And the king of Assyria overran the whole land, and went up against Samaria, and besieged it three years.
Hoshea had secretly asked Egypt for help, and Assyria found out. Now the empire he tried to escape floods the whole land and shuts up his capital for three years.
The verse follows a report of Hoshea bound in prison, yet the siege it describes came first. One writer explains the order of events, and notes that Assyria's own monuments record the city's fall:
What follows, about the siege of Samaria, happened before Hoshea's imprisonment, though the account records it later. "Hoshea's imprisonment did not come before the capture of Samaria. The writer of Scripture first records what finally happened to Hoshea himself, then gives the details of the invasion as it affected Samaria and Israel" (Fausset)... Assyria's own monuments record this siege and capture of Samaria just as 2 Kings 17 tells it.
The siege outlasted the king who began it. One writer notes that the account credits the capture only to "the king of Assyria":
These inscriptions tell us that the siege of Samaria had lasted two years when Sargon replaced Shalmaneser. Sargon took Samaria in the first year of his reign. The record here does not name Sargon. But note that it does not credit the capture of Samaria to Shalmaneser either. Both passages, 2 Kings 17:6 and 18:10-11, speak only of the king of Assyria.
Politics explains part of the invasion. One writer points to what Hoshea ignored, and to the reason Scripture itself gives:
Hoshea did not take into account the judgments of God by which all the prophets had foretold Israel's subjection to Assyria... These political motives are not given to us in the Word. God's own motive is shown by a word in Chronicles: "So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he took them into exile" (1 Chr. 5:26).
Hoshea's own conduct brought that army down on him:
But his evil doings, whatever they were, quickly brought the Assyrian, "the rod of God's anger," on him and his guilty subjects... He had conspired against his weaker Israelite master. He tried the same thing with his powerful Gentile lord, and it cost him dearly.
The prophets spoke of Israel "returning to Egypt." One writer explains what that phrase means:
"Return into the land of Egypt" does not have to mean fleeing there. It means looking there for help. Isaiah 31:1 says the same thing: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help."
Hoshea tried to hold on to both Assyria and Egypt. One writer draws the lesson for us:
His Assyrian overlord now imprisoned him and overran the land with his armies, besieging Samaria for three years till it fell. He had found treachery in Hoshea. Instead of paying his normal tribute, Hoshea had sent envoys to the king of Egypt to ask for help. Our Lord Jesus says clearly that no one can serve two masters — an important lesson for us to learn, too.
The invasion was not sudden. One writer shows what God's long patience with this kingdom was for, and when it ended:
God's patience bore long with the rebellion of His people, and He took pity on their affliction (see 2 Kings 17). That patience lasted as long as it could still be a testimony to the real character of the God who showed it. It never denied His holiness and righteousness. It never gave approval to sin. So God could still bless the people and keep a true testimony to what He is — a testimony even the nations could see. In a word, His patience lasted "until there was no remedy."
The three years closed a kingdom. One writer marks how final this judgment was:
This was a sweeping judgment of God against His people Israel, and the ten tribes have never returned to their land since that time... Only a miraculous act of God at the end of the Tribulation will bring His people Israel back to their land.
The last king's name carried a promise his reign never kept:
Hoshea (deliverance) proved anything but that to his people. One alone will bring deliverance to the ten tribes.
- Cause — the army at the gate ended a long story. Scripture gives the reason: God stirred up the spirit of the king of Assyria.
- Patience — God bore with this kingdom while His patience could still witness to His holiness — "until there was no remedy."
- Double-dealing — Hoshea served Assyria and courted Egypt at once. To the prophets, asking Egypt for help was "returning" there. No one can serve two masters.
- Record — the account tells the siege out of order, and it never names the king who finished it. Assyria's own monuments record the same events.
- Deliverance — a king named "deliverance" delivered no one. The ten tribes have never come back. One alone will bring them home.
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
This verse closes the story of the northern kingdom with a bare list of place names. Behind the list lies the end of a nation — ten tribes taken from their land — and the question the chapter answers: who moved Israel, and will they ever come back?
The fall was no surprise. One writer shows what Hoshea overlooked, and who stood behind the invading army:
Hoshea took no account of the judgments of God, by which all the prophets had foretold that Israel would be brought under Assyria… The Word does not give us the political reasons, but a word in Chronicles shows us the divine reason: "And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser … and he carried them away" (1 Chr. 5:26).
Hoshea is the last name in Israel's line of kings, and the chapter jails him before Samaria falls. Two things explain the verse here: the order of the telling, and the record kept outside the Bible:
Hoshea was the last of the nineteen kings who ruled — or rather misruled — Israel… "Hoshea's imprisonment did not come before the capture of Samaria. The sacred writer first records the eventual fate of Hoshea himself, then gives the details of the invasion as it affected Samaria and Israel" (Fausset)… The monuments of Assyria record this siege and capture of Samaria just as 2 Kings 17 tells it.
The verse credits the capture to "the king of Assyria." The siege lasted three years, and the throne changed hands before it ended:
…it was not Shalmaneser in person who took the city, for we are told, "And at the end of three years they took it" (2 Kings 18:10). During this interval Sargon (Isa. 20:1) had succeeded Shalmaneser, or at least was at the head of the army during a short gap between reigns.
The verse opens with a date and ends with four place names. A Bible dictionary fills in both:
Scripture gives a more definite date for the captivity of the rest of Israel. It was in the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, and the sixth year of Hezekiah, that the Assyrians took Samaria after a three years' siege: this would be 722 B.C. The captives were carried to Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan (the same names appear in 1 Chr. 5:26, with Hara added there). These places are supposed to be in the north of Assyria. But in the passage in Kings the words "and in the cities of the Medes" are added. That region lies much further east. There they would be far removed from their fellow Israelites in Assyria and from Judah, who were afterwards carried to Babylon.
Earlier deportations took parts of the nation. This one took what was left:
This was a sweeping judgment of God against His people Israel. The ten tribes have never been restored to their land since that time… Now that God has allowed this great scattering of the ten tribes, only a miraculous intervention of God at the end of the Tribulation will bring His people Israel back to their land.
The verse names the towns. It records no return, and that silence has kept people searching:
No one knows clearly or certainly where the ten tribes are; nor does it seem to be anyone's business to search it out beforehand. We may leave them in the obscurity where God has put them. If we believe His word, we know that He has preserved the scattered remnant of the two tribes. Just as surely, He will bring the descendants of the ten out of their hiding place.
This verse states the fact. The verses that follow give the reason, and God put that reason on record for readers far beyond Israel:
While God has no obligation to explain to us why He does what He does, in His Word He often does so. As He concludes the story of the ten-tribe kingdom, God gives us a detailed list 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."
- Cause — Scripture leaves the politics unstated. Chronicles gives the real reason: God stirred up the spirit of the Assyrian kings.
- Record — The account is not in strict order. Hoshea's fate comes first, then the invasion; Assyria's own monuments confirm the siege and fall of Samaria.
- Scattering — Assyria placed the captives in the north and in the far eastern cities of the Medes, cut off from each other and from Judah.
- Consequence — The ten tribes have never come back. Only a direct act of God will bring them home.
- Warning — God did not just record this judgment. He explained it, so that later readers would not presume on His patience.