Bible Strands
2 Kings 17:24
Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the Assyrian king's administrative response to the northern kingdom's exile, detailing the forced resettlement of foreign captives into Samaria. This occurs immediately after the text states the LORD removed Israel from His presence and relocated them to Assyria.
The words — The verb וַיָּבֵא (va.ya.Ve') literally means "and he brought," highlighting the deliberate transport of populations. The noun מֶלֶךְ (Me.lekh) identifies the Assyrian monarch as the executing agent, framing the event as a calculated state policy.
The thread — These same resettled groups reappear in 2 Kings 17:30 when each establishes a distinct idol in Samaria. They are subsequently listed in 2 Kings 18:34 and 2 Kings 19:13 as proof that foreign gods could not prevent Assyrian conquest.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to observe how human deportation policies directly enable the religious corruption that replaces Israel. It demands acknowledgment that geopolitical relocation fulfills the stated judgment without obscuring the causal link to subsequent idolatry.
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 king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
- 2 Kings 17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
- 2 Kings 19:13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
- Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
- 1 Kings 8:65 So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast before the LORD our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all.
- 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
- 2 Kings 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
- 2 Chronicles 33:11 So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
- Isaiah 10:9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
- Isaiah 37:13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”