The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 290

to hie l!UC08880J'B. llll'&81 Mllld 1mffer &.lone, united with the Jewieh oommunttl1111, whtoh while Judah w&e spared, bc011use the king- were gradually formed in almost all the dom of David &.nd Solomon had been rent oities of the East: while the irreligious le.id in twain, and the two states h&.d thenceforth asirle their peculiar customs, and beonme oontinued eepamt,a. Israel from the hoUBe blended indistinguishably with the heathen. of David; and they made J'eroboam the aon There is no ground for expecting to find of Nebat king: e.nd J'erobo&.m drave Israel the " ten tribes" anywhere at the present from following the Lord. The separation. day, a.lone might not he.ve lie.d e.ny ill result; but it wa.e followed by the e.ppointment of Vers. 24-41.-llepeopling of the kinadoin Jeroboam e.s king, and Jeroboam introduced of Israel by A11BYrian colonuts, andformation the fa.ta.I taint of idolatry, from which all of a mi:ted religion. The writer, before dis- tbe other e\"ils flowed, including the earlier missing the subject of the Isro.elite kingdom, destruC'tion of the northern ldngdom. Jero- boam not only intJ"Oduood the "l\'orsbip of proceeds to inform UB of certain results of the en! V<'S, hut he "drave Israel from follow- the conquest. Having removed the bnlk ing the Lord "-i.e. compelled the people of the native inhabitants, the Assyrians did to discontinue the practice of going up to not allow the country to lie we.ste, but worship at Jerusalem (2 Chron. xi. 13-16), proceeded to replace the population whioh and required them to take pa.rt in the calf- wor,hip. And [thu@] me.de them Bin a they he.d carried off by settlers from other great sin. looalities (ver. 2!), These settlers were, Yer. 22.-For the children of Israel after a short time, incommoded by lions, walked in all the sins of J'eroboam which which increased upon them, and diminished he did. The nation, having been once their numbers (ver. 25). The idea. a.rose persuaded to adopt Jeroboa.m's innovations, that the visitation was supernatural, and continued to " walk" in them-followed Jcroboam'e example in" all hie sins "-gave might be traced to the faot that the new- up the temple-worship altogether; accepted comers, not knowing " the manner of the ihe ministrations of priests not of the seed God of the land," displeased him by the of Aaron (1 Kings xiii 33 ; 2 Chron. xiii. neglect of his rites or by the introdnction of 9); brought their tithes to these idol-priests; alien worship (ver. 26), A remedy for this sacrificed to the ee.lvee at Dan and Bethel (Amos iv. 4); and put their trust in the was songht in the sending to them from "similitnde of a calf that eateth hay." Assyria one of the priests who had been They departed not from them (comp. 1 Kings carried off, from whom it was thought they xv. 26, 34; xvi 2, 19, 26, 31 ; eh. iii 3; might learn bow "the God of the land" x. 29; xiii. 6, 11; :xiv. 24; xv. 9, 18, 28). was to be propitiated. This was the origin Ver. 23.-Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight (see the comment on ver. of the '' mixed religion" whioh grew up in 18) as he had said by all his se"a.nts the the conntry, While the nations who had prophets. The destrnction of the kingdom replaced the Israelites brought in their own of Israel he.d been distinctly prophesied by superstitions, and severally worshipped their Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings xiv. 15, 16), own gods (vers. 30, 31), there was a general Hosea (i. 4; ix. 3, 17), and Amos (vii. 17). e.cknowledgment of Jehovah by all of them, Grneral warnings and denunciations he.d been given by Moses (Lev. xxvi. 33; Deut. and e. continnance of Jehovistio worship in iv. 26, 27; xxviii. 36, etc.), by Isaiah (vii. the va.rions high places. The nations both 8; xxviii. 1-4), and probably by the entire "feared the Lord, and served their graven series of prophets enumerated in the comment images," down to the time when the writer on ver. 13. So was Israel carried away of Kings composed his work (vers, 33-41). out of their own land to Assyria 'IIIlto this day; i.e. np to the time tbe.t the Secoud Book of Kings was written, about B.o. Ver. 24.-And the King of ABByria brought 580-560, the Israelites remained within men from Babylon. It has been supposed, the limits of the country to which they in connection with Ezra iv. 2, that no were carried by the conqueror. Not long colonists were introduced into the country after this time, about B.O. 538, a considerable till the time of Esa.rhaddon, who began to number returned with Zerubbabel to Pales- reign in B.o. 681. But this, which would tine, and other. with Ezra (see Ezra. ii. be intrinsice.lly most improbable (for when 70; iii. 1; vi. 16, 17; vii. 13; viii. 35: did e. king forego !Jis tribute from a fertile 1 Chron. ix. 2, 3; Zech. viii. 13). What country for forty-one years?), is contradicted became of the rest bas been a. fertile subject by a statement o~ Sa.rgon, the.t l~e pl~ced Gf 11p<.--culation. Probably the more religious colonist.II there m B,o. 715 ( Ancient OII, XVII, 1-41.] THE SECOND BOOK OF TIIE KINGS.