Prophets to the Northern Kingdom

The Northern Kingdom

2 Kings 17 NIV

In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes. All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.” The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.” But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.” They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger. So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence. When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there. The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.” Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord. Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: “Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. You must always be careful to keep the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.” They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.

Deuteronomy 28:1 “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.”

Deuteronomy 28:2 “All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:”

Blessings on obedience

Read chapter 28: 1-14

All these blessings will come on you if you obey the Lord your God

You will be blessed in the city and in the country

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, so too the crops of your land, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks

Your basket and kneading trough

When you come in and when you go out

Enemies will be defeated

Your barns and everything you put your hand to

You will be established as his holy people

All peoples on earth will fear you

The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity

The Lord will open up the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty

You will lend to many nations and borrow from none

The Lord will make you the head, not the tail

You will always be at the top, never at the bottom

Curses on disobedience

Read chapter 28: 15-68

If you do not obey, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

Confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to

The Lord will plague you with diseases

The Lord will strike you with wasting disease

The sky will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron

The lord will turn the rain into dust and powder

The lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies

Your carcases will be food for the birds and wild animals

The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt

The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind

You will be unsuccessful in everything you do

You will be oppressed and robbed

You will be pledged to be married but another will take her

You will build a house but you will not live in it

You will plant a vineyard but will not even begin to enjoy its fruit

Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it

Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you

Your sheep will be given to your enemies

Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation

You will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day

A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labour produce

The sights you see will drive you mad

The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils

The Lord will drive you and your king to a nation unknown to you

You will become a thing of horror, an object of ridicule

You will sow much seed, but harvest little

You will plant vineyards but not gather the grapes because worms will eat them

You will have olive trees, but will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off

You will have sons and daughters, but they will go into captivity

Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and crops

The foreigners among you will rise higher and higher

They will be the head but you will be the tail

These curses will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants

Because you did not serve the Lord joyfully in the time of prosperity

You will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you

He will put an iron yoke on your neck

The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away

They will devour the young of your livestock

They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil

They will lay siege to the cities throughout your land

During the siege you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord has given you

Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion

He will not give any of the flesh of his children that he is eating

The most gentle and sensitive woman will begrudge the afterbirth from her womb

The Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants

The Lord will bring you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded is this book of the law

You will be few in number

You will be uprooted from the land you are entering

The Lord will scatter you among all nations

You will find no resting place

The Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes, weary with longing, and a despairing heart

You will live in constant suspense

The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt

There you will offer yourselves for sale, but no one will buy you.

If you are a believer in God the seventeenth chapter of the second book of Kings