13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer , saying , " Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments , My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers , and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets ." 14 However, they did not listen , but stiffened their neck like their fathers , who did not believe in the Lord their God . 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed e vanity and became vain , and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. 16 They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images , even two calves , and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal . 17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire , and practiced divination and enchantments , and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord , provoking Him. 18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight ; none was left except e the tribe of Judah .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Kings 17:13-18
Commentary on 2 Kings 17:7-23
(Read 2 Kings 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, Isaiah 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.