II Kings 17:5

Reign of Hoshea King of Israel. - Kg2 17:1. In the twelfth year of Ahaz began Hoshea to reign. As Hoshea conspired against Pekah, according to Kg2 15:30, in the fourth year of Ahaz, and after murdering him made himself king, whereas according to the verse before us it was not till the twelfth year of Ahaz that he really became king, his possession of the throne must have been contested for eight years. The earlier commentators and almost all the chronologists have therefore justly assumed that there was en eight years' anarchy between the death of Pekah and the commencement of Hoshea's reign. This assumption merits the preference above all the attempts made to remove the discrepancy by alterations of the text, since there is nothing at all surprising in the existence of anarchy at a time when the kingdom was in a state of the greatest inward disturbance and decay. Hoshea reigned nine years, and "did that which was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, though not like the kings of Israel before him" (Kg2 17:2). We are not told in what Hoshea was better than his predecessors, nor can it be determined with any certainty, although the assumption that he allowed his subjects to visit the temple at Jerusalem is a very probable one, inasmuch as, according to Ch2 30:10., Hezekiah invited to the feast of the Passover, held at Jerusalem, the Israelites from Ephraim and Manasseh as far as to Zebulun, and some individuals from these tribes accepted his invitation. But although Hoshea was better than his predecessors, the judgment of destruction burst upon the sinful kingdom and people in his reign, because he had not truly turned to the Lord; a fact which has been frequently repeated in the history of the world, namely, that the last rulers of a decaying kingdom have not been so bad as thei…

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 (Kg2 17:1-6). II. Remarks upon it, and the causes of it, for the justifying of God in it and for warning to others (v. 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 (v. 24-41).

17:5-6 the king of Assyria: Although sources identify Samaria’s conqueror as Shalmaneser V of Assyria (726–722 BC), Sargon II (who ruled Assyria 721–705 BC) claimed that he captured the city. Perhaps Sargon was the field commander when Samaria fell and then became king when Shalmaneser died during the year of the siege. • invaded the entire land: Assyrian military strategy was to devastate the territory surrounding an enemy’s primary city before launching a final attack. • The ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign was 722 BC. • the people . . . were exiled: The Assyrians practiced deportation in order to defuse future rebellions. Sargon also brought other people to Israel to form a mixed population (17:24-25). • Halah was situated northeast of Nineveh in Assyria. • The Habor River is a tributary of the Euphrates River in northwestern Assyria. • Gozan was located on the Habor River northeast of Haran (Gen 12:4). Assyrian documents from the area list personal names that are clearly Israelite, perhaps reflecting the deportation of the people of Samaria.