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2 Kings 17 · a question people ask

If Judah sinned too, why was Judah left?

In the text

The chapter says both things side by side. "There was none left but the tribe of Judah only" (17:18), and "Also Judah didn’t keep the commandments of the LORD their God" (17:19). The warning had gone "to Israel and to Judah" (17:13). This chapter gives no reason Judah was left. Earlier the book gave one: "However, the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always" (8:19). The LORD had promised one tribe to Solomon's son, "that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem" (1 Kings 11:36). And the book doesn't say Judah was left for ever. In Josiah's days the LORD says, "I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel" (23:27).

The verses

“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.””
2 Kings 17:13 · World English Bible
“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. Also Judah didn’t keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.”
2 Kings 17:18-19 · World English Bible
“However, the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always.”
2 Kings 8:19 · World English Bible
“I will give one tribe to his son, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.”
1 Kings 11:36 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Kings 17

2 Kings 17: 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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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions