In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
What does 2 Kings 17:6 mean?
When the measure of sin is filled up, the Lord will forbear no longer. The inhabitants of Samaria must have endured great affliction.
Key themes
Read with
Keep this verse inside its immediate passage and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on 2 Kings 17:6
The king of Assyria took Samaria - i. e., from the Assyrian inscriptions, not Shalmaneser but Sargon, who claims to have captured the city in the first year of his reign (721 B. C.). At first Sargon carried off from Samaria no more than 27,280 prisoners and was so far from depopulating the country that he assessed the tribute on the remaining inhabitants at the same rate as before the conquest. But later in his reign he effected the wholesale deportation here mentioned. Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan - Rather, "on the Habor, the river of Gozan.
Key words
- ninth
-
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,.
- Hoshea
-
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,.
- Assyria
-
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,.
Context in 2 Kings 17
Show chapter context
2 Kings 17 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as decline of Judah. Second Kings follows the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, recounts the decline of both kingdoms, and ends with Jerusalem’s fall and a faint glimmer of Davidic continuity. Read this chapter with the wider themes of prophetic witness, judgment, and exile in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
Related topics
Explore by topic
A collection of passages on hope under pressure, future inheritance, resurrection expectation, and confidence in God’s final faithfulness.
Bible verses about suffering and trials
Key passages on grief, endurance, lament, divine mystery, and the Christian claim that suffering is neither final nor meaningless.
Bible verses about justice and mercy
Key texts on public righteousness, neighbor-love, social ethics, compassion, and the prophetic refusal to separate worship from justice.
Passages on the nature of truth, honesty, deception, the word of God as truth, and Jesus' claim to be the truth.
Glossary
- Samaria Place
-
Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Samaria.
- Assyria Place
-
Biblical region. Modern identification: Nineveh.
- Gozan Place
-
A region in Central Asia to which the Israelites were carried away captive ( 2 Kings 17:6 ; 1 Chr. 5:26 ; 2 Kings 19:12 ; Isa. 37:12 ). Modern identification: Tell Halaf.
- Habor Place
-
The united stream, or, according to others, with beautiful banks, the name of a river in Assyria, and also of the district through which it flowed ( 1 Chr. 5:26 ). Modern identification: Khabur River.
- Halah Place
-
A district of Media to which captive Israelites were transported by the Assyrian kings ( 2 Kings 17:6 ; 18:11 ; 1 Chr. 5:26 ). It lay along the banks of the upper Khabur, from its source to its junction with the Jerujer. Modern identification: Al Abbasiyah.