Commentary - 2 Kings 17:7-23

Bird's-eye view

This passage is not simply a historical record; it is a divine autopsy. After narrating the final gasp of the northern kingdom of Israel and their deportation by the Assyrians, the inspired historian pauses to provide God's own commentary on the matter. This is the formal indictment, the list of charges, and the final verdict in a covenant lawsuit that had been ongoing for centuries. The central charge is high treason. Israel had sinned against Yahweh, their covenant Lord and Savior, who had demonstrated His love and power by rescuing them from Egypt. In place of grateful obedience, they embraced the very paganism of the nations God had driven out before them. Their apostasy was total, involving every level of society and every corner of the land. Despite God's extraordinary patience, sending prophet after prophet to warn them, they stubbornly refused to repent. The result was not an accident of geopolitics but a direct and righteous judgment from God: exile. He removed them from His presence, fulfilling the curses of the covenant they had so flagrantly despised.

The passage meticulously details the anatomy of their apostasy, from their syncretistic worship on high places to their state-sponsored idolatry of golden calves, and all the way down to the abomination of child sacrifice. A key theological principle is articulated here: you become what you worship. By following vanity, they themselves became vain. This section serves as a solemn explanation for the fall of Israel and a grim foreshadowing of the same judgment that would eventually befall the southern kingdom of Judah, who foolishly walked down the same path.

Outline

Context In 2 Kings

Second Kings 17 is the pivot point in the book's narrative. The story of the divided kingdom, which began in 1 Kings 12, reaches its tragic conclusion for the northern ten tribes. The preceding chapters (2 Kings 15-16) detail the chaotic final years of Israel, with a rapid succession of kings assassinated one after another, and the increasing encroachment of the Assyrian empire. The first six verses of chapter 17 describe the final siege of Samaria by Shalmaneser V and the subsequent deportation of the Israelites, an event dated to 722 B.C. The passage we are examining (vv. 7-23) then functions as an extended theological explanation for this catastrophe. It looks back over the entire history of the northern kingdom, from its inception under Jeroboam to its final demise, and declares that this was no mere political or military defeat. It was the righteous judgment of God for centuries of sustained covenant rebellion. This section provides the theological lens through which the reader is to understand all the events that have gone before it and sets the stage for the remainder of the book, which will focus on the slow, sad decline of the remaining kingdom of Judah.

Key Issues

The Autopsy of a Nation

When a nation collapses, secular historians will point to economic factors, military blunders, or political corruption. And those things are often part of the machinery of the collapse. But the Bible gives us the ultimate, behind-the-scenes explanation. The Bible tells us what God thinks about it. This passage is God's own press release, His definitive statement on the fall of Samaria. And the cause of death was not, ultimately, the Assyrian army. The cause of death was sin.

This is a formal legal document. It begins with the charge, lays out the evidence, recounts the ignored warnings, and pronounces the sentence. God is not a petty tyrant who flies off the handle. His judgment is always righteous, always deserved, and always preceded by immense patience. Israel had been given every advantage: redemption from slavery, the gift of the law, the promised land, and a constant stream of prophets. They took all these gifts and threw them back in God's face. This passage is a stark reminder that covenant has consequences. Blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience. Israel chose the curse, and God, as a righteous judge, gave them what they chose.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7-8 Now this happened because the sons of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods and walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed from before the sons of Israel, and in the statutes of the kings of Israel which they had made.

The analysis begins at the foundation. The ultimate reason for the exile was sin. But notice the specific character of this sin. It was against Yahweh their God. This was not just a moral failure; it was personal betrayal, it was treason. And the gravity of the treason is highlighted by reminding them of who this God is. He is the one who rescued them from Egypt. Their sin was an act of cosmic ingratitude. They turned their backs on their Redeemer. And what did they turn to? Two things. First, they adopted the religious practices, the statutes, of the Canaanites whom God had judged and driven out precisely for these abominations. They moved into a house that God had cleaned for them and proceeded to dig up the septic tank in the backyard to have a party. Second, they followed the wicked statutes of their own kings, who institutionalized false worship for political gain. This was a comprehensive rebellion against their divine King, both by importing foreign corruption and inventing their own.

9-10 And the sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against Yahweh their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. And they set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

The rebellion was both secret and public. Sin loves the dark, and they did things "secretly" that were not right. But their rebellion quickly broke out into the open. The cancer metastasized everywhere. They built "high places," pagan worship sites, in all their settlements, from the smallest rural outpost ("watchtower") to the largest city. The worship of Yahweh was centralized by His command, but their false worship was decentralized and everywhere. The "sacred pillars" and "Asherim" (poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah) were symbols of Canaanite fertility cults. The phrase "on every high hill and under every green tree" is a stock phrase in the Old Testament for pervasive, open-air idolatry. They had transformed the Holy Land into a giant pagan shrine.

11-12 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which Yahweh had taken away into exile before them; and they did evil things provoking Yahweh to anger. And they served idols, concerning which Yahweh had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

Their worship was a direct imitation of the condemned nations. Burning incense was an act of worship, and they were offering it to false gods all over the country. This was not an oversight; it was a deliberate provocation. They knew what God had commanded. The narrator states it with stark simplicity: God had said, "You shall not do this thing." There is no ambiguity. God's law was clear, their disobedience was flagrant, and His anger was righteous.

