II
K I N G S
CHAP. XVII.
This
chapter gives us an account of the captivity of the ten tribes, and so
finishes the history of that kingdom, after it had continued about 265 years,
from the setting up of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. In it we have, I. A short
narrative of this destruction, ver. 1-6. II. Remarks upon it, and the causes
of it, for the justifying of God in it and for warning to others, ver. 7-23.
III. An account of the nations which succeeded them in the possession of their
land, and the mongrel religion set up among them, ver. 24-41.
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Samaria
Besieged by the Assyrians; Israel
Subdued by
Assyria.
B. C. 730.
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1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah
began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in
Samaria
over Israel
nine years. 2 And he did that
which was evil in the sight of the LORD,
but not as the kings of
Israel
that were before him. 3 Against
him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and
gave him presents. 4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in
Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present
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. 5 Then the king
of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and
besieged it three years. 6 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.
We have here the reign and ruin of Hoshea, the last of the kings of Israel,
concerning whom observe,
I. That, though he forced his way to the crown by treason and murder (as we
read ch. xv. 30), yet he gained not the possession of it till seven or
eight years after; for it was in the fourth year of Ahaz that he slew Pekah,
but did not himself begin to reign till the twelfth year of Ahaz, v. 1.
Whether by the king of Assyria, or by the king of Judah, or by some of his own
people, does not appear, but it seems so long he was kept out of the throne he
aimed at. Justly were his bad practices thus chastised, and the word of the
prophet was thus fulfilled (Hos. x. 3), Now they shall say We have no king,
because we feared not the Lord.
II. That, though he was bad, yet not so bad as the kings of Israel had been
before him (v. 2), not so devoted to the calves as they had been. One
of them (that at Dan), the Jews say, had been, before this, carried away by
the king of Assyria in the expedition recorded ch. xv. 29, (to which
perhaps the prophet refers, Hos. viii. 5, Thy calf, O Samaria! has cast
thee off), which made him put the less confidence in the other. And some
say that this Hoshea took off the embargo which the former kings had put their
subjects under, forbidding them to go up to Jerusalem to worship, which he
permitted those to do that had a mind to it. But what shall we think of this
dispensation of providence, that the destruction of the kingdom of Israel
should come in the reign of one of the best of its kings? Thy judgments,
O God! are a great deep. God would hereby show that in bringing this
ruin upon them he designed to punish, 1. Not only the sins of that generation,
but of the foregoing ages, and to reckon for the iniquities of their fathers,
who had been long in filing the measure and treasuring up wrath against this
day of wrath. 2. Not only the sins of their kings, but the sins of the people.
If Hoshea was not so bad as the former kings, yet the people were as bad as
those that went before them, and it was an aggravation of their badness, and
brought ruin the sooner, that their king did not set them so bad an example as
the former kings had done, nor hinder them from reforming; he gave them leave
to do better, but they did as bad as ever, which laid the blame of their sin
and ruin wholly upon themselves.
III. That the destruction came gradually. They were for some time made
tributaries before they were made captives to the king of Assyria (v.
3), and, if that less judgment had prevailed to humble and reform them, the
greater would have been prevented.
IV. That they brought it upon themselves by the indirect course they took to
shake off the yoke of the king of Assyria, v. 4. Had the king and
people of Israel applied to God, made their peace with him and their prayers
to him, they might have recovered their liberty, ease, and honour; but they
withheld their tribute, and trusted to the king of Egypt to assist them in
their revolt, which, if it had taken effect, would have been but to change
their oppressors. But Egypt became to them the staff of a broken reed. This
provoked the king of Assyria to proceed against them with the more severity.
Men get nothing by struggling with the net, but entangle themselves the more.
V. That it was an utter destruction that came upon them. 1. The king of Israel
was made a prisoner; he was shut up and bound, being, it is probable, taken by
surprise, before Samaria was besieged. 2. The land of Israel was made a prey.
