Day 135 · Part 8: Two Kingdoms
The Fall of Samaria
In the Story
In context
About 722 BC, after a siege of three years, Assyria takes Samaria and carries Israel away to Halah, to the Habor, the river of Gozan, and to the cities of the Medes, far to the northeast (2 Kings 17:5–6). King Hoshea had stopped paying tribute and sent messengers to Egypt (17:4). About two hundred years had passed since the northern tribes made Jeroboam king (1 Kings 12:20).
The chapter stops to say why: Israel feared other gods and would not listen, though the Lord warned them “by every prophet and every seer,” saying, “Turn from your evil ways” (2 Kings 17:7–14). It is a hard reading: they made their sons and daughters “pass through the fire” (17:17).
The king of Assyria settles people from Babylon, Cuthah and other places in Samaria’s towns. After lions kill some of them, one of the priests taken from Samaria is sent back to live at Bethel and teach them, but each nation keeps its own gods as well (17:24–33).
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 31:20 · Israel, also called Ephraim, was carried away; later, through Jeremiah, the Lord asks, “Is Ephraim my dear son?” and says, “I will surely have mercy on him.”
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
2 Kings 17
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A hymn for today
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing · words by Robert Robinson
- Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;Streams of mercy, never ceasing,Call for songs of loudest praise.Teach me some melodious sonnet,Sung by flaming tongues above;Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,Mount of Thy redeeming love.
- Here I raise mine Ebenezer;Hither by Thy help I'm come;And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,Safely to arrive at home.Jesus sought me when a stranger,Wandering from the fold of God;He, to rescue me from danger,Interposed His precious blood.
- O to grace how great a debtorDaily I'm constrained to be!Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,Bind my wandering heart to Thee.Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,Prone to leave the God I love;Here's my heart, O take and seal it,Seal it for Thy courts above.