◄ 2 Kings 17:2 ►
And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
Study Bible
And he did evil in the sight of the LORD
This phrase indicates that the actions of the king were judged by God's standards, not human ones. The "sight of the LORD" suggests divine omniscience and moral authority. The evil mentioned here refers to idolatry and disobedience to God's commandments, which were prevalent in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This aligns with the Deuteronomic history theme, where obedience leads to blessing and disobedience to judgment. The phrase echoes the recurring assessment of Israelite kings, emphasizing the covenantal relationship between God and Israel.

but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him
This part of the verse suggests a comparative assessment. While the king did evil, his actions were not as egregious as those of his predecessors. The kings before him, such as Ahab, were notorious for their idolatry and leading Israel into sin, particularly through the worship of Baal and other Canaanite deities. This distinction may imply a lesser degree of idolatry or a different form of disobedience. It highlights the progressive nature of sin in Israel's history, where each king's actions are weighed against those who came before. This comparison also serves as a reminder of the cumulative effect of sin and the importance of repentance and returning to the covenant with God.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Hoshea
The last king of Israel, who reigned during a time of significant moral and spiritual decline in the Northern Kingdom.

2. Israel
The Northern Kingdom, which was characterized by idolatry and disobedience to God, leading to its eventual downfall.

3. The LORD
The covenant God of Israel, who consistently called His people to faithfulness and obedience.

4. Preceding Kings of Israel
Refers to the kings before Hoshea, many of whom led Israel into deeper idolatry and sin.
Teaching Points
The Consequences of Sin
Even though Hoshea's evil was not as severe as his predecessors, it still led to the downfall of Israel. Sin, regardless of its perceived severity, has consequences.

The Importance of Leadership
Leaders have a significant impact on the spiritual direction of a nation or community. Hoshea's failure to lead Israel back to God contributed to its destruction.

God's Standard of Righteousness
God's standard is not relative. Even if Hoshea was less evil than others, he still did not meet God's standard of righteousness.

The Call to Repentance
The history of Israel serves as a warning and a call to repentance for individuals and nations today. Turning back to God is always the right choice.

Faithfulness in the Face of Decline
Believers are called to remain faithful to God, even when surrounded by widespread moral and spiritual decline.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the reign of Hoshea compare to the reigns of previous kings of Israel, and what can we learn from this comparison about the nature of sin?

2. In what ways does the leadership of a nation or community impact its spiritual health, and how can we apply this understanding in our own contexts?

3. Reflect on a time when you faced the temptation to compromise your faith. How does the account of Hoshea encourage you to remain faithful?

4. How can we, as individuals and as a church, ensure that we are not following the patterns of disobedience seen in the history of Israel?

5. What steps can you take to lead others towards righteousness and away from the spiritual decline evident in the account of Hoshea and the Northern Kingdom?
Connections to Other Scriptures
2 Kings 15:9
This verse describes the evil ways of previous kings, providing context for the comparison made in 2 Kings 17:2.

Deuteronomy 12:31
Highlights the abominations committed by the nations that Israel was warned not to imitate, which the kings of Israel often did.

1 Kings 16:30-33
Details the reign of Ahab, one of the most notorious kings of Israel, known for his idolatry and evil practices.

Hosea 13:16
Prophecies the consequences of Israel's persistent sin and rebellion against God.
Sermons
The Reign of HosheaC.H. Irwin 2 Kings 17:1-5
The End of the Kingdom of IsraelJ. Orr 2 Kings 17:1-6
Aspects of a Corrupt NationDavid Thomas, D. D.2 Kings 17:1-8
Aspects of a Corrupt NationD. Thomas 2 Kings 17:1-8
People
Adrammelech, Ahaz, Anammelech, Avites, Avvites, David, Elah, Hoshea, Israelites, Jacob, Jeroboam, Nebat, Pharaoh, Sepharvites, Shalmaneser
Places
Assyria, Avva, Babylon, Bethel, Cuth, Cuthah, Egypt, Gozan, Habor River, Halah, Hamath, Samaria, Sepharvaim
Topics
Evil, Kings, Preceded, Sight, Though, Yet
Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Kings 17:1-2