The army of the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, made
themselves master of it (v. 5), and treated the people as traitors to
be punished with the sword of justice rather than as fair enemies. 3. The
royal city of Israel was besieged, and at length taken. Three years it held
out after the country was conquered, and no doubt a great deal of misery was
endured at that time which is not particularly recorded; but the brevity of
the story, and the passing of this matter over lightly, methinks, intimate
that they were abandoned of God and he did not now regard the affliction of
Israel, as sometimes as he had done. 4. The people of Israel were carried
captives into Assyria, v. 6. The generality of the people, those that
were of any note, were forced away into the conqueror's country, to be slaves
and beggars there. (1.) Thus he was pleased to exercise a dominion over them,
and to show that they were entirely at his disposal. (2.) By depriving them of
their possessions and estates, real and personal, and exposing them to all the
hardships and reproaches of a removal to a strange country, under the power of
an imperious army, he chastised them for their rebellion and their endeavour
to shake off his yoke. (3.) Thus he effectually prevented all such attempts
for the future and secured their country to himself. (4.) Thus he got the
benefit of their service in his own country, as Pharaoh did that of their
fathers; and so this unworthy people were lost as they were found, and ended
as they began, in servitude and under oppression. (5.) Thus he made room for
those of his own country that had little, and little to do, at home, to settle
in a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. In all these several ways
he served himself by this captivity of the ten tribes. We are here told in
what places of his kingdom he disposed of them--in Halah and Habor,
in places, we may suppose, far distant from each other, lest they should keep
up a correspondence, incorporate again, and become formidable. There, we have
reason to think, after some time they were so mingled with the nations that
they were lost, and the name of Israel was no more in remembrance.
Those that forgot God were themselves forgotten; those that studied to be like
the nations were buried among them; and those that would not serve God in
their own land were made to serve their enemies in a strange land. It is
probable that they were the men of honour and estates who were carried
captive, and that many of the meaner sort of people were left behind, many of
every tribe, who either went over to Judah or became subject to the Assyrian
colonies, and their posterity were Galileans or Samaritans. But
thus ended Israel as a nation; now they became Lo-ammi--not a people,
and Lo-ruhamah--unpitied. Now Canaan spued them out. When we read of
their entry under Hoshea the son of Nun who would have thought that such as
this should be their exit under Hoshea the son of Elah? Thus Rome's glory in
Augustus sunk, many ages after, in Augustulus. Providence so ordered the
eclipsing of the honour of the ten tribes that the honour of Judah (the royal
tribe) and Levi (the holy tribe), which yet remained, might shine the
brighter. Yet we find a number sealed of every one of the twelve tribes (Rev.
vii.) except Dan. James writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad (Jam. i.
1) and Paul speaks of the twelve tribes which instantly served God day and
night (Acts xxvi. 7); so that though we never read of those that were
carried captive, nor have any reason to credit the conjecture of some (that
they yet remain a distinct body in some remote corner of the world), yet a
remnant of them did escape, to keep up the name of Israel, till it came to be
worn by the gospel church, the spiritual Israel, in which it will ever remain,
Gal. vi. 16.
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The
Wickedness of Israel.
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B.
C. 730.
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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 Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which
they had made. 9 And the children of Israel did secretly those
things that were not right against the LORD
their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower
of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10 And they set them up images
and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11 And
there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen
whom the LORD
carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD
to anger: 12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD
had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. 13 Yet the LORD
testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by
all the seers, saying, Turn ye 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. 14
Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the
neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD
their God. 15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant
that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified
against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the
heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16 And
they left all the commandments of the LORD
their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a
grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17
And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and
used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight
of the LORD,
to provoke him to anger. 18 Therefore the LORD
was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none
left but the tribe of Judah only. 19 Also Judah kept not the
commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20 And the LORD
rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into
the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 21
For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of
Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD,
and made them sin a great sin. 22 For the children of Israel
walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from
them; 23 Until the LORD
removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the
prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto
this day.
Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly
related, it is in these verses largely commented upon by our historian, and
the reasons of it assigned, not taken from the second causes--the weakness of
Israel, their impolitic management, and the strength and growing greatness of
the Assyrian monarch (these things are overlooked)--but only from the First
Cause. Observe, 1. It was the Lord that removed Israel out of his sight;
whoever were the instruments, he was the author of this calamity. It was destruction
from the Almighty; the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger, Isa.
x. 5. It was the Lord that rejected the seed of Israel, else their
enemies could not have seized upon them, v. 20. Who gave Jacob for a
spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord? Isa. xliii. 24. We
lose the benefit of national judgments if we do not eye the hand of God in
them, and the fulfilling of the scripture, for that also is taken notice of
here (v. 23): The Lord removed Israel out of his favour, and out
of their own land, as he had said by all his servants the prophets.
Rather shall heaven and earth pass than one tittle of God's word fall to the
ground. When God's word and his works are compared, it will be found not only
that they agree, but that they illustrate each other. But why would God ruin a
people that were raised and incorporated, as Israel was, by miracles and
oracles? Why would he undo that which he himself had done at so vast an
expense? Was it purely an act of sovereignty? No, it was an act of necessary
justice. For, 2. They provoked him to do this by their wickedness. Was it
God's doing? Nay, it was their own; by their way and their doings they procured
all this to themselves, and it was their own wickedness that did correct
them. This the sacred historian shows here at large, that it might appear that
God did them no wrong and that others might hear and fear. Come and see what
it was that did all this mischief, that broke their power and laid their
honour in the dust; it was sin; that, and nothing else, separated between them
and God. This is here very movingly laid open as the cause of all the
desolations of Israel. He here shows,
I. What God had done for Israel, to engage them to serve him. 1. He gave them
their liberty (v. 7): He brought them from under the hand of Pharaoh
who oppressed them, asserted their freedom (Israel is my son), and
effected their freedom with a high hand. Thus they were bound in duty and
gratitude to be his servants, for he had loosed their bonds; nor would he that
rescued them out of the hand of the king of Egypt have contradicted himself so
far as to deliver them into the hand of the king of Assyria, as he did, if
they had not, by their iniquity, betrayed their liberty and sold themselves.
2. He gave them their law, and was himself their king. They were immediately
under a divine regimen. They could not plead ignorance of good and evil, sin
and duty, for God had particularly charged them against those very things
which here he charges them with (v. 15), That they should not do
like the heathen. Nor could they be in any doubt concerning their
obligation to observe the laws which they are here charged with rejecting, for
they were the commandments and statutes of the Lord their God (v.
13), so that no room was left to dispute whether they should keep them or no.
He had not dealt so with other nations, Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20. 3. He gave
them their land, for he cast out the heathen from before them (v.
8), to make room for them; and the casting out of them for their idolatries
was as fair a warning as could be given to Israel not to do like them.
II. What they had done against God, notwithstanding these engagements which he
had laid upon them. 1. In general. They sinned against the Lord their God
(v. 7), they did those things that were not right (v. 9),
but secretly. So wedded were they to their evil practices that when
they could not do them publicly, could not for shame or could not for fear,
they would do them secretly--an evidence of their atheism, that they thought
what was done in secret was from under the eye of God himself and would not be
required. Again, they wrought wicked things in such a direct contradiction to
the divine law that they seemed as if they were done on purpose to provoke
the Lord to anger (v. 11), in contempt of his authority and
defiance of his justice. They rejected God's statutes and his covenant
(v. 15), would not be bound up either by his command or the consent
they themselves had given to the covenant, but threw off the obligations of
both, and therefore God justly rejected them, v. 20. See Hos. iv. 6.
