Day 121, 2 Kings 17-18

The Fall of Israel

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of Medes.

Exile Because of Idolatry

All this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.

The people secretly did things against the Lord that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns. They set up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they made offerings on all the high places.

They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger. They served idols even though the Lord told them they could not.

The Lord warned the people through every prophet, and told them to change their evil ways and to keep the commandments and statutes in accordance with all the Law that the Lord had commanded their fathers.

But they still would not listen and were stubborn, as their fathers had been who did not believe in the Lord their God. They despised his statutes and his covenant and the warnings that he gave them.

They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, who the Lord had said not to be like.

They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord, and made for themselves metal images of two calves, and an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.

They burned their sons and daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. There was none left, but the tribe of Judah.

Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin. They walked in their sinful ways until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants and prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

The king of Assyria brought people from several different places and put them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. At the beginning of their dwelling there they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

The king of Assyria was told that because the people he had placed there did not know the law of the god of the land, he had sent lions among them to kill them. The king sent for one of the priests that was removed to be brought back and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land. So one of the priests was brought back and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in shrines of the high places. They worshiped other gods and some even burned their children. They appointed from themselves people to be priests who sacrificed in the shrines of the high places. They feared the Lord but also served their own gods.

The Lord told them all again what they should do, but they would not listen and did according to their former manner. These people feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children.

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old. He reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. He broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there were none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, and kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.

The Lord was with him wherever he went, and he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. After three years he took it. He carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in different cities. All this happened because they did not obey the voice of the Lord, but transgressed his covenant. They did not listen or obey.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Hezekiah king of Judah was required to give him silver and gold. They talked a long time and mocked Hezekiah in saying that following the Lord would get him nowhere.