2 Kings 17:20

And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel,.... The ten tribes, with loathing and contempt, and wrote a "loammi" on them, rejected them from being his people, gave them a bill of divorce, and declared them no more under his care and patronage: and afflicted them; as he did before he utterly cast them off, as by famine, drought, and pestilence, Amos 4:6. and delivered them into the hands of spoilers; as, first, into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, kings of Syria, and then of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 2 Kings 13:3, until he had cast them out of his sight; by suffering them, as now, to be carried captive by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 17:6.

17:7-23 Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly related, it is in these verses largely commented upon, and the reasons of it given. It was destruction from the Almighty: the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger, Isa 10:5. Those that bring sin into a country or family, bring a plague into it, and will have to answer for all the mischief that follows. And vast as the outward wickedness of the world is, the secret sins, evil thoughts, desires, and purposes of mankind are much greater. There are outward sins which are marked by infamy; but ingratitude, neglect, and enmity to God, and the idolatry and impiety which proceed therefrom, are far more malignant. Without turning from every evil way, and keeping God's statutes, there can be no true godliness; but this must spring from belief of his testimony, as to wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, and his mercy in Christ Jesus.

2 Kings 17:20. The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel — All the kingdom, or tribes of Israel, first one part of them, and now the rest: but this extends not to every individual person of these tribes, for many of them removed into the kingdom of Judah, and were associated with them: see 2 Chronicles 11:16 .

All the seed of Israel, i.e. all the kingdom or tribes of Israel; first one part of them, 2 Kings 15:29 , and now the rest. But this extends not to every individual person of these tribes; for many of them removed into the kingdom of Judah, and were associated with them, as appears from 2 Chronicles 11:16 , and many other places.

All the seed of lsrael - The Jews, i. e. as well as the Israelites. God's dealings with both kingdoms were alike. "Spoilers" were sent against each, time after time, before the final ruin came on them - against Israel, Pul and Tiglath-pileser 2 Kings 15:19 , 2 Kings 15:29 ; 1 Chronicles 5:26 ; against Judah, Sennacherib 2 Kings 18:13-16 , Esar-haddon 2 Chronicles 33:11 , and Nebuchadnezzar thrice.

(20) And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel. —Thenius prefers the reading of the LXX. “and rejected the Lord (as in the last clause of 2Kings 17:19 ), and the Lord, was angry with all the seed of Israel,” &c. It thus becomes plain that the writer goes back to 2Kings 17:18 , after the parenthesis relating to Judah. “Israel” is used in the narrow sense in those verses. Into the hand of spoilers—e.g., the Syrians (2Kings 10:32;) and the Assyrians (2Kings 15:19; 2Kings 15:29; 2Kings 17:3. The writer probably remembered Judges 2:14.

2Ki 17:7-41. Samaria Taken, and Israel for Their Sins Carried Captive. 7. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned—There is here given a very full and impressive vindication of the divine procedure in punishing His highly privileged, but rebellious and apostate, people. No wonder that amid so gross a perversion of the worship of the true God, and the national propensity to do reverence to idols, the divine patience was exhausted; and that the God whom they had forsaken permitted them to go into captivity, that they might learn the difference between His service and that of their despotic conquerors.

20 . And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel ] The LXX. has ‘And they rejected the Lord, and the Lord was angry with all the seed of Israel’. the hand of spoilers ] The first of whom, mentioned below, is Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who led them astray, and the next is the king of Assyria, who carried them captive. There were many spoilers between, but Jeroboam’s act began the downward course, which ended in the captivity of Shalmaneser and Sargon.

Verse 20. - And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel. God is no respecter of persons. As he had rejected the ten tribes on account of certain transgressions, which have been enumerated (vers. 8-17), so, when Judah committed the self-same sins, and transgressed equally, Judah had equally to be rejected. " All the seed of Israel" is the entire nation - Israel in the widest sense, made up of Judah and of Israel in the narrow sense. So Keil, rightly. And afflicted them - by the hands of Sargon, and Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon ( 2 Chronicles 33:11 ), and Pharaoh-Nechoh, and others - and delivered them into the hands of spoilers. The "spoilers" intended are probably, first, the "bands of the Chaldees, and of the Syrians, and of the Moabites, and of the children of Ammon," who were let loose upon Judaea by Nebuchadnezzar when Jehoiakim rebelled against him ( 2 Kings 24:2 ), and secondly Nebuchadnezzar himself and Nebuzaradan, who completed the spoliation of the country, and plundered Jerusalem itself, to punish the revolts of Jehoiachid and Zedekiah ( 2 Kings 24:13-16 and 2 Kings 25:8-21), when all the treasures of the temple were carried off. Until he had cast them out of his sight ; i.e. until he had punished Judah as he had previously punished Israel (ver. 18), which was what justice required. 2 Kings 17:20

ויּמאס is a continuation of יהוה ויּתאנּף in 2 Kings 17:18 , but so that what follows also refers to the parenthesis in 2 Kings 17:19 . "Then the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel," not merely the ten tribes, but all the nation, and humbled them till He thrust them from His face. מאס differs from מפּניו השׁליך. The latter denotes driving into exile; the former, simply that kind of rejection which consisted in chastisement and deliverance into the hand of plunderers, that is to say, penal judgments by which the Lord sought to lead Israel and Judah to turn to Him and to His commandments, and to preserve them from being driven among the heathen. שׁסים בּיד נתן as in Judges 2:14 .