They left all the commandments of the Lord their God (v. 16),
left the way, left the work, which those commandments prescribed them and
directed them in. Nay, lastly, they sold themselves to do evil in the sight
of the Lord, that is, they wholly addicted themselves to sin, as slaves to
the service of those to whom they are sold, and, by their obstinately
persisting in sin, so hardened their own hearts that at length it had become
morally impossible for them to recover themselves, as one that has sold
himself has put his liberty past recall. 2. In particular. Though they were
guilty (no doubt) of many immoralities, and violated all the commands of the
second table, yet nothing is here specified, but their idolatry. This
was the sin that did most easily beset them; this was, of all sins, most
provoking to God: it was the spiritual adultery that broke the
marriage-covenant, and was the inlet of all other wickedness. Hence it is
again and again mentioned here as the sin that ruined them. (1.) They feared
other gods (v. 7), that is, worshipped them and paid their homage to
them, as if they feared their displeasure. (2.) They walked in the statutes
of the heathen, which were contrary to God's statutes (v. 8), did as
did the heathen (v. 11), went after the heathen that were round
about them (v. 15), so prostituting the honour of their
peculiarity, and defeating God's design concerning them, which was that they
should be distinguished from the heathen. Must those that were taught of God
go to school to the heathen--those that were appropriated to God take their
measures from the nations that were abandoned by him? (3.) They walked in
the statutes of the idolatrous kings of Israel (v. 8), in
all the sins of Jeroboam, v. 22. When their kings assumed a power
to alter and add to the divine institutions they submitted to them, and
thought the command of their kings would bear them out in disobedience to the
command of their God. (4.) They built themselves high places in all their
cities, v. 9. If in any place there was but the tower of the
watchmen (a country tower that had no walls, but only a tower to shelter the
watch in time of danger), or but a lodge for shepherds, it must be honoured
with a high place, and that with an altar. If there was a fenced city, it must
be further fortified with a high place. Having forsaken God's only place, they
knew no end of high places, in which every man followed his own fancy and
directed his devotion to what god he pleased. Sacred things were hereby
profaned and laid common, when their altars were as heaps in the furrows of
the field, Hos. xii. 11. (5.) They set them up images and groves--Asherim
(even wooden images, so some think the term, which we translate groves,
should be rendered) or Ashtaroth (so others)--directed contrary to the
second commandment, v. 10. They served idols (v. 12), the works
of their own hands and creatures of their own fancy, though God had warned
them particularly not to do this thing. (6.) They burnt incense in all the
high places, to the honour of strange gods, for it was to the dishonour of
the true God, v. 11. (7.) They followed vanity. Idols are called so,
because they could do neither good nor evil, but were the most insignificant
things that could be; those that worshipped them were like unto them, and so
they became vain and good for nothing (v. 16), vain in their devotions,
which were brutish and ridiculous, and so became vain in their whole
conversation. (8.) Besides the molten images, even the two calves, they worshipped
all the host of heaven--the sun, moon, and stars: for it is not meant of
the heavenly host of angels; they could not rise so far above sensible things
as to think of them. And, withal, they served Baal, the deified heroes of the
Gentiles, v. 16. (9.) They caused their children to pass through the
fire, in token of their dedicating them to their idols. (10.) They used
divinations and enchantments, that they might receive directions from the gods
to whom they paid their devotions.
III. What means God used with them, to bring them off from their idolatries,
and to how little purpose. He testified against them, showed them their sins
and warned them of the fatal consequences of them by all the prophets and all
the seers (for so the prophets had been formerly called), and pressed
them to turn from their evil ways, v. 13. We have read of
prophets, more or less, in every reign. Though they had forsaken God's family
of priests, he did not leave them without a succession of prophets, who made
it their business to teach them the good knowledge of the Lord, but all in
vain (v. 14); they would not hear, but hardened their necks, persisted
in their idolatries, and were like their fathers, that would not bow their
necks to God's yoke, because they did not believe in him, did not
receive his truths, nor would venture upon his promises: it seems to refer to
their fathers in the wilderness; the same sin that kept them out of Canaan
turned these out, and that was unbelief.
IV. How God punished them for their sins. He was very angry with them (v.
18); for, in the matter of his worship, he is a jealous God, and resents
nothing more deeply than giving that honour to any creature which is due to
himself only. He afflicted them (v. 20) and delivered them into the
hand of spoilers, in the days of the judges and of Saul, and afterwards in
the days of most of their kings, to see if they would be awakened by the
judgments of God to consider and amend their ways; but, when all these
corrections did not prevail to drive out the folly, God first rent Israel
from the house of David, under which they might have been happy. As Judah
was hereby weakened, so Israel was hereby corrupted; for they made a man king
who drove them from following the Lord and caused them to sin a great sin,
v. 21. This was a national judgment, and the punishment of their former
idolatries; and, at length, he removed them quite out of his sight (v.
