Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

II Kings 17

• When a parent sacrifices their child to an idol (inconvenience is an idol), they …
  • Kill the concept that life is precious.
  • Sear their souls which obliterates empathy for another.
  • Twist reality into a justification for the murder of an innocent gift from God.
  • If an innocent child’s life is worth nothing, then how much less the progenitor’s life, or anyone’s life.
  • View men as nothing more than animals and are treated as such.
  • Kill their own future.
  • Finally, their only future left is the day of Atonement and Repentance without relinquishing their “Just Due”.
• See Topic: Their Just Due

KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL Chart: See Timeline:

Hoshea Reigns in Israel

II Kings 17:¹ In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea (the last king of the Northern Kingdom, Israel) the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria (in 732 BC), and he reigned nine years.

• When Pekah, king of Israel and Rezin, king of Aram Damascus, Syria, attacked Judah, Ahaz, king of Judah appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, king of Assyria, for help (resulting in Judah becoming a tributary of Assyria). Rezin had been paying tribute to Tiglath-Pileser III, before turning to rebel against him. Syria, therefore, was a sub-set of Assyria.
  
  [PEKAH-ISRAEL & Rezin-Aram Syria, tributary of Assyria] VS [AHAZ-JUDAH & Tiglath-Pileser III-Assyria]
  
  Tiglath-pileser III began his campaigns of 734-732 BC by moving down the Mediterranean coast as far as Philistia and conquering cities there, espe­cially Gaza. Later he marched into Israel destroying cities all across Gali­lee and taking many people captive (II Kings 15:29). In 732 BC he moved against Damascus, capturing the capital city, and executing Rezin, king of Aram Damascus (Syria). Tiglath-pileser III himself did not kill Pekah, because Hoshea, who succeeded Pekah, killed Pekah in order to succeed him and saved Tiglath-pileser III the trouble. All these conquests are listed on various inscriptions left by Tiglath-pileser III.
  
• Hoshea became king by killing Pekah, king of Israel, and taking his throne. He was a kingslayer who became king by a coup d’état.
  
• Hoshea replacing Pekah as King is confirmed in the annals of the king of Assyria himself, Tiglath-Pileser III, whose writings state the following concerning Hoshea: “They had overthrown their king Pekah, (by) Hoshea (whom) I placed as ruler over them. From him I received a tribute of 10 talents of gold and 1,000 talents of silver.”
  
  ~Wikipedia

II Kings 17:² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), but not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

II Kings 17:³ Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his vassal, and paid him tribute money.

• Shalmaneser V was the chosen heir of his father Tiglatpileser III (744-727 BC), inheriting the throne of both Assyria and Babylon.

II Kings 17:⁴ And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea (Hoshea conspired against Pekah and now he is conspiring against Shalmaneser); for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

• At this time the king of Israel is Hoshea (meaning of name is “salvation” same as Yeshua, Jesus’ Hebrew name),
• The king of Assyria is Shalmaneser (meaning of name is “fire-worshipper”)
  • Shalmaneser who reigned between Tiglath-pileser and Sargon; invaded the northern kingdom of Israel when the last king Hoshea was on the throne; forced Hoshea to pay tribute but had to re-invade when Hoshea reneged; it is uncertain whether Shalmaneser or Sargon concluded the siege which finally ended the northern kingdom
    1. Shalmaneser may be a common name for Assyrian kings in the 8th century BC since the timelines don’t seem to match up historically.
• The king of Egypt is “So“
• The king of Judah is “Ahaz“

Israel Carried Captive to Assyria

II Kings 17:⁵ Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.

II Kings 17:⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea (721/722 BC), the king of Assyria took Samaria (the capital of Israel) and carried (the people of) Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

II Kings 17:⁷ For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm), who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods,

II Kings 17:⁸ and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

II Kings 17:⁹ Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places (Places for pagan worship) in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city.

II Kings 17:¹⁰ They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images (Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities) on every high hill and under every green tree.

II Kings 17:¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) to anger,

II Kings 17:¹² for they served idols, of which the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

II Kings 17:¹³ Yet the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.”

II Kings 17:¹⁴ Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm).

II Kings 17:¹⁵ And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had charged them that they should not do like them.

II Kings 17:¹⁶ So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm), made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

• Who are “all the host of heaven”? Some say the “ancient aliens”, others say “astrology”, and yet others say the fallen angels.

II Kings 17:¹⁷ And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

• Put their sons and daughter to pass through the fire (burnt them alive).
• witchcraft
• soothsaying
• “sold themselves” perhaps prostitution

II Kings 17:¹⁸ Therefore the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.

• Only one tribe of twelve is left, the tribe through which the Messiah comes; Judah and the priests.

II Kings 17:¹⁹ Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) , but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. ²⁰ And the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight.

II Kings 17:²¹ For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), and made them commit a great sin.

• The United Kingdom became “Israel” in the North and “Judah” to the South.

II Kings 17:²² For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them,

 II Kings 17:²³ until the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day.

• The book of II Kings chapter 17 was written after Israel went into Assyrian captivity but before Judah was conquered and taken captive by Babylon.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

II Kings 17:²⁴ Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.

II Kings 17:²⁵ And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ); therefore the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) sent lions among them, which killed some of them. ²⁶ So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the Rituals of the God (‘ĕlōhîm) of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God (‘ĕlōhîm) of the land.”

Rituals of God means nothing.
Only a personal relationship with God protects.

II Kings 17:²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God (‘ĕlōhîm) of the land.” ²⁸ Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

II Kings 17:²⁹ However every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. ³⁰ The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹ and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³² So they feared the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places (Places for pagan worship), who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. ³³ They feared the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.

Babylon – worshiped Succoth Benoth
Cuth – worshiped Negal
Hamath – worshiped Ashima
Avites – worshiped Nibhaz and Tartak
Sepharvites – burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech.

• The ethnonym Sepharvites is spelled the same as the name of their city (ספרוים), and either they or their city was also known as ספרים (Sepharim; II Kings 17:31).
• Isaiah 6:² Above it (the throne of God) stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
  
  • Seraphim is the plural form of its singular counterpart Seraph.
    • Strong’s H8314 seraphim
      serpent, reptile, fiery serpent
      1. poisonous serpent (fiery from burning effect of poison)
      2. majestic beings with 6 wings, human hands or voices in attendance upon God
    • “The seraphim are frequently mentioned in the Book of Enoch (xx. 7, lxi. 10, lxxi. 7), where they are designated as δράκονες (“serpents”) and are always mentioned in conjunction with the cherubim as the heavenly creatures standing nearest to God.”
      “(They) have nothing whatever to do with the ‘messengers of God’” (angels).
      Jewish Encyclopedia
      
  • Speculation: Could Satan have been a Seraphim? He was in an exceptionally high and exalted position before his fall:
    • Ezekiel 28:12-15 “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
      The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
      “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
      Till iniquity was found in you.
      
      Satan was a serpent in Eden, a description of a Seraphim.
      
      Satan’s evil is found in those who sacrifice their own children.

II Kings 17:³⁴ To this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel,

II Kings 17:³⁵ with whom the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had made a covenant and charged them, saying: “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them;

II Kings 17:³⁶ but the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice.

II Kings 17:³⁷ And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods.

II Kings 17:³⁸ And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.

II Kings 17:³⁹ But the Lord your God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

II Kings 17:⁴⁰ However they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals.

II Kings 17:⁴¹ So these nations feared the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.