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From: 2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18
Samaria is invaded and its capital falls
Thoughts on the fall of Samaria
[7] And this was so because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord
their God, who 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 cus-
toms of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in
the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced.
[13] Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, say-
ing, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in
accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to
you by my servants the prophets.” [14] But they would not listen, but were stub-
born, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. [15a]
They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers,
and the warnings which he gave them. [18] Therefore the Lord was very angry
with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Ju-
dah only.
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Commentary:
17:5-41. The Northern kingdom comes to an end with the fall of Samaria. Un-
doubtedly that event was traumatic for the chosen people. But the sacred writer
focuses mainly on the religious aspect of the drama. For one thing, he offers an
explanation of it in terms of the overall relationship between God and his people:
the events he describes are a lesson for Judah to learn (vv. 7-23). Also, he uses
the situation created by the Assyrian takeover to show that the Samaritan popu-
lation of his own time can no longer be regarded as part of the chosen people (vv.
24-41).
17:5-6. Assyrian chronicles attribute the overrun of Samaria to Sargon II, who
succeeded Shalmaneser V in December 722 BC, and they record that 27,290
Israelites were deported, which would have been ten per cent of the population.
This would mean that the deportation took place in 721 BC. Assyria’s policy
was to deport the upper classes, who would have been best placed to orga-
nized resistance.
The date of the fall of Samaria connects with the last year of Hoshea’s reign: he
ceased to be king in 724 BC. During the three-year siege Samaria had no king.
17:7-23. The fall of Samaria is described very briefly, whereas the causes of its
downfall are reported at length. The sacred writer wants to show that sin was
the cause of the catastrophe — a very grave sin when set against the generosi-
ty of God’s gifts.
Now, only the tribe of Judah survives — not that it has proven faithful to the Lord
(vv. 18-19). For the sacred writer the fall of the Northern kingdom marks the end
of a long process which began with Jeroboam and the making of the two golden
calves (cf. 1 Kings 12:25-33). By turning their backs on the house of David, the
Northerners became estranged from the presence of God. By explaining things
in this way, the sacred writer’s message is that God has promised salvation and,
specifically, continuity of the Davidic dynasty (2 Sam 7:14). The Northern king-
dom cut itself off from the house of David, and now it has ceased to exist. But
Judah endures; even though it, too, sinned, it puts its trust in God to keep his
promise. The redactor of the books of the Kings is well aware that Jerusalem,
too, will be destroyed and that the people of Judah will be sent into exile (cf. 1
Kings 9:7-9), yet God will still be present among them: the people of Judah will
not disappear, for God is faithful to the promise he made to the house of David.
The fall of the Northern kingdom was certainly a lesson for Judah, a lesson it
failed to learn (cf. Jer 16:10-13). But it is also a lesson for all men, in all ages:
abandoning God and distancing oneself from Christ, the Son of David, puts man
in danger of eternal perdition. Commenting on the downfall of the two kingdoms,
St Macarius drew a spiritual lesson: “Alas for the soul deprived of the loving care
of Christ that causes it to bear the good fruits of the Spirit!; because, knowing
itself to be abandoned, full of thorns and thistles, instead of producing fruit, it
ends up on the bonfire. Alas for the soul in which Christ the Lord does not live!,
because, feeling abandoned, it becomes the seed-bed for all vices” (Homiliae
spirituals, 28, 2).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
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