18, 23), without giving them any hopes of a return out of their captivity.
Lastly, Here is a complaint against Judah in the midst of all (v.
19): Also Judah kept not the commandments of God; though they were not
as yet quite so bad as Israel, yet they walked in the statutes of Israel;
and this aggravated the sin of Israel, that they communicated the infection of
it to Judah; see Ezek. xxiii. 11. Those that bring sin into a country or
family bring a plague into it and will have to answer for all the mischief
that follows.
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The
Samaritans' Idolatry.
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B.
C. 720.
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24 And the king of Assyria brought men
from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from
Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the
children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities
thereof. 25 And so it was at the beginning of their
dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD:
therefore the LORD
sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 26
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou
hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the
God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they
slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the
priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let
him teach them the manner of the God of the land. 28 Then one of
the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el,
and taught them how they should fear the LORD. 29 Howbeit
every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the
high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities
wherein they dwelt. 30 And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth,
and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their
children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the LORD,
and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places,
which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. 33
They feared the LORD,
and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried
away from thence. 34 Unto this day they do after the former
manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after
their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment
which the LORD
commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel; 35 With
whom the LORD
had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods,
nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the LORD,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched
out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do
sacrifice. 37 And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law,
and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for
evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods. 38 And the covenant
that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other
gods. 39 But the LORD
your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your
enemies. 40 Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their
former manner. 41 So these nations feared the LORD,
and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's
children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
Never was land lost, we say, for want of an heir. When the children of Israel
were dispossessed, and turned out of Canaan, the king of Assyria soon
transplanted thither the supernumeraries of his own country, such as it could
well spare, who should be servants to him and masters to the Israelites that
remained; and here we have an account of these new inhabitants, whose story is
related here that we may take our leave of Samaria, as also of the Israelites
that were carried captive into Assyria.
I. Concerning the Assyrians that were brought into the
land
of
Israel
we are here told, 1. That they possessed
Samaria
and dwelt in the cities thereof, v. 24. It is common for lands
to change their owners, but sad that the holy land should become a heathen
land again. See what work sin makes. 2. That at their first coming God sent
lions among them. They were probably insufficient to people the country,
which occasioned the beasts of the field to multiply against them
(Exod. xxiii. 29); yet, besides the natural cause, there was a manifest hand
of God in it, who is Lord of hosts, of all the creatures, and can serve his
own purposes by which he pleases, small or great, lice or lions. God ordered
them this rough welcome to check their pride and insolence, and to let them
know that though they had conquered Israel the God of Israel had power enough
to deal with them--that he could have prevented their settling here, by
ordering lions into the service of Israel, and that he permitted it, not for
their righteousness, but the wickedness of his own people--and that they were
now under his visitation. They had lived without God in their own land, and
were not plagued with lions; but, if they do so in this land, it is at their
peril. 3. That they sent a remonstrance of this grievance to the king their
master, setting forth, it is likely, the loss their infant colony had
sustained by the lions and the continual fear they were in of them, and
stating that they looked upon it to be a judgment upon them for not
worshipping the God of the land, which they could not, because they knew not
how, v. 26. The God of Israel was the God of the whole world, but they
ignorantly call him the God of the land, apprehending themselves
therefore within his reach, and concerned to be upon good terms with him.
Herein they shamed the Israelites, who were not so ready to hear the voice of
God's judgments as they were, and who had not served the God of that land,
though he was the God of their fathers and their great benefactor, and though
they were well instructed in the manner of his worship. Assyrians begged to be
taught that which Israelites hated to be taught. 4. That the king of Assyria
took care to have them taught the manner of the God of the land (v.
