Bible Strands
2 Kings 17:20
So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Yahweh’s final judgment on the northern kingdom after both Israel and Judah persistently ignored His commands (2 Kings 17:19). This declaration closes the account of Israel’s exile and immediately precedes the explanation of Jeroboam’s institutionalization of idolatry (2 Kings 17:21).
The words — וַ/יִּמְאַ֨ס (va/i.yim.'As) literally means "and He rejected," and וַ/יְעַנֵּ֔/ם (va/y.'a.Ne/m) means "and He afflicted them." These verbs directly describe Yahweh’s active response to Israel’s covenant breach.
The thread — The pattern of rejection and delivery into enemy hands appears in 2 Kings 13:3 and 2 Kings 15:29, where foreign kings execute divine judgment. Jeremiah 6:30 later repurposes this rejection language to describe Judah’s own spiritual failure.
Why it lands — The text states that persistent disobedience produces historical displacement and removal from divine presence. It requires readers to acknowledge that covenant failure carries tangible, non-negotiable consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.
- 2 Kings 13:3 So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them continually into the hands of Hazael king of Aram and his son Ben-hadad.
- Jeremiah 6:30 They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
- Deuteronomy 11:12 It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.
- 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”
- 1 Samuel 15:26 “I will not return with you,” Samuel replied. “For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and He has rejected you as king over Israel.”
- 1 Samuel 16:1 Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”
- 2 Kings 13:7 Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
- 2 Kings 15:18 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and throughout his reign he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.
- 2 Kings 17:15 They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.