and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.
The ESV says Israel burned their children as offerings. Older translations say they made them "pass through the fire," and some have read that as a rite the children survived. Other passages rule it out.
The motive makes it worse. Parents offered their children as an act of worship.
This evil worship led to other abuses. Parents made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and offered them as sacrifices. They thought that such horrible evil would gain favour with God or with their gods (v.17).
The second charge names two practices that travel with idolatry. One curses people; the other flatters them.
Witchcraft and soothsaying went along with such abuses. People used witchcraft to call down curses on others. Soothsaying is predicting the future in order to soothe people. This is how evil spirits claim to predict the future: they make people feel good. The false prophets did this when they tried to make Ahab comfortable about going to fight for Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22:12). Only Michaiah prophesied the truth, that Ahab would die in his attempt to gain Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22:17).
God had warned Israel in the plainest terms long before. He had also told them why the land was theirs at all.
The third charge is the sharpest. Evil did not overtake them; they traded themselves away for it.
Israel "sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord," that is, they in effect sold themselves as slaves to satanic power.
The word behind it carries that force, and it reaches further than Israel's history.
It is the condition of us all, though we may discover it only when the light of the gospel shines upon our fallen state.
God did not act on the first offence, or the hundredth. The verse belongs to a list compiled over centuries.
Though the Lord bore patiently with Israel for years, yet the day finally came when He removed them from their land, leaving only the tribe of Judah at that time (v.18). Yet Judah is mentioned also as having failed to keep the commandments of the Lord, following too in the way of Israel. So the writing was on the wall for Judah also, but the godliness of some of their kings delayed the captivity of Judah for some years.
God did remove Israel as a nation. But being out of sight is not the same as being forgotten.
Finally He removed Israel out of His sight as a nation. Yet His all-knowing love knows where each person is. And nothing will frustrate His purposes, which are secure in Christ.
- Sacrifice — Israel burned their own children as offerings, hoping to win a god's favour.
- Sorcery — Curses and soothing predictions came in with it. Both are how evil spirits work, as with the prophets who flattered Ahab.
- Scripture — God had already named and banned every one of these practices. They were the reason the earlier nations lost the land.
- Slavery — To sell yourself to do evil is to sell yourself into slavery. Paul uses the same word of himself, and it is the condition of us all until the gospel exposes it.
- Sentence — God removed Israel from His sight as a nation. Even then He knows where each person is, and His purposes stand secure in Christ.
Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight there remained but the tribe of Judah only.
The northern kingdom's story ends in one sentence: God's anger, Israel put out of His sight, only Judah left. Behind that short verdict lie centuries of patience and a long list of charges — and a question: is being put out of God's sight the last word?
The verse reads like a sudden outburst. Commentators trace it instead to a long patience that ran out — and even then, Judah was not touched at once.
The Lord bore patiently with Israel for years. Yet the day came when He removed them from their land, leaving only the tribe of Judah at that time (v.18). Judah, too, had failed to keep the commandments of the Lord, following in the way of Israel. So the writing was on the wall for Judah too. But the godliness of some of their kings delayed Judah's captivity for some years.
God's case against Israel is set out in the verses just before this one. What condemned them was not one act but a refusal to listen to the prophets.
The Lord had testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets. Had they listened to these? No. They had abandoned the commandments of the covenant and given themselves up to a terrible falling away from God. Verses 14 to 17 describe it in every part. Finally, in His anger God removed them from before His face, and "None was left but the tribe of Judah only." That was no doubt for a short time, yet God still recognised Judah, as Hosea said: "Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God, and with the holy things of truth" (Hosea 11:12).
The people also invented worship for themselves, and defended it with the best of intentions.
They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on high hills and under green trees. They would no doubt say that these things were to remind them of God. But God had forbidden such things. Using them always lowered God in their eyes, until the things themselves became the objects of their worship.
Being put out of God's sight meant being put out of the land. Nothing in the years since has reversed it.
The king of Assyria besieged Samaria for three years, finally taking it and all Israel, and moved the captives to areas in Assyria, to Halah and the cities of the Medes. This was a sweeping judgment of God against His people Israel, and the ten tribes have never returned to their land since that time… God has now allowed this great dispersion of the ten tribes. Only a miraculous act of God at the end of the Tribulation will bring His people Israel back to their land.
