The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 303

stated! "They made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal" (ver. 16). Error on this earth is more act~ve than truth, wrong is more industrious than right, the spirit of evil knows no rest, it goes to and fro on the face of the earth. Here, then, is national wicked- ness. Are we, as a country, less wicked than the nation of Israel? I trow not. True, we are all, for the most part, theoretical theists, but how many practical atheists? For England to a large extent ignores the Almighty. It might be said of most of us, "God is not in all our thoughts." "With lips they own him Me.ster, in life oppose his Word; They every day deny him, and yet they call him 'Lord;' No more is their religion like his in life and deed Than painted grain on canvas is like the living seed." (2) The cruelty of their idolatry. "And they caused their sons and daughters t.o pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold them.selves to do evil in the sight of the Lord" (ver, 17). III. GREAT NATIONAL RUIN, "'l'herefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight" (ver. 18); "The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the band of spoilers, until he bad cast them out of his sight" (ver. 20). 1. Their ruin involved the entire loss of their country. "So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day" (ver. 23). Expatriation is an enormous trial. 2. Their ruin involvtd the Joss of their national e:i;istence. "The Lord removed them out of his sight " ( ver. 18). The ten tribes are gone, and it may be doubted whether they were ever worth looking after, for they were a miserable type of humanity. "The kingdom of the ten tribes," says Dr. Blackie, "was never restored, nor did the dispersed of Israel ever attempt to return in a body to their land," More than two hundred years of idolatry and wickedness have been followed by more than two thousand years of dispersion and alienation. Having said in their hearts to God, 'Depart from us ! ' God said to them, • Depart from me! ' The divorce was completed, and till a reconciliation shall take place, its sad, dark fruits must remain. 3. Their ruin involved the retributive agency of Heaven. The Assyrians were only the instruments. It is God's plan to punish the wicked by the wicked. 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 by violating covenant, an adherence to which formed their title to the occupation of Canaan, permitted them to go into captivity, that they might learn the difference between his service and that of their despotic conquerors.-D. T. Vera. 24-41.-Subjects worth thinking about. "And the King of Assyria brought men from Babylon," etc. This fragment of Israelitish history brings under our notice four subjects which run through all human history, and which find their illustration in the events of modem as well as ancient life. I. 'l'HE TYRANNY OF MAN. Here we find the Assyrians committing two great enormi- ties on the men of Israel-driving them out of their own land into Assyria, and taking possession of their own conntry and home. " And the King of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cutbah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepbar- vaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof." Who that King of Assyria was at this time who carried away the last remnant of the ten tribes into a foreign land, and brought from various parts of his own country men to occupy their property and their homes, whether Shalmaneser or Esarhaddon, is a quest.ion not worth debating, He was a tyrant. 'l'he places from which he selected the men whom he placed in the cities of Samaria are mentioned. Cuthah, a city about fifteen miles north-east from Babylon; Ava, situated on the Euphrates, to the north of Babylon; Hamath, the chief city of Upper Syria; and Sepharvaim, supposed to be on a branch stream from the Euphrates, lying about sixteen miles from Babylon. Now, there was tyranny in both cases, There was tyranny in taking the Assyrians from their own countries and placing th!lm in the citiee of Samaria; as well as tyranny in taking away the ten tribes from  THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [oa. XVII. 1--41.