the Christian temper is more particularly considered with regard to the blessed God: as including fear, affection, and obedience.--8, 9. Faith and …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links 2 Kings 17:20 NIV2 Kings 17:20 NLT2 Kings 17:20 ESV2 Kings 17:20 NASB2 Kings 17:20 KJV
2 Kings 17:20 Commentaries
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