Judah alone was left, and that sounds like a rescue. Commentators read it instead as a spotlight on the survivor, who watched judgment fall next door and learned nothing from it.
They had proved themselves rebellious to the royal house that God Himself had chosen for them. They completed that rebellion by falling away from God altogether. After they ignored His warnings, He swept away the ten tribes of Israel first, as a most solemn lesson to those who remained. But Judah was deaf and blind to what God was pointing out through guilty Israel.
The delay changed nothing. Judah got another 130 years and ended in the same place — though that loss is not the end of God's plan.
Judah learned no lesson from the ruin of their brothers. For 130 years more the Lord bore with their evil ways, and then gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar… On the ground of responsibility everything is lost. But grace will yet more than restore what Solomon and Israel so foolishly threw away.
Israel's long history closes at this verse. What closes, one writer insists, is a chapter — this people tested on their own responsibility — not God's purpose for them.
Not that it is ended for good. It is ended only as far as this people and its kings are concerned, viewed as responsible. The heart of the prophet Hosea, moved with divine compassion, announces Israel's future restoration. Hosea writes: "My heart is turned within me, my compassion is stirred. I will not carry out the fierceness of my anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man."
- Patience — The anger came last, not first. God bore with Israel for years and warned them by every prophet.
- Provocation — They invented their own worship and called it a reminder of God. In the end they worshipped the reminders, and God sank in their eyes.
- Removal — Out of His sight meant out of the land. The ten tribes have never returned; only a future act of God will bring them back.
- Remnant — Judah was left, and God still recognised it. But Judah learned nothing from its neighbour's ruin, and followed it into captivity 130 years later.
- Restoration — What closes here is Israel's history under test, not God's purpose. Grace will restore more than they threw away.
Also Judah kept not the commandments of Jehovah their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they had made.
Assyria has just carried Israel off, and the chapter stops to explain why. Then, before that verdict ends, God names the one tribe still standing — Judah — as guilty of the same thing.
The chapter is about Israel's downfall, yet verse 19 widens the charge. One writer notes how short the mention of Judah is:
In verses 19-20 God mentions Judah in passing. Judah had followed the rules set up by the ten tribes, and the Lord was rejecting all the descendants of Israel.
Judah did not invent this ruin; she copied it. One commentator traces the copying back to a single alliance between a godly king of Judah and Ahab:
The kings of Israel set the deadly example of a path that led Judah and all Israel to ruin (see 2 Kings 16:3). The pious Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab was the origin of all this, for evil bears fruit which continues long to reproduce itself. Alas! What is man when he turns aside from the Lord's ways? He leaves the narrow, straight path of God's word and will. He leaves the path of faith — the true path of an obedient spirit.
The verse is careful about whose rules these were: Israel made them. Jeroboam, Israel's first king, had set up a festival to rival the one God commanded, and the writer draws the line straight to our own religious habits:
Jeroboam's "feast" copied the Feast of Tabernacles, which God had commanded to be kept in the seventh month. The eighth month was the month Jeroboam "devised of his own heart" — a heart that is always "deceitful" and "desperately wicked." And how many practices and customs in the Christian world have been "devised" out of men's own hearts, with no foundation in Scripture! Many seem to think that in spiritual things it is fine for "every man to do what is right in his own eyes," instead of "This is what the Lord says."
That is the force of the phrase in our verse: Judah took up a religion that men had thought up.
Judah watched the northern kingdom carried away, and still did not change:
Judah learned no lesson from the ruin of her fellow tribes. For another 130 years the Lord bore with her evil ways. In the end He gave her into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
One writer sets Judah beside Israel and says her better knowledge made her guilt heavier:
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was even more treacherous. She despised the warning though she knew better, and sinned even more brazenly.
Judgment falls, but God does not give up His claim on the land:
Though the land lay desolate, God was caring for the land of His inheritance. He was claiming His rights over it and would not let them be taken away. He would not have the land fall again under the curse from which He freed it when He destroyed the Canaanites. Whatever the ruin, the name of the Lord must not be wiped out of the land of Israel. This was with the future in view, for the remnant — the true Israel — is to inherit the land.
