Bible Chapter Summary
2 Kings 17 Summary
Israel's Fall to Assyria
Hoshea reigns over Israel but does evil, less severely than previous kings. When Shalmaneser of Assyria invades, Hoshea becomes his servant but then conspires with Egypt, refusing tribute, so Assyria imprisons him. After a three-year siege, Samaria falls and Israel is carried to Assyria. The text explains that Israel's captivity results from their rejection of the LORD, idolatry, and refusal to heed the prophets' warnings. Assyria repopulates Samaria with foreign peoples who initially fear the LORD but gradually mix pagan practices with His worship, creating a syncretistic religion that persists.
Key themes
Key verses
2 Kings 17:7-8
“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,”
2 Kings 17:13-15
“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.”
2 Kings 17:18
“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.”
2 Kings 17:23
“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.”
Read 2 Kings 17 in full
Study the complete chapter with interlinear Hebrew & Greek, verse-by-verse, in the Gospel Daily reader.
Open the full chapter