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| 1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, for nine years. |
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| 2 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not as the kings of Israel that had been before him. |
That were before him – A rather doubtful compliment, of being less evil than some of his predecessors. R4819:3
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| 3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant, and tendered him presents. |
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| 4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and sent up no present to the king of Assyria as he had done from year to year. And the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. |
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| 5 And the king of Assyria overran the whole land, and went up against Samaria, and besieged it three years. |
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| 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 by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. |
And carried Israel – The ten tribes. R4819:3
The fall of the ten tribes of Israel pictures the fall of Papacy. R2360:5
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| 7 And so it was, because the children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah 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; |
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| 8 and they walked in the statutes of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. |
Statutes of the heathen – Israel was quite willing to be God's special people, but seemingly they did not wish to be his peculiar people. R2359:1
Spiritual Israel must be "peculiar people" and not attempt to please and copy the world. R2360:4
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| 9 And the children of Israel did secretly against Jehovah their God things that were not right; and they built them high places in all their cities, from the watchmen's tower to the fortified city. |
Did secretly – Hypocritically, under the pretense that they were doing this in the service of the true God. R2359:3
Corresponds with the tendency of many in Christendom today of publicly showing an outward display in forms and ceremonies, thinking they are increasing in godliness. R2359:4
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| 10 And they set them up columns and Asherahs on every high hill and under every green tree; |
Images and groves – As natural Israel had its groves and totem-posts, so many spiritual Israelites have their various creeds. R3464:6
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| 11 and there they burned incense on all the high places, as did the nations that Jehovah had carried away from before them, and they wrought wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger; |
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| 12 and they served idols, as to which Jehovah had said to them, Ye shall not do this thing. |
They served idols – Idols today are popularity, wealth, fame, self, denomination. R2359:5, R3464:6
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| 13 And Jehovah testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the prophets, all the seers, 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 through my servants the prophets. |
Keep my commandments – Israel's prosperity or defeat indicated the Lord's favor or disfavor, in a manner not applicable to other nations. R4820:1
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| 14 But they would not hear, and hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Jehovah their God. |
Hardened their necks – A figure of speech drawn from the stiffness of neck of a yoke of unruly bullocks. R3464:1
Symbolizing a self-willed and rebellious attitude of heart. R4820:2, R3464:1
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| 15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant which he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he had testified unto them; and they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them. |
Rejected his statutes – Israel rejected God's Law, God's word; lost faith in God's promises; lost sight of the result of forsaking his counsel; followed foolishness, desiring to be not peculiar but popular. R2360:2
This applies to antitypical nominal Israel of today. R2360:4
Went after the heathen – The disposition to do like the world is the seductive point at which the great Adversary would switch us off from being the Lord's peculiar people. Let us remember John 15:19. R2360:4
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| 16 And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of the heavens, and served Baal; |
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| 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 Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. |
To pass through the fire – The fire of Moloch, as sacrifices. The modern Moloch is a god of everlasting torture. R2360:1
We have today a Moloch on a much larger scale, the God-dishonoring imaginations of a god red hot with the flames of hell or purgatory. R3464:6
Divination and enchantments – God's Word warns us against having anything to do with occult powers. R5800:2
They held intercourse with the fallen angels. R2359:6
This same spirit of wilfulness and dissatisfaction with divine arrangements is not lacking today. R2359:6
Sold themselves to do evil – They became the slaves of their passions and self-deceptions, misled of the evil spirits. R3464:1, R2359:6
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| 18 Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there remained but the tribe of Judah only. |
With Israel – These other nations were not specially chastised for idolatry as was Israel. R3463:6
Removed them – Israel's overthrow was a judgment from the Lord. R4820:1
It was God's abandonment of the ten-tribe kingdom, his permission for them to have their way and henceforth to be treated of him as the heathen. R3463:6
An entire alienation from God. R3464:1
The greater religious faith and zeal was always to be found in Judah, and gradually many of the more religious in Ephraim (the ten-tribe kingdom) removed to Judah. R3464:2, R4819:3
Tribe of Judah only – There are analogies in spiritual Israel: the great "falling away" from the faith; the captivity to Papacy and the world (Babylon); the "Reformation," and the separation of "Israelites indeed." R3464:5
The fall of the ten tribes of Israel reminds us of the fall of Papacy for similar reasons. R2360:5
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| 19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of Jehovah their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they had made. |
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| 20 And Jehovah 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. |
All the seed of Israel – The Israelites were destroyed as a nation; but God's favor will return to the twelve tribes, and their regathering will be the first blessing to humanity under Messiah's reign. R4820:4
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| 21 For Israel had rent the kingdom from the house of David; and they had made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam violently turned Israel from following Jehovah, and made them sin a great sin. |
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| 22 And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them: |
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| 23 until Jehovah had removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said through all his servants the prophets; and Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria, unto this day. |
Removed Israel – See comments on 2 Kings 17:18.
So was Israel carried away – Whoever of them maintained faith in God and observed circumcision maintained his membership as an Israelite. Others ceased entirely to be Israelites. R4819:6, R3464:4
To Assyria – They gradually assimilated with the population surrounding them and lost identity as Israelites. R3463:6
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| 24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in its cities. |
Place them in ... Samaria – Thus the Samaritans of Jesus' day were Gentiles who had been transported to Samaria. R2574:1
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| 25 And so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not Jehovah; and Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed some of them. |
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| 26 And they spoke to the king of Assyria saying, The nations that thou hast removed and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the god of the land. |
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| 27 And the king of Assyria commanded saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye have brought away from thence; and let them go and abide there, and let him teach them the manner of the god of the land. |
Let him teach them – Thus the Samaritan Gentiles obtained a smattering of knowledge of Jewish hopes, combining them with false ideas of their own. R2574:1
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| 28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and abode in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah. |
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| 29 And every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they dwelt. |
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| 30 And the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima, |
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| 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim. |
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| 32 So they feared Jehovah, and made to themselves from all classes of them priests of the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the houses of the high places. |
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| 33 They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, whence they had been carried away. |
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| 34 To this day they do after their former customs: they fear not Jehovah, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances, nor after the law and commandment that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel. |
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| 35 And Jehovah had made a covenant with them, and charged them saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; |
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| 36 but Jehovah alone, 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 38 And ye shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, neither shall ye fear other gods; |
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| 39 but ye shall fear Jehovah your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. |
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| 40 And they did not hearken, but did after their former customs. |
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| 41 And these nations feared Jehovah, and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they, unto this day. |
Feared the LORD – Comprehended through the light of nature; but not justified thereby. R1030:2*
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