2 Kings 17:1-8

Hoshea’s Reign over Israel

17:1 In the twelfth year of King Ahaz’s reign over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria ¹  for nine years. 17:2 He did evil in the sight of ²  the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him. 17:3 King Shalmaneser of Assyria threatened ³  him; Hoshea became his subject and paid him tribute. 17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. ⁴  Hoshea had sent messengers to King So ⁵  of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. ⁶  17:5 The king of Assyria marched through ⁷  the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel ⁸  to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

A Summary of Israel’s Sinful History

17:7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of ⁹  Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped ¹⁰  other gods; 17:8 they observed the practices ¹¹  of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel. ¹² 

[17:1]  ¹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[17:2]  ² tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[17:3]  ³ tn Heb “went up against.”

[17:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”

[17:4]  ⁵ sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.

[17:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”

[17:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “went up against.”

[17:6]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

[17:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “and from under the hand of.” The words “freed them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “feared.”

[17:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “walked in the customs.”

[17:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”