27, 28), not out of any affection to that God, but to save his subjects from
the lions. On this errand he sent back one of the priests whom he had carried
away captive. A prophet would have done them more good, for this was but one
of the priests of the calves, and therefore chose to dwell at Bethel for old
acquaintance' sake, and, though he might teach them to do better than they
did, he was not likely to teach them to do well, unless he had taught his own
people better. However, he came and dwelt among them, to teach them how they
should fear the Lord. Whether he taught them out of the book of the
law, or only by word of mouth, is uncertain. 5. That, being thus taught, they
made a mongrel religion of it, worshipped the God of Israel for fear and their
own idols for love (v. 33): They feared the Lord, but they served
their own gods. They all agreed to worship the God of the land according
to the manner, to serve the Jewish festivals and rites of sacrificing, but
every nation made gods of their own besides, not only for their private use in
their own families, but to be put in the houses of their high places, v.
9. The idols of each country are here named, v. 30, 31. The learned are
at a loss for the signification of several of these names, and cannot agree by
what representations these gods were worshipped. If we may credit the
traditions of the Jewish doctors, they tell us that Succoth-Benoth was
worshipped in a hen and chickens, Nergal in a cock, Ashima in a smooth goat,
Nibhaz in a dog, Tartak in an ass, Adrammelech in a peacock, Anammelech in a
pheasant. Our own tell us, more probably, that Succoth-Benoth (signifying the
tents of the daughters) was Venus. Nergal, being worshipped by the
Cuthites, or Persians, was the fire, Adrammelech and Anammelech were
only distinctions of Moloch. See how vain idolaters were in their
imaginations, and wonder at their sottishness. Our very ignorance concerning
these idols teaches us the accomplishment of that word which God has spoken,
that these false gods should all perish (Jer. x. 11); they are all buried in
oblivion, while the name of the true God shall continue for ever. 6. This
medley superstition is here said to continue unto this day (v.
41), till the time when this book was written and long after, above 300 years
in all, till the time of Alexander the Great, when Manasse, brother to Jaddus
the high priest of the Jews, having married the daughter of Sanballat,
governor of the Samaritans, went over to them, got leave of Alexander to build
a temple in Mount Gerizim, drew over many of the Jews to him, and prevailed
with the Samaritans to cast away all their idols and to worship the God of
Israel only; yet their worship was mixed with so much superstition that our
Saviour told them they knew not what they worshipped, John iv. 22.
II. Concerning the Israelites that were carried into the land of Assyria. This
historian has occasion to speak of them (v. 22), showing that their
successors in the land did as they had done (after the manner of the
nations whom they carried away), they worshipped both the God of Israel
and those other gods; but what did the captives do in the land of their
affliction? Were they reformed, and brought to repentance, by their troubles?
No, they did after the former manner, v. 34. When the two tribes were
afterwards carried into Babylon, they were cured by it of their idolatry, and
therefore, after seventy years, they were brought back with joy; but the ten
tribes were hardened in the furnace, and therefore were justly lost in it and
left to perish. This obstinacy of theirs is here aggravated by the
consideration, 1. Of the honour God had put upon them, as the seed of Jacob, whom
he named Israel, and from him they were so named, but were a reproach to that
worthy name by which they were called. 2. Of the covenant he made with
them, and the charge he gave them upon that covenant, which is here very fully
recited, that they should fear and serve the Lord Jehovah only, who had
brought them up out of Egypt (v. 36), that, having received his
statutes and ordinances in writing, they should observe to do them for
evermore (v. 37), and never forget that covenant which God had made
with them, the promises and conditions of that covenant, especially that great
article of it which is here thrice repeated, because it had been so often
inculcated and so much insisted on, that they should not fear other gods.
He had told them that, if they kept close to him, he would deliver them out
of the hand of all their enemies (v. 39); yet when they were in the
hand of their enemies, and stood in need of deliverance, they were so stupid,
and had so little sense of their own interest, that they did after the former
manner (v. 40), they served both the true God and false gods, as if
they knew no difference. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. So
they did, and so did the nations that succeeded them. Well might the apostle
ask, What then, Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for both Jews and
Gentiles are all under sin, Rom. iii. 9.
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