13-14 Yet Yahweh warned Israel and Judah by the hand of all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by the hand of My slaves the prophets.” However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in Yahweh their God.

Here we see the astounding patience of God. Before executing judgment, He sent wave after wave of warnings. The prophets were God's covenant lawyers, serving the indictment and calling the people to repent. The message was always the same: turn and keep. Repentance and obedience. This was the way back to blessing. But the response was stubborn rebellion. To "stiffen their neck" is the posture of a rebellious ox that refuses to accept the yoke. It is a picture of proud, defiant disobedience. And this was a generational sin; they were just like their unbelieving fathers in the wilderness. At the root of their disobedience was a failure to believe, to trust, in Yahweh their God.

15 They also rejected His statutes and His covenant which He cut with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which Yahweh had commanded them not to do like them.

Their rejection was comprehensive. They threw out the law, the covenant relationship, and the prophetic warnings. They rejected God's entire revelation. And what did they get in return? Vanity. The Hebrew word for vanity, hebel, means emptiness, a puff of smoke, nothingness. The idols were nothing, and by chasing them, the people became nothing. This is a profound spiritual law: you become like what you worship. Worship the living God, and you become truly alive. Worship empty idols, and your culture, your society, and your soul become empty and hollowed out.

16-17 And they forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and omens, and sold themselves to do what is evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to anger.

The indictment now lists the specific abominations. They forsook all the commandments. This was not a partial lapse. They made the two golden calves, the state-sponsored idolatry started by Jeroboam. They made an Asherah pole, diving headlong into fertility cults. They worshiped the "host of heaven," which is astrology, worshiping the stars instead of the one who made them. They served Baal, the chief Canaanite deity. And it sinks to the deepest level of depravity: child sacrifice. Making their children "pass through the fire" was a horrific rite of appeasement to demonic powers. They engaged in divination and fortune-telling, seeking guidance from spirits instead of from God. The final phrase is damning: they "sold themselves to do what is evil." They willingly entered into bondage to sin. They were not victims; they were volunteers.

18 So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and caused them to depart from His presence; none was left except the tribe of Judah alone.

This is the verdict and the sentence. God's patience ran out. His "very angry" response is the settled, judicial wrath of a holy king against treason. The punishment fit the crime perfectly. They had forsaken His presence in their worship, so He forsook them to a land where His presence was not manifest. He removed them from the land, which was the place of His special presence. Exile is excommunication on a national scale. At this point in history, only the southern kingdom of Judah remained, a foreshadowing of their own coming judgment.

19-20 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes which Israel had made. So Yahweh rejected all the seed of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His presence.

Lest the reader from Judah get smug, the narrator immediately points out that Judah was walking down the same suicidal path. They saw what happened to their northern brothers, and instead of taking it as a warning, they copied their sins. This demonstrates the depth of human depravity. Because of this widespread apostasy, Yahweh rejected "all the seed of Israel," meaning all the descendants of Jacob, both kingdoms. The affliction and the plunderers were not random misfortunes; they were instruments of God's discipline, leading up to the final judgment of exile.

21-23 When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following Yahweh and made them sin a great sin. And the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them until Yahweh caused Israel to depart from His presence, as He spoke through all His slaves the prophets. So Israel went into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

The historian now traces the sin back to its historical root. The "great sin" was the political and religious rebellion of Jeroboam. When the ten tribes broke away from the house of David, Jeroboam, fearing his people would return to Jerusalem to worship and thus return their allegiance to the Davidic king, set up a counterfeit religion with golden calves in Dan and Bethel. This act "drove Israel away from following Yahweh." It was a foundational, institutional sin that the nation never repented of. Every subsequent king of Israel is judged by the standard of whether he departed from the sin of Jeroboam. None of them did. The people followed their wicked leaders for two centuries, until God finally brought the covenant lawsuit to its conclusion, just as He had promised through His prophets. The exile was the inevitable result of this long, unbroken chain of rebellion.

Application

The story of Israel's fall is not just ancient history; it is a permanent warning to the church. The temptation to commit spiritual adultery is a constant one. We are tempted to syncretize, to blend the worship of the true God with the idols of our age. Our culture worships at the high places of materialism, sexual autonomy, personal peace, and political power. It is tragically easy for the church to begin burning a little incense at those same altars.

We are also reminded that ideas have consequences, and leadership matters. Jeroboam's politically convenient decision to create a new worship system set the entire nation on a course for destruction that lasted two hundred years. We must be vigilant against leaders in the church and in the state who would lead us away from the pure worship and Word of God for the sake of pragmatism or power. We must reject any "statute" or cultural norm that stands in opposition to the clear teaching of Scripture.

The central lesson is that we become like what we worship. If we worship the vain idols of this world, we and our families and our churches will become vain, empty, and hollow. But if we worship the triune God in spirit and in truth, we will be transformed into the image of His Son. Israel's story is a story of grace rejected and judgment deserved. Our story, as Christians, is one of judgment deserved but grace received. God's righteous anger against sin was not set aside; it was poured out completely upon Jesus Christ on the cross. He endured the ultimate exile, separation from the Father's presence, so that we, the guilty rebels, could be brought near. Therefore, let us heed the warning, reject all idols, and cling to Christ alone, in whom all the covenant promises of God find their Yes and Amen.