     8739   evil, examples of

2 Kings 17:1-6

     5366   king

Library
Divided Worship
'These nations feared the Lord, and served their own gods.'--2 KINGS xvii. 33. The kingdom of Israel had come to its fated end. Its king and people had been carried away captives in accordance with the cruel policy of the great Eastern despotisms, which had so much to do with weakening them by their very conquests. The land had lain desolate and uncultivated for many years, savage beasts had increased in the untilled solitudes, even as weeds and nettles grew in the gardens and vineyards of Samaria. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Kingdom's Epitaph
'In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8. And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

September the Eleventh a Fatal Divorce
"They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." --2 KINGS xvii. 24-34. And that is an old-world record, but it is quite a modern experience. The kinsmen of these ancient people are found in our own time. Men still fear one God and serve another. But something is vitally wrong when men can divorce their fear from their obedience. And the beginning of the wrong is in the fear itself. "Fear," as used in this passage, is a counterfeit coin, which does not ring true to the truth. It means only the …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Upon Our Lord's SermonOn the Mount
Discourse 9 "No man can serve two masters; For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Mongrel Religion
I. I shall first call your attention to THE NATURE OF THIS Mongrel Religion. It had its good and bad points, for it wore a double face. These people were not infidels. Far from it: "they feared the Lord." They did not deny the existence, or the power, or the rights of the great God of Israel, whose name is Jehovah. They had not the pride of Pharaoh who said, "Who is Jehovah that I should obey his voice?" They were not like those whom David calls "fools," who said in their hearts, "There is no God." …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

Building in Troublous Times
'Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel; 2. Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3. But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Profession and Practice.
18th Sunday after Trinity. S. Matt. xxii. 42. "What think ye of Christ?" INTRODUCTION.--Many men are Christians neither in understanding nor in heart. Some are Christians in heart, and not in understanding. Some in understanding, and not in heart, and some are Christians in both. If I were to go into a Temple of the Hindoos, or into a Synagogue of the Jews, and were to ask, "What think ye of Christ?" the people there would shake their heads and deny that He is God, and reject His teaching. The …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent

The Original Text and Its History.
1. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew, with the exception of certain portions of Ezra and Daniel and a single verse of Jeremiah, (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4, from the middle of the verse to end of chap. 7; Jer. 10:11,) which are written in the cognate Chaldee language. The Hebrew belongs to a stock of related languages commonly called Shemitic, because spoken mainly by the descendants of Shem. Its main divisions are: (1,) the Arabic, having its original seat in the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and his Adherents, in this Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls.
1. The power of the Church in enacting laws. This made a source of human traditions. Impiety of these traditions. 2. Many of the Papistical traditions not only difficult, but impossible to be observed. 3. That the question may be more conveniently explained, nature of conscience must be defined. 4. Definition of conscience explained. Examples in illustration of the definition. 5. Paul's doctrine of submission to magistrates for conscience sake, gives no countenance to the Popish doctrine of the obligation …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

A More Particular view of the Several Branches of the Christian Temper, by which the Reader May be Farther Assisted in Judging what He Is, And
1, 2. The importance of the case engages to a more particular survey what manner of spirit we are of.--3. Accordingly the Christian temper is described, by some general views of it, as a new and divine temper.--4. As resembling that of Christ.--5. And as engaging us to be spiritually minded, and to walk by faith.--6. A plan of the remainder.--7. In which the Christian temper is more particularly considered with regard to the blessed God: as including fear, affection, and obedience.--8, 9. Faith and …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
2 Kings 17:2 NIV
2 Kings 17:2 NLT
2 Kings 17:2 ESV
2 Kings 17:2 NASB
2 Kings 17:2 KJV

2 Kings 17:2 Commentaries

Bible Hub
2 Kings 17:1
Top of Page
Top of Page