Verse 19 closes the book on what people could produce by obedience. It does not close the book on God:
The "throne of the Lord," set up in Jerusalem, was overthrown, and David's lamp was put out. On the ground of responsibility all is lost, but grace will yet more than restore what Solomon and Israel so foolishly threw away. God has pledged Himself that David will never lack a man to sit on his throne. Christ is the fulfilment of this.
- Example. Judah copied Israel's kings. One alliance with Ahab bore fruit for generations, because evil keeps reproducing itself.
- Invention. The rules Judah followed were ones Israel made — worship thought up in a man's own heart, instead of what the Lord says.
- Warning. Judah watched the ten tribes carried away and learned nothing. Knowing better made her guilt greater, not smaller.
- Patience. God bore with Judah for another 130 years before Nebuchadnezzar came. Delay is mercy, not pardon.
- Grace. Human responsibility failed completely. Yet Christ secures David's throne, and God keeps the land for the true Israel.
And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel; and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
This verse closes God's account of why the northern kingdom fell. It piles judgment on judgment, and it raises two hard questions. How far does the rejection reach, and is it the last word?
This verdict was not sudden. It followed generations of appeals that the people heard and pushed aside.
Again and again God warned His people through prophets and seers. He told them to turn from their evil ways and keep His commandments and statutes. But the people refused to hear. They had rejected His statutes and covenant and testimonies. They had followed the ways of the nations around them. They had sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
Notice the order. They rejected His statutes first; only then does the record say He rejected them.
Verse 19 has just named Judah. One commentator follows the movement of the passage. God names Judah in passing, then turns back to the northern tribes and their break from the house of David.
In verses 19-20 God mentions Judah as in passing. This latter had followed the statutes established by the ten tribes, and the Lord was rejecting all the seed of Israel. But from verses 20-24 He returns to Ephraim and to its separation from the house of David.
Commentators differ on how far "all the descendants of Israel" reaches. One reads verses 19–20 as taking in Judah's later fall too. Another keeps verse 20 for the ten tribes alone:
Verse 20 goes back to Israel, however. It speaks of God's rejection of these 10 tribes. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, and it ended in their captivity by Assyria.
Either way, Judah does not escape. Judah watched Israel go, then walked the same road.
The Lord bore with Israel patiently for years. But the day came at last when He removed them from their land, leaving only the tribe of Judah at that time (v.18). Yet Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord, walking in Israel's way too. So the writing was on the wall for Judah also, but the godliness of some of their kings delayed the captivity of Judah for some years.
The loss went beyond a defeat and a deportation. The kingship God had set up in Jerusalem went down with the nation. Yet that is where one writer finds hope.
The "throne of the Lord," established in Jerusalem, was overthrown, and David's lamp went out. All is lost on the ground of responsibility, but grace will yet more than restore what Solomon and Israel so foolishly threw away.
The verdict written over the nation was "not my people." Yet one writer sees God's first purpose for them as marred for a time by their sin, not set aside.
All exhortation was in vain. They "sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel" (2 Kings 17:17-20). And so the name Lo-ammi, "not my people" (Hosea 1), stood over the nation. But one day they will walk another road. As the ransomed of the Lord they will return and come to Zion with songs. That road bears witness that God's first purpose for them was never set aside, but will be carried out in full — their separation from evil, which their sin has only marred for a time.
God does not owe us His reasons. Here He gives them in detail, and He gives them for our sake.
While God has no obligation to explain to us why He does what He does, yet in His Word He often does so. As He concludes the story of the ten-tribe kingdom, God gives us a detailed bill of particulars in 2 Kings 17:7-23 as to why He brought an end to this kingdom. God has placed it in His Word for our warning and instruction. We do well to examine it. Romans 11:20-21 tells us: "Do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you."
- Warned. Prophets and seers called them back again and again. The people refused to hear.
- Rejected. They rejected His statutes, covenant and testimonies first. Only then does the verse record His rejection of them, with affliction and plunderers.
- Widened. Judah copied Israel's ways, so the same verdict fell on Judah too. Godly kings only delayed it.
- Lost. On the ground of responsibility all was lost. The throne in Jerusalem fell and David's lamp went out.
- Restored. The nation carried the name "not my people" for a time. But grace will more than restore what they threw away.