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2 Kings 17 Bible study: Turn from your evil ways
Samaria fell, 2 Kings says, "because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God" (17:7), though he warned them "by every prophet and every seer" (17:13). Jeroboam "made them sin a great sin" (17:21), in Hebrew the words Moses said three times over the calf at Sinai (Exodus 32:21, 32:30, 32:31).
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“Yet the LORD testified to Israel and to Judah, by every prophet and 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.””
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“In 2 Kings 17:29, the Samaritans are named as the ones who had made the houses of the high places.”
Is that in 2 Kings 17, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
It was so because
The fall of Samaria is told in three verses (17:4-6). Hoshea sends messengers "to So king of Egypt" and stops his tribute, and the king of Assyria "seized him, and bound him in prison" (17:4). The king of Assyria besieges Samaria "three years" (17:5), and "In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria" (17:6). Then the book stops and gives the reason in its own words: "It was so because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods" (17:7) (tap feared). The list runs on to 17:17. They "walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel" (17:8), "built high places for themselves in all their cities" (17:9), set up "pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree" (17:10), and "served idols" (17:12), of which the LORD had said, "You shall not do this thing" (17:12). Of Hoshea himself the chapter says, "He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him" (17:2).
Where it leads to Jesus
You worship that which you don't know
2 Kings 17:33leads toJohn 4:22
The king of Assyria placed people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim "in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel" (17:24). Those who spoke to the king of Assyria said they "don’t know the law of the god of the land" (17:26), and a priest was sent back who "taught them how they should fear the LORD" (17:28). "They feared the LORD, and also served their own gods" (17:33), and the next verse says, "They don’t fear the LORD" (17:34). At Jacob's well (John 4:6), "A woman of Samaria came to draw water" (John 4:7). When she said, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship" (John 4:20), Jesus said, "You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22). John doesn't cite 2 Kings 17, and neither John nor 2 Kings says that the Samaritans of Jesus' day came from the peoples of 17:24; 2 Kings uses the word "Samaritans" only once, for those who had made the high places (17:29). So setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject, worship offered without knowing the one worshiped, not on a line of descent. Some hear in Jesus' words the same thing 17:26-34 shows: worship by nations that didn't know "the law of the god of the land" (17:26), who feared the LORD and also served their own gods (17:33). Others read John 4:22 within its own setting, Jesus' words to one woman of Samaria in his own day, which go on to the hour when "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:23), and read 17:24-41 as the account of those nations in the book's own day, without looking from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Kings 17
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Kings 17 is waiting in Favor
- By every prophet and every seer
- Out of his sight, and Judah too
- They feared the LORD, and also
- Followed vanity, and became vain
- A great sin
- Not as yet, and then cast out
- 13 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
יָרֵאyare'say ya-RE
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "fear, be afraid", and also "stand in awe of" and "fear, reverence, honour". Strong's: "to fear; morally to revere". It is this chapter's word. It opens the reason Samaria fell: Israel "had feared other gods" (17:7). Then it comes over and over for the peoples brought in: "they didn’t fear the LORD" (17:25), the priest "taught them how they should fear the LORD" (17:28), "They feared the LORD, and also served their own gods" (17:33), and "They don’t fear the LORD" (17:34). The LORD's own command uses it both ways: "You shall not fear other gods" (17:35, 17:37, 17:38), "But you shall fear the LORD your God" (17:39). It comes in twelve verses of this chapter; 2 Kings has it nineteen times in all.
For your group
2 Kings 17 Bible study questions
- 1The LORD warned "by every prophet and every seer" (17:13), and "they would not listen, but hardened their neck" (17:14). What makes it hard for you to listen when God's word warns you?
- 2"they followed vanity, and became vain" (17:15). Where have you seen what someone follows shape who they become?
- 3"They feared the LORD, and also served their own gods" (17:33). What is the "and also" that most easily sits beside God for you, and what would it take to let it go?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Kings 17 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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