When the LORD had torn Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin. When the LORD tore Israel awayThe phrase "tore Israel away" signifies a decisive and forceful action by God, reflecting His sovereignty and judgment. The Hebrew root for "tore" is "קָרַע" (qara), which conveys the idea of ripping or dividing with intensity. This action underscores the seriousness of Israel's sin and God's response to their persistent idolatry and rebellion. Historically, this division occurred after Solomon's reign, leading to the split of the united monarchy into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah). This tearing away was not merely political but spiritual, as it represented a departure from the Davidic covenant and the unity under God's chosen leadership. from the house of David
The "house of David" refers to the dynastic lineage established by God through David, promising an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7:16). This covenant was central to Israel's identity and hope for a messianic future. The separation from the house of David was a significant theological and national crisis, as it symbolized a break from the divinely ordained leadership and the blessings associated with it. Theologically, this highlights the consequences of disobedience and the importance of faithfulness to God's covenant. they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king
Jeroboam, originally a servant of Solomon, became the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. His rise to power was prophesied by Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings 11:29-31), yet it was also a result of Israel's rebellion against the Davidic line. The phrase "they made" indicates the people's active role in choosing a leader contrary to God's established order. Jeroboam's kingship marks a turning point where political expediency overshadowed spiritual fidelity, leading to a legacy of idolatry and apostasy. Then Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD
Jeroboam's leadership was characterized by a deliberate departure from worshiping Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. The Hebrew verb "led away" (הִדִּיחַ, hiddiach) implies causing to stray or seduce, indicating Jeroboam's active role in leading the nation into sin. He established alternative worship centers at Bethel and Dan, introducing golden calves as objects of worship (1 Kings 12:28-30). This act was a direct violation of the first and second commandments, leading Israel into spiritual adultery and setting a precedent for future kings. and caused them to commit a great sin
The "great sin" refers to the institutionalized idolatry that Jeroboam introduced, which had lasting repercussions for the northern kingdom. The Hebrew word for "sin" (חַטָּאָה, chattā'ah) denotes a grievous offense against God, emphasizing the severity of their actions. This sin was not just a personal failing but a national transgression that led to the eventual downfall and exile of Israel. It serves as a sobering reminder of the destructive power of sin and the importance of remaining faithful to God's commandments. Persons / Places / Events 1. IsraelThe northern kingdom, consisting of ten tribes, which separated from the southern kingdom of Judah. 2. House of DavidThe royal lineage of David, which continued to rule over the southern kingdom of Judah. 3. Jeroboam son of NebatThe first king of the northern kingdom of Israel after the division. He led Israel into idolatry. 4. The LORDThe covenant God of Israel, whom the people were led away from by Jeroboam's actions. 5. Great SinThe idolatry and turning away from God initiated by Jeroboam, which had lasting consequences for Israel. Teaching Points The Consequences of LeadershipLeaders have a profound impact on the spiritual direction of a nation. Jeroboam's actions led Israel into sin, demonstrating the importance of godly leadership. The Danger of IdolatryIdolatry is a recurring sin that separates people from God. Believers must guard against modern forms of idolatry, such as materialism or placing anything above God. Faithfulness to God's CommandsGod's instructions are clear about worship and obedience. Believers are called to adhere to His Word and avoid the practices that lead away from Him. The Importance of Spiritual HeritageThe division from the house of David represents a break from the covenant promises. Christians are encouraged to remain connected to their spiritual heritage in Christ. Repentance and RestorationDespite Israel's sin, God's desire is for repentance and restoration. Believers should seek forgiveness and return to God when they stray. Bible Study Questions 1. How did Jeroboam's leadership influence the spiritual state of Israel, and what can we learn about the impact of leadership today? 2. In what ways do modern believers face the temptation of idolatry, and how can we guard against it? 3. How does the division of Israel from the house of David illustrate the consequences of disobedience to God's commands? 4. What steps can we take to ensure that we remain faithful to our spiritual heritage and the teachings of Christ? 5. How does the account of Israel's idolatry and God's call to repentance encourage us in our personal walk with God? Connections to Other Scriptures 1 Kings 12:26-33Details Jeroboam's establishment of golden calves in Bethel and Dan, leading Israel into idolatry. Exodus 32The incident of the golden calf, which parallels Jeroboam's sin and highlights the recurring issue of idolatry. Deuteronomy 12:29-31God's command to Israel to avoid the practices of the nations, emphasizing the importance of worshiping God alone. Hosea 8:4-6The prophet Hosea condemns the idolatry of Israel, specifically referencing the calves of Samaria. 2 Chronicles 11:14-15The Levites and priests leaving Israel for Judah due to Jeroboam's idolatry, showing the spiritual decline of the northern kingdom. 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 Broken, Caused, Commit, David, Drave, Drew, Driveth, Driving, Drove, Enticed, Family, Jeroboam, Jerobo'am, Kingdom, Laws, Nebat, Rent, Sin, Tore, Torn, ViolentlyDictionary of Bible Themes 2 Kings 17:3-23 7233 Israel, northern kingdom 2 Kings 17:6-23 6659 freedom, acts in OT 2 Kings 17:7-23 6026 sin, judgment on 2 Kings 17:17-23 8748 false religion 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 17:21 NIV2 Kings 17:21 NLT2 Kings 17:21 ESV2 Kings 17:21 NASB2 Kings 17:21 KJV
2 Kings 17:21 Commentaries
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