(20) And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel.--Thenius prefers the reading of the LXX. "and rejected the Lord (as in the last clause of 2 Kings 17:19), and the Lord, was angry with all the seed of Israel," &c. It thus becomes plain that the writer goes back to 2 Kings 17:18, after the parenthesis relating to Judah. "Israel" is used in the narrow sense in those verses.
Verse 20. - And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel. God is no respecter of persons. As he had rejected the ten tribes on account of certain transgressions, which have been enumerated (vers. 8-17), so, when Judah committed the self-same sins, and transgressed equally, Judah had equally to be rejected. "All the seed of Israel" is the entire nation - Israel in the widest sense, made up of Judah and of Israel in the narrow sense. So Keil, rightly. And afflicted them - by the hands of Sargon, and Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon (2 Chronicles 33:11), and Pharaoh-Nechoh, and others - and delivered them into the hands of spoilers. The "spoilers" intended are probably, first, the "bands of the Chaldees, and of the Syrians, and of the Moabites, and of the children of Ammon," who were let loose upon Judaea by Nebuchadnezzar when Jehoiakim rebelled against him (2 Kings 24:2), and secondly Nebuchadnezzar himself and Nebuzaradan, who completed the spoliation of the country, and plundered Jerusalem itself, to punish the revolts of Jehoiachid and Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:13-16 and 2 Kings 25:8-21), when all the treasures of the temple were carried off. Until he had cast them out of his sight; i.e. until he had punished Judah as he had previously punished Israel (ver. 18), which was what justice required.
17:7-23 Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly related, it is in these verses largely commented upon, and the reasons of it given. It was destruction from the Almighty: the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger, Isa 10:5. Those that bring sin into a country or family, bring a plague into it, and will have to answer for all the mischief that follows. And vast as the outward wickedness of the world is, the secret sins, evil thoughts, desires, and purposes of mankind are much greater. There are outward sins which are marked by infamy; but ingratitude, neglect, and enmity to God, and the idolatry and impiety which proceed therefrom, are far more malignant. Without turning from every evil way, and keeping God's statutes, there can be no true godliness; but this must spring from belief of his testimony, as to wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, and his mercy in Christ Jesus.
And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel,.... The ten tribes, with loathing and contempt, and wrote a "loammi" on them, rejected them from being his people, gave them a bill of divorce, and declared them no more under his care and patronage:
and afflicted them; as he did before he utterly cast them off, as by famine, drought, and pestilence, Amos 4:6.
and delivered them into the hands of spoilers; as, first, into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, kings of Syria, and then of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 2 Kings 13:3,
until he had cast them out of his sight; by suffering them, as now, to be carried captive by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 17:6.
Into the hand of spoilers--e.g., the Syrians (2 Kings 10:32;) and the Assyrians (2 Kings 15:19; 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 17:3. The writer probably remembered Judges 2:14.
and afflicted them; as he did before he utterly cast them off, as by famine, drought, and pestilence, Amos 4:6.
and delivered them into the hands of spoilers; as, first, into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, kings of Syria, and then of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 2 Kings 13:3,
until he had cast them out of his sight; by suffering them, as now, to be carried captive by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 17:6.